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As of June 1, 2024, there are 5143 open recommendations that still need to be addressed. 418 of these are priority recommendations, those that we believe warrant priority attention. Learn more about our priority designation on our Recommendations page.

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4821 - 4840 of 5143 Recommendations, including 418 Priority Recommendations

Medicare Advantage: Actions Needed to Enhance CMS Oversight of Provider Network Adequacy

GAO-15-710
James Cosgrove
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services To improve its oversight of network adequacy in MA, the Administrator of CMS should augment MA network adequacy criteria to address provider availability.
Open

HHS concurred with this recommendation. As of August 2023, CMS has not included provider availability as part of its MA network adequacy criteria. While CMS has not updated these criteria, the agency described the various efforts it has taken related to provider availability, including examining MAO provider directories that document whether a provider is accepting new patients. Specifically, CMS stated in November 2020 that it has reviewed the accuracy of its own tools and MAO provider directories. In those reviews, CMS reported finding a number of variables affecting whether a provider is
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services To improve its oversight of network adequacy in MA, the Administrator of CMS should verify provider information submitted by MAOs to ensure validity of the Health Services Delivery data.
Open

HHS concurred with this recommendation, and noted in a January 2020 update that the agency has two methods by which it plans to ensure the validity of the Health Services Delivery data. First, CMS conducts MAO provider directory reviews to identify inaccuracies, which it then uses to verify errors in Health Services Delivery data as over 95 percent of MAOs reported using the same underlying data for both items. CMS reported that, from 2016 through 2018, it had reviewed provider directory sample data from 170 plans, which consisted of over 18,000 primary and specialty care providers at

Weapon System Acquisitions: Opportunities Exist to Improve the Department of Defense's Portfolio Management

GAO-15-466
Michael J. Sullivan
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Defense To improve DOD's use of portfolio management for its weapon system investments and ensure that its investment plans are affordable, strategy-driven, balance near- and long-term needs, and leverage efforts across the military services, and to help ensure the military services' portfolio reviews are conducted regularly and effectively integrate information from the requirements, acquisition, and budget communities, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force to update or develop policies that require them to conduct annual portfolio reviews that incorporate key portfolio review elements, including information from the requirements, acquisition, and budget processes.
Open

DOD partially concurred with our recommendation. However, DOD did not indicate that it would take any action to address it. Instead, DOD responded that the services' budget processes and Office of the Secretary of Defense's review of the services' budgets meet the intent of our recommendation. Our report findings showed otherwise. As of November 2023, the Secretary of Defense had yet to direct the military departments to update or develop policies requiring them to conduct annual portfolio reviews. DOD updated its portfolio management guidance (DOD Directive 7045.20) in September 2023, which

International Food Assistance: Cargo Preference Increases Food Aid Shipping Costs, and Benefits Are Unclear

GAO-15-666
Thomas Melito
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Congress While recognizing that cargo preference serves policy goals established by Congress with respect to the U.S. merchant marine, including maintenance of a fleet capable of serving as a naval and military auxiliary in time of war or national emergency, Congress should consider clarifying cargo preference legislation regarding the definition of "geographic area" to ensure that agencies can fully utilize the flexibility Congress granted to them when it lowered the CPFA requirement.
Open

GAO did not receive comments on the Matter for Congressional Consideration and no legislative action has been identified. As of March 2024, GAO found no evidence of legislation having been introduced to clarify the definition of "geographic area" with regard to cargo preference laws, as GAO suggested in August 2015. Enacting such legislation could reduce the Department of Agriculture's costs for food aid shipping and could potentially result in millions of dollars of savings.

401(K) Plans: Clearer Regulations Could Help Plan Sponsors Choose Investments for Participants

GAO-15-578
Charles Jeszeck
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Labor To encourage plan sponsors to continue efforts to improve plan participation and overall retirement savings through the use of Qualified Default Investment Alternatives, the Secretary of Labor should direct the Assistant Secretary for the Employee Benefits Security Administration to assess the challenges that plan sponsors and stakeholders reported, including the extent to which these challenges can be addressed, and implement corrective actions through clarifying guidance or regulations, as appropriate.
Open

