Recommendation: The Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education should correctly calculate its CCAMPIS program persistence rate and cost per persisting student measures. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Education
Status: Open

Comments: Education disagreed with this recommendation as it believes the currently reported persistence data are sufficiently accurate to support effective program management and oversight. In February 2020, Education noted that it was reviewing the concerns raised by GAO and taking action to address confirmed errors in its persistence calculations. Specifically, Education said it would correct a formula error in its spreadsheet and include students who transferred to another school as persisting and planned to publish corrected data. Further, it said that it was exploring the feasibility of developing a cohort model for its persistence rate measure. We appreciate the steps Education is taking to ensure that it is correctly calculating its program persistence measures. To close this recommendation, Education should provide its corrected calculations, as well as any publication with corrected persistence measures, to GAO to review and confirm that Education has corrected all of the errors we identified.

Recommendation: The Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education should either collect the CCAMPIS participant enrollment data needed to calculate a standard 3-year graduation rate or accurately define and calculate a different college completion measure. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Education
Status: Open

Comments: As of February 2020, Education stated that it continues to disagree with this recommendation, noting that more analysis is needed to determine whether it is appropriate to develop a more rigorous graduation rate measure for the CCAMPIS program. As we stated in our report, we recognize that collecting the enrollment data needed to calculate the standard graduation rate could place a burden on grantee schools. Our recommendation included the option to define a different college completion measure and calculate it correctly. Education reported that it will redefine its current graduation rate to be a different college completion measure and the agency will clarify the description of this metric in its information on CCAMPIS graduation rates. While the new graduation rate definition proposed by Education responds to this recommendation, Education's formula does not accurately calculate this redefined graduation rate measure. To close this recommendation, Education should correct the formula for its revised graduation rate measure and provide the updated formula and data to confirm that its calculations are accurate.

Recommendation: The Chief Operating Officer of Federal Student Aid should encourage schools—through appropriate means, such as the Federal Student Aid Handbook—to inform students via school websites about the availability of the dependent care allowance and how to request the allowance. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Education
Status: Open

Comments: While Education agreed with the spirit of this recommendation, it disagreed with the recommendation itself due to concerns that an increased emphasis on the availability of the dependent care allowance could lead to additional borrowing that might not be appropriate for all students based on their financial circumstances. To respond to the recommendation, Education told us in February 2020 that it has added a note to the 2019-2020 FSA Handbook that, when counseling students, schools should make clear the availability of the allowance and how to request it. Adding this language to the handbook is certainly helpful, but does not fully implement GAO's recommendation. Encouraging schools to provide this information to students who proactively contact a school's financial aid office to discuss their finances will likely make this information available to a relatively small number of students; however, it does nothing to make this information more broadly available to all students who may benefit from it. We are not recommending that schools should encourage all student parents to borrow more to pay for child care. Instead, we recommend that Education encourage schools to make students aware of this potential option-which federal law makes available to students-via school websites to allow them to make informed financial decisions based on their personal circumstances. We will close this recommendation when Education takes additional actions to encourage schools to make this information more broadly available to students on their websites.

Recommendation: For RHS properties whose mortgages have matured, Congress should consider granting RHS the authority to renew annual rental assistance payments to owners who wish to continue to receive them and provide vouchers to tenants living in rental assistance units in properties whose owners choose to no longer receive rental assistance.

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: In September 2019, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen introduced S. 2567 that proposed decoupling Section 521 rental assistance from the Section 515 mortgage, allowing rental assistance to continue after the mortgage is paid in full. The bill also would expand the use of the Section 542 Rural Development Voucher program to include all tenants in properties with loans that had matured, rather than just tenants in properties with prepaid mortgages. Sen. Shaheen's bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. As of September 2020, no additional action had been taken.

Recommendation: The RHS Administrator should establish additional controls to check the accuracy of all loan information entered into RHS information technology systems, to help ensure complete, accurate, and reliable data for estimating rural rental housing property exit dates. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Agriculture: Rural Housing Service
Status: Open

Comments: USDA said it would prioritize the development of options for the RHS Information Technology System , including dashboards and other protocols, to provide more analytical assessments and accurate data with respect to mortgage maturity dates and property-level information. It also said it would strengthen its partnership with Rural Development's Information Technology staff and develop more effective communication tools with RHS field personnel to highlight the importance of maintaining reliable data. USDA estimated it would complete these steps by September 30, 2019. However, as of May 2020, USDA officials had not provided us documentation of their efforts.

