What GAO Found The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provided $75 billion in pandemic relief funding from its Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund to four agencies: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Health Resources and Services Administration, Indian Health...
What GAO Found GAO identified 47 waivers and flexibilities that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued to sustain Medicare's provider workforce capacity and beneficiary access to services during the COVID-19 pandemic. This included changes to provider enrollment screening, such...
What GAO Found The Sourcebook of United States Executive Agencies describes over 60 structural characteristics or features related to an agency's organization or design. These features can affect an agency's degree of autonomy from political influences and help insulate it from political interference....
What GAO Found Agencies used various approaches to provide COVID-19 pandemic relief to tribal entities, tribal members, and American Indian or Alaska Native individuals (tribal recipients). Disbursement and eligibility requirements, distribution and reporting deadlines, and the number and type of steps...
What GAO Found GAO analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that, from June 2020 through December 2021, nursing homes faced many separate COVID-19 outbreaks, with the average outbreak lasting 4 weeks. Officials GAO interviewed at six selected nursing homes in four...
What GAO Found Using its existing authority, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) developed four temporary relief measures for its loan and loan guarantee programs in response to the lack of liquidity and other export financing issues associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. EXIM's Board...
What GAO Found The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) received approximately $36.70 billion in supplemental funding outside of its annual appropriation from three COVID-19 relief laws between 2020 and 2021: the CARES Act; the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA); and the American Rescue Plan...
What GAO Found COVID-19 prompted the Social Security Administration (SSA) to make dramatic changes in the way it delivers services and administers its programs. On March 17, 2020, SSA closed its offices to the public—providing limited in-person visits for individuals with certain critical needs—and...
What GAO Found Each year in the U.S., hundreds of women die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth—known as maternal death. GAO's analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows that maternal deaths increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, the data show...
What GAO Found The Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) is a multibillion dollar inventory of drugs, vaccines, supplies, and other medical countermeasures that can be used in emergencies. GAO reported in August 2022 that to guide inventory purchases from 2015 through 2019, the Department of Health and...
What GAO Found The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program was created to financially assist businesses in the performing arts and entertainment industries hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Small Business Administration (SBA) approved 73 percent of the 17,328 applications it received for the program...
What GAO Found The COVID-19 pandemic caused a shift in U.S. international trade trends. In particular, an initial decline in imports occurred at the pandemic's onset in March 2020, followed by a steep resurgence several months later. According to CBP officials, this resurgence resulted in part from increased...
What GAO Found The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is responsible for ensuring that nursing homes meet federal standards. CMS enters into agreements with state survey agencies to conduct surveys and investigations of the state's nursing homes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...
What GAO Found The COVID-19 pandemic impacted two of U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) key maritime cargo security programs—the Container Security Initiative (CSI) and the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) program. CSI officers largely work from foreign ports and were subject...
What GAO Found The Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) provided producers $31.0 billion for various commodities. Specifically, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) paid producers $13.8 billion for field crops; $9.8 billion for livestock; $3.0 billion for dairy; and $4.4 billion for other...
What GAO Found To assess challenges that COVID-19 posed to their supervisory missions, the federal banking regulators convened working groups to assess risks related to conducting fully remote bank examinations, among other actions. The regulators are the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB),...
What GAO Found The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of hospitals' abilities to evaluate and care for an increased volume of patients exceeding normal operating capacity, known as medical surge. All eight hospitals in GAO's review reported multiple challenges related to staff, supplies,...
What GAO Found GAO identified research conducted on communicable diseases in air travel in several areas. For example, research has examined how air moves in aircraft and studied the effect of different airline operations—such as boarding aircraft from back to front—on the risk of disease exposure....
What GAO Found The Restaurant Revitalization Fund was established in March 2021 to support eligible entities suffering revenue losses from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Small Business Administration (SBA) began accepting applications and awarding funds in May 2021. SBA stopped accepting applications in...
What GAO Found The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plays a key role in contact tracing for air travel—the process of identifying and notifying passengers who may have come into contact with a person infected with a communicable disease during a flight. However, several factors affect...