Mary Miller Asks Witness About Efforts To Curb Fraud Of Federal Employees' Compensation Benefits

8 months ago

During a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) questioned Luiz Santos, Acting Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Labor, about fraud within the Federal Employees' Compensation Program.

Transcript

00:03Next is Ms. Miller from Illinois.

00:09Mr. Santos, under the current FICA program, there have been instances of workers reporting

00:14an injury to collect disability benefits while they are subsequently found to be secretly

00:20working another strenuous job.

00:23What is being done to increase oversight and address this fraud and abuse within FICA?

00:28Thank you, Representative.

00:29This has been a concern of ours from an OIG perspective for many years, not only our office

00:34but also Postal OIGs and many other OIGs who are responsible for investigating claimant

00:39fraud associated with their own programs.

00:42Many years ago, following the issues we identified jointly with Postal OIG on the compounded drug

00:49matters, Congress took action and provided both the authority and the funding for OWCP

00:56to create what's called a program integrity unit, which has been in many ways a model

01:01of how this should be looked at from an oversight perspective.

01:05So they are constantly using data analytics.

01:08So is our office, as well as Postal OIG, to look at the claims.

01:13Because what we have found, particularly over the pandemic, is that data really is the key

01:18to provide adequate and comprehensive oversight of these matters.

01:22And then the program integrity unit refers those cases to my office, which then we take action

01:28in investigating these matters.

01:30It remains a concern, certainly from our perspective.

01:34But to OWCP's credit, they are doing a better job identifying these matters and sending it

01:39our way for investigations.

01:40And we also work very closely with other OIGs to pursue those cases.

01:45MS.

01:47And related to this, there are also some instances of injured workers who continue

01:51to claim benefits long after they have recovered.

01:55What is being done to ensure this abuse of FICA benefits is reduced?

01:58MR.

01:59Yes, that's also a very important matter and a concern for our office for quite some time.

02:04This is one of the reasons we've recommended that Congress, in looking at potential reforms

02:08for the program, authorize OWCP, and specifically the program integrity unit I mentioned, to have

02:16access to social security, wage records, as well as the national director of new hires.

02:21The NDNH specifically has updated information on income and employment.

02:27This is an HHS database.

02:29I believe employers are required to update the database within 20 days.

02:34So providing that access to OWCP with facilitating this data matching and data analytics program

02:40I've referenced, and then in identifying when claimants have returned to work or at times

02:46when they are under-reporting their earnings, which is also important.

02:50MS.

02:51Those sound like good solutions and we need to make it happen.

02:53Also I was wondering, is there any public recourse for reporting abuse of the system?

03:00MR.

03:01In what sense, specifically?

03:03MS.

03:04Well, I'm just, like, is there any kind of portal where people are listed?

03:09MR.

03:10Yes.

03:11MS.

03:12Oh, there is one?

03:13MR.

03:14Not where it is listed, but certainly we have a venue for individuals who are aware

03:15of complaints or aware of allegations against federal employees who may be continuing to

03:20receive FICA.

03:21MS.

03:22Okay.

03:23MR.

03:24As well as the medical provider fraud.

03:25Not only do we, Labor OIG, operate our own hotline where individuals can report these

03:28matters through.

03:29I understand that all OIGs have similar hotlines where they can be reported to.

03:34So, absolutely, there is a venue for individuals who bring these matters to our attention.

03:37MS.

03:38Okay.

03:39That's fantastic.

03:41MS.

03:42MS.

03:43Okay.

03:44MS.

03:45Okay.

03:46MS.

03:47Okay.

03:48MS.

03:49MS.

03:51MS.

03:52So, what is being done for a long-term caret in the full-term care employees?

03:54In my home state of Illinois, a 2021 investigative report showed that the USPS in Chicago has four

03:59of the worst-performing offices, with that report showing 62,000 mail items were delayed

04:06over several months.

04:08The Inspector General report also found that rates of improper scanning and handling of

04:14hundreds of packages were as high as 50 percent.

04:18What is being done to address these deficiencies in the Chicago USPS offices?

04:24Great question.

04:26Chicago has been a challenging area for the Postal Service for a very long time.

04:30We issued the report that you're speaking of and made recommendations to the Postal

04:35Service to address some of the causes of the problems that we saw.

04:39I don't know the status of those recommendations right now, but we can get the status and get

04:44back to you on it.

04:45But we're continuing to do work around the country and in Chicago looking at service issues in

04:50particular because clearly there are some hot spots around the country where service is

04:54challenging.

04:55Well, thank you, and we'd be very grateful.

05:01And I yield back.

05:02Appreciate it.

Mary Miller Asks Witness About Efforts To Curb Fraud Of Federal Employees' Compensation Benefits

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