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Health Products for Seniors: 'Anti-Aging' Products Pose Potential for Physical and Economic Harm
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Evidence from the medical literature shows that a variety of frequently used dietary supplements marketed as anti-aging therapies can have serious health consequences for senior citizens. Some seniors have underlying diseases or health conditions that make the use of the product medically inadvisable, and some supplements can interact with medications that are being taken concurrently. Furthermore, studies have found that products sometimes contain harmful contaminants or much more of an active ingredient than is indicated on the label. Unproven anti-aging and alternative medicine products also pose an economic risk to seniors. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have identified several products that make advertising or labeling claims with insufficient substantiation, some costing consumers hundreds or thousands of dollars apiece. Federal and state agencies have efforts under way to protect consumers of these products. FDA and FTC sponsor programs and provide educational materials for senior citizens to help them avoid health fraud. At the state level, agencies are working to protect consumers of health products by enforcing state consumer protection and public health laws, although anti-aging and alternative products are receiving …
Date:
September 7, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Former Presidents: Office and Security Costs and Other Information
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For fiscal years 1977 through 2000, the federal government paid about $370 million to support former presidents and their families. As of June 2001, the offices of the five living former presidents ranged in size from 3,300 to 5,900 square feet. The General Services Administration (GSA) is authorized to provide each former president with suitable office space appropriately furnished and equipped at a location specified by the former president. The law does not, however, provide any guidance on the appropriate amount of space that is to be provided. For fiscal year 2000, GSA's rent charged to former President Bush was $144,000, former President Carter $89,283, former President Ford $105,099, and former President Reagan $256,671. Former President Clinton's office was not finished until late August 2001. His annual rent payment to GSA for fiscal year 2002 is estimated to be about $354,000. The federal government is paying the entire lease cost for all of the former presidents' offices, according to GSA officials. The rental rates GSA has paid for former presidents' offices are generally comparable to rents paid for similar properties in the same areas. The Carter …
Date:
September 28, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Chemical and Biological Defense: Improved Risk Assessment and Inventory Management Are Needed
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) believes it is increasingly likely that an adversary will use chemical or biological weapons against U.S. forces to degrade superior U.S. conventional warfare capabilities, placing servicemembers' lives and effective military operations at risk. To reduce the effects of such an attack on military personnel, DOD has determined the quantity of chemical and biological protective suits, masks, breathing filters, gloves, boots, and hoods that are needed based on projected wartime requirements. DOD's assessment process is unreliable for determining the risk to military operations. DOD's 2000 report is inaccurate because it includes erroneous inventory data and wartime requirements. Inadequate inventory management is an additional risk factor because readiness can be compromised by DOD's inventory management practices, which prevent an accurate accounting of the availability or adequacy of its protective equipment."
Date:
September 10, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Aviation Security: Weaknesses in Airport Security and Options for Assigning Screening Responsibilities
Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "A safe and secure civil aviation system is a critical component of the nation's overall security, physical infrastructure, and economic foundation. Billions of dollars and a myriad of programs and policies have been devoted to achieving such a system. Although it is not fully known at this time what actually occurred or what all the weaknesses in the nation's aviation security apparatus are that contributed to the horrendous terrorist acts of Semptember 11, 2001, it is clear that serious weaknesses exist in the nation's aviation security system and that their impact can be far more devastating than previously imagined. There are security concerns with (1) airport access controls, (2) passenger and carry-on baggage screening, and (3) alternatives to current screening practices, including practices in selected other countries. Controls for limiting access to secure areas, including aircraft, have not always worked as intended. In May of 2000, special agents used counterfeit law enforcement badges and credentials to gain access to secure areas at two airports, bypassing security checkpoints and walking unescorted to aircraft departure gates. In June 2000, testing of screeners showed that significant, long-standing weaknesses--measured by the screeners' …
Date:
September 21, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Health Products for Seniors: Potential Harm From 'Anti-Aging' Products
Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Dietary supplements marketed as anti-aging therapies may pose a potential for physical harm to senior citizens. Evidence from the medical literature shows that a variety of frequently used dietary supplements can have serious health consequences for seniors. Particularly risky are products that may be used by seniors who have underlying diseases or health conditions that make the use of the product medically inadvisable or supplements that interact with medications that are being taken concurrently. Studies have also found that these products sometimes contain harmful contaminants or much more of an active ingredient than is indicated on the label. Although GAO was unable to find any recent, reliable estimates of the overall economic harm to seniors from these products, it did uncover several examples that illustrate the risk of economic harm. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have identified several products that make advertising or labeling claims with insufficient substantiation, some costing consumers hundreds or thousands of dollars apiece. The potential for harm to senior citizens from health products making questionable claims has been a concern for public health and law enforcement officials. …