Recommendation: The RHS Administrator should establish a process to help ensure regular and frequent updates for the preservation tool and its underlying data. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Agriculture: Rural Housing Service
Status: Open

Comments: USDA said it would embed quality assurance in the preservation tool to ensure that the underlying data are accurately sourced, maintained, and analyzed. USDA also said it would ensure involvement from RHS National Office staff and RHS field office staff in this process to maximize the resources allocated to ensuring that the tool's data are integral and timely. Finally, USDA said RHS National Office personnel in the Deputy Administrator's office will be assigned quality control responsibility for the accurate maintenance of the tool. USDA estimated it would complete these steps by September 30, 2019. However, as of May 2020, USDA officials had not provided us documentation of their efforts.

Recommendation: The RHS Administrator should establish performance goals and measures for its rural rental housing preservation and rehabilitation efforts and report out these outcomes. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Agriculture: Rural Housing Service
Status: Open

Comments: USDA said it would incorporate preservation goals, objectives, and measures into its on-going updates and edits to handbook guidance. As an initial step, on June 4, 2018, the agency incorporated the guidance provided in the Unnumbered Letter titled "Dynamic Servicing Strategies for the Multi-family Housing Direct Loan Portfolio." The revisions also renamed Chapter 6 of the handbook to "Portfolio and Property Assessment." USDA said on-going guidance updates will prioritize preservation as the goal of servicing strategies and require program staff to exhaust all potential remedies to achieve this goal prior to proceeding to terminate assistance or otherwise not preserve the affordable housing property. USDA officials expected these and other steps to be completed by September 30, 2019. However, in May 2020, USDA officials said publication of the guidance had been delayed, and guidance was not expected to issue until early fiscal year 2022.

Recommendation: The RHS Administrator should monitor the results of rural rental housing preservation efforts and assess the degree to which those efforts yielded intended outcomes. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Agriculture: Rural Housing Service
Status: Open

Comments: USDA said that in conjunction with its establishment of preservation goals and objectives, it would utilize a performance tracking system and establish management routines to discuss and strategize how to achieve these goals. In November 2019, USDA officials said they had assessed the Section 515 Multi-Family Housing Preservation and Revitalization demonstration program and planned to finalize a plan that would enhance program delivery efficiency and consistency within 8 months (July 2020). However, as of May 2020, USDA officials had not provided documentation showing performance tracking or routine monitoring efforts. The officials said they planned to complete an evaluation of rural housing preservation goals or objectives by the third quarter of fiscal year 2022.

Recommendation: The RHS Administrator should identify, analyze, and respond to risks to achieving its preservation goals, including resource and staffing limitations. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Department of Agriculture: Rural Housing Service
Status: Open

Comments: USDA said it would utilize a performance tracking system and establish management routines to discuss and strategize how to achieve its goals. According to USDA, this will include an assessment of challenges and risks that may affect the achievement of performance and preservation objectives. However, as of May 2020, USDA had not provided us documentation of its efforts to identify, analyze and respond to risks to achieving its preservation goals.

Recommendation: To reduce the cost of delivering the crop insurance program, Congress should consider repealing the 2014 farm bill requirement that any revision to the standard reinsurance agreement not reduce insurance companies' expected underwriting gains, and directing the Risk Management Agency to, during the next renegotiation of the agreement, (1) adjust the participating insurance companies' target rate of return to reflect market conditions and (2) assess the portion of premiums that participating insurance companies retain and, if warranted, adjust it.

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: As of March 2020, Congress has not taken action to implement this matter.

Recommendation: To reduce year-to-year fluctuations in the administrative and operating expense subsidies that companies receive at the crop, state, and county levels, the Secretary of Agriculture should direct the Administrator of the Risk Management Agency to consider adjusting the administrative and operating expense subsidy calculation method in a way that reduces the effects of changes in premiums caused by changes in crop prices or other factors when it renegotiates the standard reinsurance agreement.

Agency: Department of Agriculture
Status: Open

Comments: As of March 2020, the Department of Agriculture has not taken action to implement this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Education should assess and improve, as necessary, the quality of data and methods used to forecast borrower incomes, and revise the forecasting method to account for inflation in estimates.

