Senator Mark Pryor wants our ideas on how to cut federal spending. Take a look at this video clip below:
Senator Pryor has asked us to send our ideas to him at cutspending@pryor.senate.gov and I have done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
On May 11, 2011, I emailed to this above address and I got this email back from Senator Pryor’s office:
Please note, this is not a monitored email account. Due to the sheer volume of correspondence I receive, I ask that constituents please contact me via my website with any responses or additional concerns. If you would like a specific reply to your message, please visit http://pryor.senate.gov/contact. This system ensures that I will continue to keep Arkansas First by allowing me to better organize the thousands of emails I get from Arkansans each week and ensuring that I have all the information I need to respond to your particular communication in timely manner. I appreciate you writing. I always welcome your input and suggestions. Please do not hesitate to contact me on any issue of concern to you in the future.
I just did. I went to the Senator’s website and sent this below:
You are friends with the gang of six members and Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is one of the those members. I noticed a study that Senator Coburn did on how to cut money out of our bloated federal budget and I have included below some of his suggestions concerning the Dept of Health and Human Services below:
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
AND
HUMAN SERVICES
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is charged with protecting the health of all Americans. This includes supporting medical research, promoting wellness, preventing and controlling disease, ensuring the safety of drugs and medical devices, and providing health care and related services.
The budget of HHS ―represents almost a quarter of all federal outlays, and it administers more grant dollars than all other federal agencies combined. HHS Medicare program is the nations largest health insurer, handling more than 1 billion claims per year. Medicare and Medicaid together provide health care insurance for one in four Americans.‖1 HHS is also involved in other activities such as assisting with the management of wastewater treatment facilities 2 as well as doing house work and shopping for older Americans. 3
1 ―About HHS,‖HHS website, accessed June 30, 2011;
2
―TERMINATION: RURAL COMMUNITY FACILITIES,‖Fiscal Year 2012 Terminations, Reductions, and Savings; Budget of the U.S. Government, Office of Management and Budget, page 61; http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/trs.pdf .
3 Administration on Aging Annual Report 2008, Page 7;
http://www.aoa.gov/AoARoot/Program_Results/docs/2008/AOA_2008AnnualReport.pdf .
HHS is made up of many diverse agencies, including the Administration on Aging, Administration for Children and Families, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Food and Drug Administration, Health Resources and Services Administration, Indian Health Service, National Institutes of Health, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Global Health Affairs, and the Office of the Surgeon General, which includes the 6,500-member Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service.
Improving Management of Funds and Resources
The entire annual HHS budget exceeds $889 billion. This mammoth budget has proven difficult to properly manage. From paying health care claims submitted for dead patients and prisoners to bonuses to nursing homes for substandard care to excess travel costs, mismanagement at HHS is costing taxpayers more than one billion dollars every week.
In 2010, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) designated five HHS programs as ―high-error‖based on the agencies annual performance and financial reports. In just two of these programs, Medicare Fee-for-Service and Medicaid, HHS made $56.8 billion of improper payments.
4 These ―improper payments‖include millions of dollars of Medicare claims submitted under the names of dead doctors5 and ordered for medical services for dead patients.6
―Medicare fraudestimated now to total about $60 billion a yearhas become one of, if not the most profitable, crimes in America,‖CBS News recently reported, which raises ―troubling questions about our governments ability to manage a medical bureaucracy.‖7
Statement by Dr. David Acheson, Associate Commissioner on Foods at the Food and Drug Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Improper Payments in Government Agencies and Departments before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, May 11, 2011; http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/2011/03/t20110317e.html .
Jane Zhang, ―Medicare Ignored Its Claims Policy, Audit Says,‖The Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2008; http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121971017492971293.html . 6
―Doctor Pleads Guilty to Billing Medicare and Medicaid for Counseling Sessions with Dead Patients; Dr. Williams Claimed $2 Million in Phony Health Treatments, Saying It Was Group Therapy,‖U.S. Attorneys Office, Northern District of Georgia, FBI website, June 6, 2011; http://www.fbi.gov/atlanta/press-releases/2011/doctor-pleads-guilty-to-billing-medicare-and-medicaid-for-counseling-sessions-with-dead-patients 7
―Medicare Fraud: A $60 Billion Crime,‖CBS News, September 5, 2010; http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/23/60minutes/main5414390.shtml . 8
Clark Kauffman, ―Nursing homes across the U.S. receive bonuses despite violations,‖Des Moines Register (Iowa), November 9, 2008; http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081109/NEWS10/811090341/-1/SPORTS09 .
9 Staff estimate based on OMB numbers.
10 David Freddoso, ―Government conference spending gone wild!,‖Washington Examiner, August 29, 2009;
―INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE: IHS Mismanagement Led to Millions of Dollars in Lost or Stolen Property (GAO-08-72),‖Government Accountability Office, June 2008; http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08727.pdf .
Fraud is not the only cause of wasted federal health care dollars. For instance, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services awarded more than $312 million a year in bonuses to nursing homes with past violations of basic health-and-safety standards that provided below-average care.8
There are plenty of other areas where HHS spending is simply excessive. HHS spent $215 million on travel, including the cost of rental cars, hotels and airline tickets, in 2008.
9 The Department spent at least $349 million on conferences and meetings over the last decade.
10
Millions of dollars of HHS equipment disappears every year. Over 5,000 items worth $15.8 million, including laptop computers, all-terrain vehicles, tractors, pickup trucks, and medical devices, were lost or stolen by employees of HHS Indian Health Service between 2004 and 2007.
11 Investigators blamed management failures and weak leadership for the problems, yet the official in charge of IHS property group still received a $13,000 bonus award in December 2008.
The Department ends every year with billions of dollars in excess funds. HHS is expected to end 2011 with more than $210 billion in unspent funds. Over $40 billion of that amount is unobligated. The Department is expected to end 2012 with an even greater amount of unobligated money.13
One way the Department could clean up their act and save taxpayer dollars is simply through complying with existing federal law. The nonpartisan analysis of an audit conducted by Ernst & Young on the balance sheets of the Department of Health and Human Services for FY2010, was included in HHSs FY 2010 Agency Financial Report, dated November 15, 2010. The audit revealed concerning conclusions; among the many findings were the following:
14
HHS is not in compliance with federal financial management law. According to the HHS Inspector Generals review of Ernst & Youngs financial audit of HHS, ―HHS’s financial management systems are not compliant with the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996.‖
Nearly $2 billion taxpayer dollars are stuck in limbo. ―As of September 30, 2010, the audit identified approximately 102,500 transactions totaling an approximate $1.8 billion that were more than 2 years old without activity.‖
Nearly $800 million dollars ―could not be explained‖differing between HHS records and treasury department records. ―Based on our review and discussions with management, we noted differences of $794 million that could not be explained.‖
Some processes and procedural manuals have not been updated since the 1980s. ―HHSs formalized policies and procedures are out of date and may be inconsistent with actual processes taking place….For example, we noted that certain policies and procedures, including certain accrual processes, had not been updated since the mid-1980s.‖
Current HHS personnel need training to ―complete their day-to-day responsibilities.‖―Further, we noted additional training on the financial systems was needed to enable HHS personnel in their ability to access needed information from the system to complete their day-to-day responsibilities – including the preparation of reconciliations, research of differences noted, and the ability to identify and clear older ―stale‖transactions dating back several years.‖
The Daily Hatch 