Date:
September 10, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Mass Transit: WMATA Is Addressing Many Challenges, but Capital Planning Could Be Improved
Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In recent years, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's (WMATA) public transit system has experienced safety and reliability problems, including equipment breakdowns, delays in scheduled service, unprecedented crowding on trains, and accidents and tunnel fires. WMATA is examining ways to ease crowding on the systems rail cars and determining whether and how to expand Metrorail maintenance and repair shop capacity as WMATA acquires nearly 200 new rail cars. WMATA has also undertaken a comprehensive program for infrastructure renewal, and it is now studying improvements or modifications to accommodate the goal of doubling ridership by the year 2025. WMATA's safety program has evolved since the mid-1990s, when a series of accidents and incidents led to several independent reviews citing the need for program improvements. WMATA monitors safety and crime statistics and has several ongoing targeted efforts to reduce safety incidents and deter crime on its transit systems. WMATA has adopted several of the best capital investment practices used by leading public and private sector organizations, but it could benefit by establishing a more formal, disciplined framework for its capital decision-making process. WMATA has used a wide variety of innovative …
Date:
September 21, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Commercial Aviation: A Framework for Considering Federal Financial Assistance
Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11 killed thousands of Americans and foreign nationals. The economic toll will also be enormous. Countless jobs and retirement funds are now at risk. Estimates of the losses to the airline industry alone have ranged from $4 billion, according to many analysts, to more than $20 billion, according to some airline officials. Congress has already appropriated $40 billion for emergency responses, including increased transportation security, and Congress is considering financial assistance to the airline industry. GAO believes that the government needs to clearly define the nature of the problem--separating short-term needs from long-term challenges, industry wants from real needs. Although all airlines now face major financial challenges, government assistance cannot overcome the financial difficulty that confronted several carriers before the events of September 11. The government has a range of options to assist the airline industry, from loans and loan guarantees to tax subsidies. The choice and design of the assistance is critical to targeting federal aid to the immediate problems, spreading responsibility among all industry stakeholders, and ensuring accountability to Congress and the American …
Date:
September 20, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Telecommuting: Overview of Challenges Facing Federal Agencies
Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Telecommuting refers to work that is done at an employee's home or at a job site other than a traditional business office. Perhaps the biggest challenge to establishing and expanding telecommuting programs in both the public and private sectors is management's concerns about the types of positions and employees suitable for telecommuting, protecting proprietary and sensitive data, and establishing cost-effective telecommuting programs. Some federal and state laws and regulations, including those governing taxes, workplace safety, workforce recordkeeping, and liability for home workplace injuries, are also potential obstacles to telecommuting. Overall, the application of state tax laws to telecommuting arrangements, as well as other laws and regulations enacted before the transition to a more technological and information based economy, is evolving and their ultimate impact remains unclear."
Date:
September 6, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
VA Health Care: VA Has Not Sufficiently Explored Alternatives for Optimizing Third-Party Collections
Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has reversed the general decline in its third-party collections for the first time since fiscal year 1995. The fiscal year 2001 increase appears to be largely the result of VA's implementation of a new system, known as the reasonable charges billing system, which allowed VA to move from a flat-rate billing system to one that itemizes charges. However, long-standing problems in VA's revenue operations persist, and VA's collections performance is poor when compared to that of the private sector. VA's attempts at consolidation using either in-house or contractor staff have provided little basis for selecting the best alternative to VA's collections problems. Also, VA's recent 2001 Revenue Cycle Improvement Plan does not call for a comprehensive comparison of alternatives, nor does it focus on net revenues--collections minus operations costs. To collect the most funds for veterans' medical care at the lowest cost, VA needs to develop a business plan and detailed implementation approach that will provide useful data for optimizing net revenues from third-party payments."
Date:
September 20, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Critical Infrastructure Protection: Significant Challenges in Protecting Federal Systems and Developing Analysis and Warning Capabilities
Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Federal computer systems are riddled with weaknesses that continue to put critical operations and assets at risk. New information security provisions introduced by Congress will be a major catalyst for federal agencies to improve their security program management. To help maintain the momentum that the new information security reform provisions have generated, federal agencies must act quickly to implement strong security program management. A key element of the strategy outlined in Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) 63 was establishing the National Infrastructure Protection Center as "a national focal point" for gathering information on threats and facilitating the federal government's response to computer-based incidents. The center has begun critical infrastructure protection efforts to establish a foundation for future governmentwide efforts. However, the analytical and information-sharing capabilities that PDD 63 asserts are needed to protect the nation's critical infrastructures have not yet been achieved."
