Department of Health and Human Services
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The Science and Technology Directorate's Cybersecurity Division received dozens of proposals to protect the next emerging area for cybersecurity, called physical systems. S&T will receive 70 proposals across four major areas and award $95 million to the best ideas in early 2015.
October 31, 2014 -
Citing cybersecurity concerns, House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) is compelling Park to testify about his role in the development of the health insurance exchange portal.
October 29, 2014 -
This week, the award for Federal Employee of the Year went to Dr. Rana Hajjeh for her contributions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her work with vaccines will save the lives of about 7 million children by 2020. The Service to America Medals gala on Monday also featured several young federal employees who might earn that honor for themselves one day. Tim McManus is Vice President for Education and Outreach at the Partnership for Public Service. He was at the Sammies Awards. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he said he sees some special potential from this year's finalists in the Call to Serve category.
September 25, 2014 -
SRA loses its bid protest of the HHS award for cloud email services to InfoReliance. GAO says HHS' evaluation factors were reasonable and properly considered.
September 25, 2014 -
Each year, fake Medicare claims filed by medical equipment suppliers, home health care agencies and pharmacies bill the federal government out of billions of dollars. Florida is considered ground zero for health care fraud. One reason is a big portion of its residents are over the age of 65. Reginald France is an assistant special agent in charge at the Health and Human Services Department's Inspector General office in Miami. He and his team led Medicare fraud investigations resulting in nearly 700 convictions in South Florida. For their work, team members are winners of the Homeland Security and Law Enforcement Medal in this year's Service to America Medals. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to discuss his role in the investigations.
September 22, 2014 -
The 10-year anniversary of Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 is next week. Agencies have spent the last 10 years pursuing ways to verify the identities of their employees. The Department of Health and Human Services is one of them, and the Inspector General's office at HHS has new research on how the agency is doing. Tom Salmon is assistant inspector general in the Office of Audit Services at the Department of Health and Human Services. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he said this work may be new -- but the HHS IG has been reporting on HSPD-12 for a long time.
August 19, 2014 -
Executive Editor Jason Miller looks at the news and information you may have missed or that slipped through the cracks at conferences, hearings and the like.
August 08, 2014 -
Federal workers to see as much as 50 percent less cubicle or office space as part of how agencies are reducing office space costs. Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) pressed GSA and others on their preparation to more efficiently deal with 100 million square feet of leased space that is scheduled to expire in the next five years.
July 31, 2014 -
Year two of the Affordable Care Act is underway with open enrollment starting Oct. 1. But the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is already working to fix a big problem with the federal health insurance marketplace. The Health and Human Services inspector general found problems in verifying the data people used to enroll, producing inconsistencies that slowed down enrollment. Russ Hereford is deputy regional inspector general for HHS. He explains to Tom Temin on the Federal Drive how extensive the problem is.
July 09, 2014 -
The Health and Human Services Department tech staff is saying, there's got to be a better way when it comes to technology projects. It's not just the sour taste of HealthCare.gov, but also the long history of failed IT programs. Federal News Radio's executive editor, Jason Miller, spoke with Tom Temin on the Federal Drive. Read Jason's related article.
July 03, 2014 -
The Department of Health and Human Services isn't following in the footsteps of the Oscar winning movie, Dallas Buyers Club. Rather, HHS is trying to help contracting officers recognize agile and iterative approaches to buying and managing technology programs.
July 03, 2014 -
The new Health and Human Services Secretary is revamping management of HealthCare.gov. Sylvia Burwell has appointed a new operations manager to closely supervise the website, and she plans to fill more management positions. The goal is to make sure this year's open season doesn't mirror the fiasco of when HealthCare.gov first opened for business last year. Elise Viebeck covers health care issues for The Hill Newspaper. She joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss the new moves.
June 24, 2014 -
For the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services at HHS, payment errors are 50 percent more likely to happen in cases of routine visits. At more than $32 billion, so-called E&M services represent about a third of payments under Medicare Part B. The Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General looked at data from 2010. It found that coding errors and lack of documentation led to $6.7 billion in improper E&M payments. Dwayne Grant, regional inspector general for HHS, discussed how this happened when he joined Tom Temin on the
June 11, 2014 -
Several agency chief human capital officers say wholesale changes to the federal hiring, recruiting, retaining and firing processes are needed now more than ever. It's no longer just a matter of using the authorities available, they say.
May 22, 2014 -
Across the federal government, the officials who run hotline programs in agency inspector general offices say they're finding ways to cut their backlogs of incoming cases and get vital information into the hands of investigators more quickly. In part, it's because those officials are communicating with one another like never before.
May 20, 2014