About OIG Recommendations

Solutions To Reduce Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in HHS Programs

HHS-OIG provides independent and objective oversight that promotes economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in HHS programs and operations. Our recommendations address vital issues across the breadth of HHS programs and drive positive change.

OIG’s Recommendation Process

As an oversight body, OIG conducts reviews and issues reports on these reviews. When vulnerabilities are identified during the review process, OIG issues recommendations to the relevant HHS agency to address these issues. An HHS Agency is expected to formally indicate whether it concurs with OIG’s recommendations within 6 months of report issuance. Following this formal indication, OIG requests an update on a regular basis which allows OIG to monitor progress towards implementation. Once an HHS Agency has implemented a recommendation and provided adequate documentation, OIG closes the recommendation.

OIG’s Top Unimplemented Recommendations

Annually, OIG identifies the subset of unimplemented recommendations that we think, if implemented, would most positively affect HHS programs in terms of cost savings, public health and safety, and program effectiveness and efficiency. These recommendations come from OIG audits and evaluations performed pursuant to the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended. This list of recommendations is responsive to the Inspector General Act, which requires Federal inspectors general to identify significant recommendations that are not implemented.

OIG chooses these top unimplemented recommendations because they address the most critical issues facing HHS, as outlined in OIG's Top Management & Performance Challenges Facing HHS publication. Comprising monetary, programmatic, legislative, and process recommendations related to HHS Operating Divisions, full implementation of these recommendations could produce substantial savings for the Federal Government and taxpayers and improve the operation of HHS programs.

As of FY2024, the top unimplemented recommendations are now published via the Recommendations Tracker. Regular readers of OIG’s prior Top Unimplemented Recommendations publications may notice that this modernized presentation is not limited to a specific number of recommendations. In prior years, OIG reported sets of “top 25 unimplemented recommendations” that would include many more distinct recommendations included within each set. This new approach only includes distinct recommendations from OIG’s audits and evaluations. We encourage readers to use the Issue Area options boxes in the Recommendation Tracker filters section to easily find recommendations that may be related to one particular issue or agency.

Last updated October 16, 2024