Date:
September 12, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Medicaid and SCHIP: States' Enrollment and Payment Policies Can Affect Children's Access to Care
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "States provide health care coverage to low-income uninsured children largely through two federal-state programs--Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Medicaid was established in 1965 to provide health care coverage to low-income adults and children. Medicaid expenditures for health services to 22.3 million children totaled $32.4 billion in 1998. Congress established SCHIP in 1997 to provide health care coverage to children living in poor families whose incomes exceed the eligibility requirements for Medicaid. SCHIP expenditures for health services to nearly 2 million children totaled $2 billion in 1999. In implementing SCHIP, states could opt to expand their Medicaid programs or establish a separate child health program distinct from Medicaid that uses specified public or private insurance plans offering a minimum benefit package. Thirty-five states have chosen SCHIP approaches that are, to varying degrees, separate from their Medicaid programs. Because eligibility for Medicaid and SCHIP can vary with a child's age, children may, at different ages, need to move from one program to the other. Access to care, therefore, is affected by the extent to which health plans and providers are available and participate in …
Date:
September 10, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Free Trade Area Of The Americas: Negotiators Move Toward Agreement That Will Have Benefits, Costs to U.S. Economy
A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The 34 democratic countries of the Western Hemisphere pledged in December 1994 to form Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) no later than 2005. The FTAA agreement would eliminate tariffs and create common trade and investment rules among the 34 democratic nations of the Western Hemisphere. When completed, the FTAA agreement will cover about 800 million people, more than $11 trillion in production, and $3.4 trillion in world trade. The five FTAA negotiating groups pursuing liberalization of trade and investment--market access, agriculture, investment, services, and government procurement--have submitted initial proposals and agreed on a date to begin market access negotiations, but the groups face short-term and long-term issues. In the short-term, these groups must resolve several practical issues in order to begin negotiations on market access schedules no later than May 15, 2002, and to narrow differences and prepare revised trade rule chapters by August 2002. Over the long-term, these market-opening groups face fundamental questions about how much and how fast to liberalize. Narrowing outstanding differences may be difficult for the four other negotiating groups, which have made initial proposals on rules governing intellectual property; …
Date:
September 7, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
FASAB: Amending SFFAS 7, Elimination of Certain Disclosures Related to Tax Revenue Transactions by the Internal Revenue Service, Customs, and Others
Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided information on the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board's statement of federal financial accounting standards (SFFAS). The statement presents amendments to SFFAS No. 7 and provides provisions that apply to entities collecting taxes on behalf on the federal government."
Date:
September 1, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Export Promotion: Government Agencies Should Combine Small Business Export Training Programs
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Export Enhancement Act of 1992 created the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee to coordinate the delivery of federal export promotion services and to eliminate the areas of overlap and duplication among federal export promotion programs. The Export Enhancement Act of 1999 reiterated that eliminating duplication was a primary objective. In 1993, Congress recommended that three agencies co-locate their staffs at a domestic network of 19 "one-stop shops" called U.S. Export Assistance Centers. These centers were to provide coordinated export training, as well as trade leads, export finance, and counseling to U.S. firms interested in becoming exporters. GAO found that the Department of Commerce did not coordinate closely with the Small Business Administration in introducing its export training program. As a result, Commerce and the SBA provide separate and duplicative training programs for potential small business exporters. Neither Commerce nor SBA systematically collect outcome data for their export training programs. Instead, both agencies track the number of clients trained and Commerce identifies export successes for its clients overall, but not for training participants. Staff at Commerce and SBA do not systematically follow up with training participants to …
Date:
September 21, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
U.S. Postal Service: Few Craft Employees Earned More Than Their Postmasters, But Adequacy and Reasonableness of Pay Differences Remain Unclear
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 requires the Postal Service to pay wages comparable to those of the private sector. It also requires the Service to provide adequate and reasonable pay differences between clerks and carriers and their supervisors, such as postmasters, although the act does not specify what constitutes adequate and reasonable differences. Furthermore, the act requires the Service to consult with supervisor and postmaster organizations when planning and developing pay policies and other programs affecting their members. Since the mid-1970s, two postmaster organizations have voiced concerns that adequate and reasonable pay differences do not exist between postmasters and the clerks and carriers they supervise. Recently, the organizations took their concerns to Congress. The resulting Postmasters' Fairness and Rights Act would make substantive changes in the way postmasters' pay is determined. Most postmasters are now paid under the Service's Executive and Administrative Schedule (EAS), which is the salary schedule that applies to nearly all supervisory and management employees. Generally, postmaster pay consists of basic pay; pay-for-performance; lump-sum merit awards; and supplemental pay, such as overtime. In 1996, the Service lowered the minimum basic pay of …
Date:
September 13, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Intellectual Property: State Immunity in Infringement Actions