In 2015, DOL noted that the agency would assess the challenges that plan sponsors and stakeholders had reported to GAO, decide in FY 2016 whether a broader public comment process (such as a Request for Information) or a research project would aid that assessment, and determine whether other actions, such as issuing clarifying guidance or regulations, would be beneficial to its stakeholders. As of July 2017, DOL had not added a public comment process to EBSA's 2017 regulatory agenda, and had no specific timeline for any next action. In 2018, DOL reported that it had convened the 2018 ERISA

Nuclear Weapons Sustainment: Improvements Made to Budget Estimates, but Opportunities Exist to Further Enhance Transparency

GAO-15-536
Joe Kirschbaum, David Trimble
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Defense To provide decision makers with better insight and additional context to identify any significant changes to the estimates in the joint report from the prior year and understand the reasons for such changes, and to improve the completeness and transparency of the budget estimates in the report, we recommend that, for future joint reports, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Air Force, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Department of Defense Chief Information Officer (DOD CIO), and the Secretary of Energy direct the Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to provide more thorough documentation in the joint report on the methodologies used to develop the budget estimates, including information that may be available in related planning documents, and ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information included.
Open – Partially Addressed

DOD concurred with our recommendation and has taken some steps to address it. In the Fiscal Year 2020 and Fiscal Year 2021 Joint Reports, DOD provided additional methodological information to describe how it derives its NC3 budget estimates. However, the Air Force and Navy methodologies are largely unchanged from prior years and do not describe steps taken to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information included in the Joint Report. As we have identified past instances in which estimates in the Joint Report did not match the underlying budget information, we will continue to monitor

Motor Carrier Safety: Additional Research Standards and Truck Drivers' Schedule Data Could Allow More Accurate Assessments of the Hours of Service Rule

GAO-15-641
Susan Fleming
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Congress Congress may wish to consider directing DOT to study and provide a report to Congress identifying approaches for extracting, storing, and analyzing electronically collected motor carrier drivers' schedule data, including the potential benefits, privacy, and cost concerns, and options for how such concerns could be mitigated.
Open

As of March 2024, Congress has taken no action to direct DOT to study this matter.

IRS Case Selection: Collection Process Is Largely Automated, but Lacks Adequate Internal Controls

GAO-15-647
James (Jay) R. McTigue, Jr
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Internal Revenue Service To help ensure the IRS collection program meets its mission and selects cases fairly, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue should establish, document, and implement clear objectives for the collection program and enterprise-wide case categorization and routing processes, and define key terms, such as "fairness" and "risk."
Open

IRS agreed with the recommendation. In March 2017, IRS provided documentation of actions taken on the recommendation, but the documents did not clearly define and communicate program objectives sufficient for internal control to support the collection program mission, including fairness in case selection. In November 2017, IRS provided additional documentation but it did not address case selection fairness or other objectives for the collection program and enterprise-wide case categorization and routing processes. In June 2019, IRS officials provided information on an ongoing IRS initiative to
Internal Revenue Service To help ensure the IRS collection program meets its mission and selects cases fairly, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue should build upon existing Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) guidance to help managers identify internal and external risks to collection program objectives, and better understand how long-standing risk processes integrate with new ERM approaches; incorporate this guidance into existing or future ERM or collection program risk assessment processes.
Open

IRS agreed with the recommendation. In November 2016, IRS provided documentation of risk management training for managers intended to assist them in understanding their responsibilities for identifying internal and external risks to collection program objectives. However, since objectives for the collection program and fairness were not yet clearly defined, such guidance could not be effectively incorporated into risk assessment processes. In March 2017, IRS provided documentation of further actions taken, but the documents did not clearly define and communicate program objectives sufficient

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: IRS Needs to Strengthen Oversight of Tax Provisions for Individuals

GAO-15-540
James (Jay) R. McTigue, Jr
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Internal Revenue Service To strengthen oversight of the individual shared responsibility and premium tax credit provisions, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue should assess whether or not the data received from the health insurance marketplaces are sufficiently complete and accurate to enable effective correction of tax returns at-filing based on matching with the marketplace data and, if the assessment determines that such corrections would be effective, seek legislative authority to correct tax returns at-filing based on the marketplace data.
Open

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agreed with GAO's recommendation. IRS reports that the quality of data submitted by health insurance marketplaces has improved since the 2015 return filing season, and it continues to use its correspondence process for resolving discrepancies between marketplace data and data reported by the taxpayer after the return has been filed. In September 2021, agency officials told us they continue to collaborate with health insurance marketplaces on reporting requirements to ensure data is fit for at-filing compliance. IRS has not considered requesting legislative

