OIG Publishes the Compendium of Unimplemented Recommendations

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently released the 2012 Edition of the Compendium of Unimplemented Recommendations. The publication outlines the OIG’s fiscal year 2011 recommendations that HHS programs have not implemented as of December 2012.  The OIG also identified “priority recommendations,” which if implemented, would improve HHS programs’ efficiency and effectiveness.  For instance, CMS could save nearly $35.9 billion over 10 years by reducing payments for hospital bad debts by 25 percent.  The OIG also recommended CMS adjust global surgery fees to accurately reflect the number of evaluation and management services furnished to beneficiaries, creating an annual savings of $97.6 million.

The Compendium further discussed the following unimplemented recommendations related to CMS:

• Modify the Medicare incident-to rule for services furnished by personnel other than the treating physician;
• Revise the process for setting reimbursement rates for laboratory tests; and
• Employ payment contractors to monitor the use of modifier 59.

The OIG Compendium is available at:

https://oig.hhs.gov/reports-and-publications/compendium/files/compendium2012.pdf.

Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.  “Compendium of Unimplemented Recommendations, December 2012 Edition.”  5 Dec. 2012.