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Intellectual property--which includes federally granted patents, trademarks, and copyrights--is often owned or used by state governmental entities, such as public institutions of higher education. Until recently, state entities that made unauthorized use of, or "infringed," the intellectual property of others were subject to lawsuits in federal court. In 1999, however, the U.S. Supreme Court held that states were not subject to such suits, striking down a federal law that would have taken away a state's right to claim immunity under the Eleventh Amendment of the U.S. Constitution when sued in federal court for patent infringement. Some intellectual property owners are concerned that they no longer have adequate remedies if a state commits infringement. Although the precise number is difficult to determine, few accusations of intellectual property infringement appear to have been made against the states through either lawsuits or matters handled out of court. GAO identified 58 lawsuits that had been active since January 1985 in either a state or federal court in which a state was a defendant in an action involving the unauthorized use of intellectual property. Intellectual property owners appear to have few …
Date:
September 25, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Attention Disorder Drugs: Few Incidents of Diversion or Abuse Identified By Schools
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Children diagnosed with attention deficit disorders are often treated with stimulant medications, such as Ritalin or Adderall. These drugs are controlled substances under federal law because of their high potential for abuse. Many of these stimulant drugs must be taken several times a day to be effective, so children need medication during the school day. Concern has arisen that the increasing use of these medications in school might provide additional opportunities for drug abuse. No data exists on the extent to which attention disorder drugs have been diverted or abused at school, or the extent to which state laws or regulations guide local school officials in safely administering these drugs. Middle and high school principals reported little diversion or abuse of attention disorder drugs. For the first seven to nine months of school year 2000-2001, about eight percent of principals in public middle and high schools reported that attention disorder drugs had been diverted or abused at their school. Most of the principals reported that school officials administer attention disorder medications, with about two percent of the school's students on average being administered attention disorder drugs …
Date:
September 14, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Public Assistance: PARIS Project Can Help States Reduce Improper Benefit Payments
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Public assistance programs make millions of dollars in improper payments every year. Some of these improper payments occur because state and local agencies that run the programs lack adequate, timely information to determine recipients' eligibility for assistance. This inability to share information can result in both federal and state tax dollars being needlessly spent on benefits for the same individuals and families in more than one state. In 1997, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began a project to help states share eligibility information with one another. The public assistance reporting information system (PARIS) interstate match helps states share information on public assistance programs, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Food Stamps, to identify individuals or families who may be receiving benefit payments in more than one state simultaneously. Officials in almost all of the 16 states and the District of Columbia that participated in PARIS said that the project has helped identify improper TANF, Medicaid, or Food Stamp payments. Despite its successes, the project has several limitations. First, the opportunity to detect improper duplicate payments is not as great as …
Date:
September 6, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Medicare: Payments for Covered Outpatient Drugs Exceed Providers' Costs
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Although physicians and other health care providers acknowledge that they can buy drugs for prices lower than Medicare payments, they contend that they need drug payments in excess of their actual costs to compensate for inadequate or nonexistent Medicare payments for administrating the drugs. Physicians are able to obtain Medicare-covered drugs at prices significantly below current Medicare payments, which are set at 95 percent of average wholesale prices (AWP). The prices paid by wholesalers and group purchasing organizations that would be generally available to physicians were considerably less than AWPs used to establish the Medicare payment for these drugs. The difference between these prices and AWP for physician-administered drugs in GAO's sample varied by drug. For most physician-administered drugs, the average discount from AWP ranged from 13 percent to 34 percent; two physician-administered drugs had discounts of 65 percent and 86 percent. Other suppliers are also able to buy drugs at prices that are considerably less than the AWP used to establish the applicable Medicare payment. Pharmacy suppliers were predominant billers for 10 of the high-expenditure and high-volume Medicare-covered drugs GAO analyzed. These suppliers generally provide …
Date:
September 21, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Bioterrorism: Federal Research and Preparedness Activities
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Federal research and preparedness activities related to bioterrorism center on detection; the development of vaccines, antibiotics, and antivirals; and the development of performance standards for emergency response equipment. Preparedness activities include (1) increasing federal, state, and local response capabilities; (2) developing response teams; (3) increasing the availability of medical treatments; (4) participating in and sponsoring exercises; (5) aiding victims; and (6) providing support at special events, such as presidential inaugurations and Olympic games. To coordinate their activities to combat terrorism, federal departments and agencies are developing interagency response plans, participating in various interagency work groups, and entering into formal agreements with other agencies to share resources and capabilities. However, coordination of federal terrorism research, preparedness, and response programs is fragmented, raising concerns about the ability of states and localities to respond to a bioterrorist attack. These concerns include insufficient state and local planning and a lack of hospital participation in training on terrorism and emergency response planning."