DOD Business Systems Modernization: Additional Action Needed to Achieve Intended Outcomes

GAO-15-627
Carol R. Cha
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Defense To help ensure that the department can better achieve business process reengineering and enterprise architecture outcomes and benefits, the Secretary of Defense should utilize the results of our portfolio manager survey to determine additional actions that can improve the department's management of its business process reengineering and enterprise architecture activities.
Open

As of September 2023, the department has not addressed this recommendation. Specifically, in September 2023, DOD stated that it plans to issue revised investment management guidance that incorporates the results of the portfolio manager survey to improve the department's business process re-engineering efforts. Specifically, the department stated that it plans to publish its updated business systems investment management guidance in June 2024. We will continue to monitor the department's efforts to fully implement this recommendation.

Veterans' Employment: Need for Further Workshops Should Be Considered before Making Decisions on Their Future

GAO-15-518
Andrew Sherrill
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Labor To inform decisions on any potential future iterations of the veterans' employment workshop, the Secretary of Labor should assess and report to Congress the extent to which further delivery of employment workshops to veterans and their spouses could fill a niche not fully served by existing federal programs. Such an assessment could involve collaboration with VA and other stakeholder organizations.
Open

As of August 2022, DOL implemented an expanded pilot of the Off-base Transition Training (OBTT) pursuant to Section 4303 of the "Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe, M.D. Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2020" (Public Law 116-315). As part of this pilot, DOL plans to determine the efficacy of OBTT and report to Congress annually, starting with its first report by March 1, 2023. We will close this recommendation when the results have been reported to Congress.

Low-Income Housing Tax Credit: Joint IRS-HUD Administration Could Help Address Weaknesses in Oversight

GAO-15-330
Dan Garcia-Diaz
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Congress To better align program goals with agency missions and improve program administration and oversight, Congress should consider designating the Department of Housing and Urban Development as a joint administrator of the program responsible for oversight. As part of the deliberation, Congress also should direct HUD to estimate the costs to monitor and perform the additional oversight responsibilities, including a discussion of funding options.
Open

As of March 2024, Congress had not enacted legislation to give HUD an oversight role for LIHTC.

Debt Limit: Market Response to Recent Impasses Underscores Need to Consider Alternative Approaches

GAO-15-476
Susan J. Irving
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Congress To avoid serious disruptions to the Treasury market and to help inform the fiscal policy debate in a timely way, Congress should consider alternative approaches that better link decisions about the debt limit with decisions about spending and revenue at the time those decisions are made such as those described in this report.
Open

The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (Pub. L. No. 118-5, ? 401, 137 Stat. 10, 48-49 (2023)) was signed into law, suspending the $31.3 trillion debt limit through January 1, 2025, along with caps on discretionary spending. This will allow the Treasury to continue to borrow to meet the funding needs of the federal government and temporarily avoided default. However, this law did not explicitly link decisions about the debt limit to legislation that is expected to increase borrowing needs or debate over specific tax or spending proposals and their effect on debt. As of March 2024, we reviewed
Congress However, if Congress chooses to continue to temporarily suspend the debt limit, it should consider providing Treasury with more flexibility in the level of Treasury's operating cash so that it is based not on the level that it was just prior to a suspension period, but on the federal government's immediate borrowing needs. This would minimize some of the disruptions to Treasury's normal cash management and debt issuance.
Open

The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 suspended the debt limit until January 1, 2025 (Pub. L. No. 118-5, ? 401, 137 Stat. 10, 48-49 (2023)), but did not provide Treasury with the authority to better manage operating cash to plan for meeting the federal government's immediate borrowing needs during suspension periods. As of March 2024, no other laws have been enacted that would provide Treasury with this authority. We will continue to monitor legislation enacting future debt limit suspensions to see if Treasury is granted flexibility to minimize cash flow disruptions.

