Medicare:

HCFA Faces Multiple Challenges to Prepare for the 21st Century

T-HEHS-98-85: Published: Jan 29, 1998. Publicly Released: Jan 29, 1998.

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Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) ability to meet growing program management challenges, focusing on: (1) HCFA's new authorities under recent Medicare legislation; (2) HCFA managers' views on the agency's capacity to carry out various Medicare-related functions; and (3) the actions HCFA needs to take to accomplish its objectives over the next several years.

GAO noted that: (1) substantial program growth and greater responsibilities appear to be outstripping HCFA's capacity to manage its existing workload; (2) legislative reforms have increased HCFA's authority to manage the Medicare program; (3) simultaneously, however, other factors have increased the challenges HCFA faces, including the need to make year 2000 computer adjustments and develop a new, comprehensive information management strategy; manage transitions in its network of claims processing contractors; and implement a major agency reorganization; (4) in addition, officials report that the expertise to carry out HCFA's new functions is not yet in place and that HCFA has experienced a loss of institutional knowledge through attrition; (5) in this environment, agency managers are concerned that some of their responsibilities might be compromised or neglected altogether because of higher-priority work; (6) HCFA's approach for dealing with its considerable workload is incomplete; (7) heretofore, the agency lacked an approach--consistent with the requirement of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 to develop a strategic plan--that specified the full range of program objectives to be accomplished; (8) HCFA has developed a schedule for responding to recent legislative reforms but is still in the process of detailing the staffing and skill levels required to meet reform implementation deadlines; and (9) while addressing new mandates, the agency also needs to specify how it will continue to carry out its ongoing critical functions.

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