A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense's (DOD) policy for assessing the individual medical readiness of a servicemember to deploy establishes six elements to review, most of which are gender-neutral. Four of the six elements--immunization status, medical readiness laboratory tests, individual medical equipment, and dental readiness--apply equally to female and male servicemembers. The remaining elements of individual medical readiness--deployment-limiting conditions and periodic health assessments--include aspects that are specific to female servicemembers. For example, the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps have policies that define pregnancy as a deployment-limiting condition."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund awarded $26 billion in New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) through 2009 for investment in low-income communities. The NMTC allows investors to claim a tax credit totaling 39 percent of their investment in Community Development Entities (CDE) over 7 years which CDEs reinvest in qualified communities. This mandated report (1) describes where and how CDEs are using NMTCs, (2) assesses how CDEs use NMTCs to offer favorable financing terms to low-income community businesses and describes options for simplifying the NMTC, (3) describes how, if at all, NMTC investments support low-income community development, and (4) determines how effective IRS and the CDFI Fund have been in monitoring NMTC compliance. GAO analyzed CDFI Fund and CDE data, did case studies of CDEs, and interviewed relevant experts."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "At least 22 pharmacy services administrative organizations (PSAO), which varied in the number and location of the pharmacies to which they provided services, were in operation in 2011 or 2012. In total, depending on different data sources, these PSAOs represented or provided other services to between 20,275 and 28,343 pharmacies in 2011 or 2012, most of which were independent pharmacies. While the number of pharmacies with which each PSAO contracted ranged from 24 to 5,000 pharmacies, most PSAOs represented or provided other services to fewer than 1,000 pharmacies. Additionally, some PSAOs contracted with pharmacies primarily located in a particular region rather than contracting with pharmacies located across the United States."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has changed from a hospital-based system to primary reliance on outpatient care. As a result, VA expects that the number of unneeded buildings will increase. Veterans' needs could be better served if VA finds ways to minimize resources devoted to these buildings. VA must have an effective process to find alternate uses or dispose of unneeded property. In August 2002, VA completed a pilot test for realigning its health care system in the Great Lakes network. The pilot identified 30 buildings that are no longer needed to provide health care to veterans. VA is currently studying how to realign assets in its 20 remaining networks. GAO was asked to review VA's management of unneeded buildings in its Great Lakes network."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO evaluated the surety bond requirements for home health agencies (HHA) participating in Medicare, focusing on: (1) analyzing the key features of surety bonds that affect their costs and effect; (2) examining the Florida Medicaid program's experience with a surety bond requirements for HHAs and its relevance to the Medicare surety bond requirement; (3) reviewing the rationale for the surety bond requirements the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) selected, the cost and availability of bonds, the benefits for Medicare, and the implications of substituting a government note for a surety bond as set forth in a Department of the Treasury regulation; and (4) drawing implications from the implementation of the HHA surety bond requirement for implementing a similar surety bond provision for durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers, comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation facilities (CORF), and rehabilitation agencies."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for ensuring the safety of roughly 80 percent of the U.S. food supply, including $417 billion worth of domestic food and $49 billion in imported food annually. The recent outbreaks of E. coli in spinach, Salmonella in peanut butter, and contamination in pet food highlight the risks posed by the accidental contamination of FDA-regulated food products. Changing demographics and consumption patterns underscore the urgency for effective food safety oversight. In response to these challenges, in November 2007, FDA and others released plans that discuss the oversight of food safety. FDA's Food Protection Plan sets a framework for food safety oversight. In addition, FDA's Science Board released FDA Science and Mission at Risk, which concluded that FDA does not have the capacity to ensure the safety of the nation's food supply. This testimony focuses on (1) federal oversight of food safety as a high-risk area that needs a governmentwide reexamination, (2) FDA's opportunities to better leverage its resources, (3) FDA's Food Protection Plan, and (4) tools that can help agencies to address management challenges. To address these issues, GAO interviewed FDA …