OIG Work Plan 2014—An Overview

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General released the 2014 OIG Work Plan that covers the projects it will focus on during fiscal year 2014 and beyond. They’ve also released the OIG Outlook 2014 video, where senior executives are discussing emerging trends in combating fraud, waste, and abuse in Federal health care programs, OIG's top priorities for 2014, and upcoming projects in the newly released OIG Work Plan.

2014 OIG Work Plan Focuses on 3 Main Goals:

1.      Fight fraud, waste and abuse

The focus of OIG is on areas like prescription drugs and home-and community-based services. In 2013, a record number of criminal convictions and civil actions took place, which resulted in over $5 billion in investigative receivables.

2.      Promote quality, safety and value

The OIG is planning to focus strictly on the quality and care of nursing homes. So that beneficiaries receive quality care during their stay. The OIG plans to analyze the adverse events in SNF and assess the events of the past so that they could prevent it in future.

3.      Secure the future of HHS programs

The OIG top priority will remain the Health Information Technology that includes the use of electronic health records (EHR). The OIG will offer suggestions for improvement based upon detection of vulnerabilities.

These goals further include a number of priorities, for instance, to fight fraud waste and abuse, the OIG will identify, investigate and take action where required. He will expose the offender and hold him accountable to recover the public funds. The OIG has kept the goals and priorities flexible so that they can address new challenges as they arise. The plan covers a number of focus areas, for e.g. OIG plans to apply the lessons learned from the Medicare Fraud Strike Force teams to other HHS programs in order to enhance enforcement results. They also plan to highlight indicators for measuring the results.

The providers/facilities/offices should take due advantage of 2014 OIG work plan and plan-up their compliance program activities effectively for the coming months. It is vital for them to comprehend the areas of OIG work plan as the Federal Government will be performing audits on medical records and the providers/ facilities/ offices need to support the coding and reimbursement.