Date:
September 28, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
National Transportation Safety Board: Weak Internal Control Impaired Financial Accountability
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) promotes transportation safety through accident investigations, special studies, and recommendations intended to prevent accidents. Separate reviews at NTSB by PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP (PwC) and GAO found significant shortcomings in the design and operation of NTSB's internal controls during 1999 and 2000. These deficiencies indicated insufficient or ineffective management attention to establishing and maintaining an effective system of internal control over financial management operations. The resulting weaknesses exposed the agency to waste, fraud, and mismanagement. Some basic controls were not always clearly and consistently incorporated into NTSB policies and procedures, and, in some cases, the written policies were ambiguous and contributed to possible improper transactions. Furthermore, NTSB's payment review and approval process--the last and best opportunity to detect and address inadequate documentation and other policy violations prior to payment--was often ineffective. Separate reviews of different aspects of NTSB's 1999 and 2000 financial activities and related internal controls, done by PwC at NTSB's request, documented various internal control weaknesses, including problems with the completeness and clarity of policies, the recording and review of transactions, and the tracking and reporting its use of funds."
Date:
September 28, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Food Safety: CDC Is Working to Address Limitations in Several of Its Foodborne Disease Surveillance Systems
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Foodborne diseases in the United States cause an estimated 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Surveillance is the most important tool for detecting and monitoring both existing and emerging foodborne diseases. In the United States, surveillance for foodborne disease is also used to identify outbreaks--two or more cases of a similar illness that result from ingestion of a common food--and their causes. CDC has 18 surveillance systems used to detect cases or outbreaks of foodborne disease, pinpoint their cause, recognize trends, and develop effective prevention and control measures. Four principal systems--the Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System, PulseNet, FoodNet, and the Surveillance Outbreak Detection Algorithm--focus on foodborne diseases and cover more than one pathogen. Although CDC's systems have contributed to food safety, the usefulness of several of these surveillance systems is impaired both by CDC's untimely release of surveillance data and by gaps in the data collection. CDC is providing funds to state and local health departments to address their staffing and technology needs to help the states provide CDC with more complete information. …
Date:
September 7, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Medicare: Information Systems Modernization Needs Stronger Management and Support
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Congress has questioned whether the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), formerly the Health Care Financing Administration, adequately implemented new payment methods, effectively safeguarded program payments, and adequately oversaw the quality of care provided to beneficiaries. CMS depends on hundreds of information technology (IT) systems to help manage the Medicare program. With year 2000 systems renovations successfully completed, CMS has focused on modernizing its IT systems. The agency's information systems are crucial to carrying out Medicare's core missions of claims processing and payment, program oversight, and administration of participating health plans. Medicare's major systems are aged, however, and many are incompatible with one another. To address these problems, CMS intends to modify, replace, or redesign systems on which key Medicare missions depend. CMS plans to make incremental system improvements while maintaining current functions and accommodating changes mandated by legislation. The agency's IT planning and management processes--intended to increase the likelihood that new systems will be successful and cost-effective--have shortcomings. The agency's blueprint documenting its existing and planned IT environments, also known as its enterprise architecture, is missing essential detail in critical parts, including well-documented business …
Date:
September 20, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Financial Audit: Independent and Special Counsel Expenditures for the Six Months Ended March 31, 2001
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report presents the results of GAO audits of expenditures reported by six offices of independent counsel for fiscal year 2001. In its audits, GAO found (1) the statements of expenditures presented for the offices of independent counsel David M. Barrett, Carol Elder Bruce, Ralph I. Lancaster, Daniel S. Pearson, Robert W. Ray, and Donald C. Smaltz, and special counsel John C. Danforth, respectively are presented fairly in conformity with the basis of accounting described in note 1 of each counsel's statement, which is principally the cash basis, a comprehensive basis of accounting other than U.S. generally accepted accounting principles; (2) no material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting and compliance with laws and regulations; and (3) no reportable noncompliance with laws and regulations GAO tested."
Date:
September 28, 2001
Creator:
United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library