Buy Indian Act: Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Service Need Greater Insight into Implementation at Regional Offices

GAO-15-588
William T. Woods
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Health and Human Services To ensure consistent implementation of the Buy Indian Act procurement authority across the agencies and to enhance oversight of implementation of the Act at regional offices, the Secretaries of the Interior and Health and Human Services should direct the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Service respectively, to collect data on regional offices' implementation of key requirements, such as challenges to self-certification.
Open

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) concurred with this recommendation. HHS's Indian Health Service (IHS) informed GAO that in order to clarify and codify policies related to priority for use of the Buy Indian Act, formal rulemaking was required. In January 2022, IHS announced the publication of a final rule on the Buy Indian Act, which took effect on March 14, 2022. Additionally, IHS is working to update its Indian Health Manual to supplement the Buy Indian Act final rule to address how IHS will report and collect data across regional offices related to Buy Indian Act

Disability Insurance: Actions Needed to Help Prevent Potential Overpayments to Individuals Receiving Concurrent Federal Workers' Compensation

GAO-15-531
Seto J. Bagdoyan
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Recommendation Status
Social Security Administration
Priority Rec.
To improve SSA's ability to detect, prevent, and recover potential DI benefit overpayments due to the concurrent receipt of FECA benefits, the Commissioner of Social Security should strengthen internal controls designed to prevent DI overpayments due to the concurrent receipt of FECA benefits by implementing the alternative that provides the greatest net benefits.
Open

As of March 2024, SSA had taken steps to strengthen internal controls, as GAO recommended in July 2015, but it had not completed its efforts. In February 2023, SSA told GAO that DOL agreed to move forward with SSA's request for FECA data. As of March 2024, SSA continues to negotiate the details of obtaining FECA data from DOL through a computer matching agreement. According to SSA, as of March 2024, funding for this project has been deferred beyond fiscal year 2024, and therefore it anticipates a completion date in fiscal year 2025. According to SSA, it plans to use FECA benefit data to

Cybersecurity: Bank and Other Depository Regulators Need Better Data Analytics and Depository Institutions Want More Usable Threat Information

GAO-15-509
Lawrance L. Evans, Jr.
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Congress To ensure that NCUA has adequate authority to determine the safety and soundness of credit unions, Congress should consider modifying the Federal Credit Union Act to grant NCUA authority to examine technology service providers of credit unions.
Open

In July 2015, we suggested that Congress modify the Federal Credit Union Act to grant NCUA authority to examine technology service providers of credit unions. As of September 2023, Congress had not granted NCUA this authority.

Prescription Drugs: More DEA Information about Registrants' Controlled Substances Roles Could Improve Their Understanding and Help Ensure Access

GAO-15-471
Linda Kohn, George A. Scott
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Recommendation Status
Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Diversion Control
Priority Rec.
In order to strengthen DEA's communication with and guidance for registrants and associations representing registrants, as well as supporting the Office of Diversion Control's mission of preventing diversion while ensuring an adequate and uninterrupted supply of controlled substances for legitimate medical needs, the Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Diversion Control should solicit input from distributors, or associations representing distributors, and develop additional guidance for distributors regarding their roles and responsibilities for suspicious orders monitoring and reporting.
Open – Partially Addressed

In September 2019, DEA told us that the agency had refocused its efforts on revising draft regulations in line with the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act. On November 2, 2020, DEA published a notice of proposed rulemaking entitled Suspicious Orders of Controlled Substances. DEA reports that the proposed rule (1) codifies existing legal obligations related to due diligence and suspicious order monitoring and reporting; and (2) provides additional guidance regarding the nature and timing of the reporting requirement. The proposed rule provided an opportunity for the public, including

Mortgage Reforms: Actions Needed to Help Assess Effects of New Regulations

GAO-15-185
Matthew Scirè
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Housing and Urban Development To enhance the effectiveness of its preparations for conducting a retrospective review of its QM regulations, HUD should develop a plan that identifies the metrics, baselines, and analytical methods to be used. Furthermore, to account for and help mitigate the limitations of existing data and the uncertain availability of enhanced datasets, HUD should include in its plan alternate metrics, baselines, and analytical methods that could be used data were to remain unavailable.
Open

In February 2017, HUD noted that it does not currently collect data on the annual percentage rate (APR) for each loan that would allow for a perfect comparison to the average prime offer rate. According to HUD, its Office of Housing has on its long-term list of systems priorities to collect specific information from the Uniform Closing Data that could be used to conduct such a comparison. However, HUD stated that it has not received adequate funding to meet these systems enhancements. According to HUD, it is considering the feasibility and potential utility of alternative data sources or the
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