Agency: Department of Education
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: The Department of Education agreed to assess and improve its borrower income data, and adjust incomes for inflation. In model documentation prepared in advance of the agency's fiscal year 2017 financial statements, Education acknowledged problems in the estimated borrower income data it used to estimate income-driven repayment (IDR) plan costs, and said it was working to obtain access to actual borrower income data for use in its cost estimates. Education implemented part of this recommendation by adjusting borrower incomes for inflation, which caused a downward re-estimate of IDR plan costs totaling $17.1 billion. GAO will monitor Education's progress in implementing the other part of the recommendation.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Education should complete efforts to incorporate repayment plan switching into the agency's redesigned student loan model, and conduct testing to help ensure that the model produces estimates that reasonably reflect trends in Income-Driven Repayment plan participation.

Agency: Department of Education
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Education (Education) agreed to incorporate repayment plan switching into its redesigned student loan model, reiterating that efforts to incorporate this capability into a new microsimulation model had begun despite challenges inherent in predicting borrower behavior. However, Education's current student loan model still does not allow for estimating the effects of repayment plan switching. In the interim, Education updated its repayment plan selection assumption to more accurately reflect recent trends in income-driven repayment plan participation. GAO will monitor the progress of Education's efforts to implement the planned model redesign with the capability to incorporate plan switching behavior.

Recommendation: To better oversee the efficacy of PPACA's enrollment control process; to better monitor costs, risk, and program performance; to assist with tax compliance; to strengthen the eligibility determination process; to provide applicants with improved customer service and up-to-date information about submission of eligibility documentation; and to better document agency activities, the Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct the Acting Administrator of CMS to track the value of advance premium tax credit and cost-sharing reduction (CSR) subsidies that are terminated or adjusted for failure to resolve application inconsistencies, and use this information to inform assessments of program risk and performance. (See related recommendation 7.)

Agency: Department of Health and Human Services
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: In April 2016, HHS reported it considers this recommendation closed because it expanded the use of analytics to analyze the value of premium tax credit and CSR subsidies that are eliminated or adjusted for 2015 actions at the policy level, and that CMS continues to analyze the data to develop future operations changes. In May 2016, we requested documentation of these actions, including (1) information produced using the capability described; (2) ways in which this information is being used for analysis for purposes such as program operations, monitoring, risk assessment, or fraud cleaning; and (3) a description of the future operational changes contemplated based on the analyses done. However, as of December 2018, HHS officials had not provided GAO with evidence that the agency had implemented this recommendation. GAO said it would continue to monitor the agency's progress in this area. In March 2019, CMS reversed its initial concurrence with the recommendation, citing inability to obtain necessary data from another agency and a legal opinion on CSR subsidies. GAO kept the recommendation open, saying the developments HHS cited were irrelevant. In December 2019, after HHS reiterated its non-concurrence, GAO continued to maintain the recommendation as open.

Recommendation: To better oversee the efficacy of PPACA's enrollment control process; to better monitor costs, risk, and program performance; to assist with tax compliance; to strengthen the eligibility determination process; to provide applicants with improved customer service and up-to-date information about submission of eligibility documentation; and to better document agency activities, the Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct the Acting Administrator of CMS to, in the case of CSR subsidies that are terminated or adjusted for failure to resolve application inconsistencies, consider and document, in conjunction with other agencies as relevant, whether it would be feasible to create a mechanism to recapture those costs, including whether additional statutory authority would be required to do so; and for actions determined to be feasible and reasonable, create a written plan and schedule for implementing them.

Agency: Department of Health and Human Services
Status: Open

Comments: As of December 2018, CMS officials said the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had received a legal opinion from the U.S. Attorney General regarding validity of CSR payments, which prompted the agency to halt the payments as of October 2017. CMS officials said that if the recommendation were to be implemented, it would amount to creating new rules and a process for a program feature that no longer exists. However, in January 2019, HHS indicated that the administration supports a legislative solution that would appropriate CSR payments, and GAO continues to monitor for relevant legislative action. If funding becomes available to restore CSR payments, then implementing this recommendation would aid CMS in reducing improper payments. In December 2019, CMS reversed its initial concurrence with the recommendation, citing the legal opinion. GAO, however, continued to maintain the recommendation as open.

Recommendation: To better oversee the efficacy of PPACA's enrollment control process; to better monitor costs, risk, and program performance; to assist with tax compliance; to strengthen the eligibility determination process; to provide applicants with improved customer service and up-to-date information about submission of eligibility documentation; and to better document agency activities, the Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct the Acting Administrator of CMS to identify and implement procedures to resolve Social Security number inconsistencies where the Marketplace is unable to verify Social Security numbers or applicants do not provide them.

Agency: Department of Health and Human Services
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: In April 2016, HHS reported that it considered this recommendation open and was working on implementing functionality for updating consumers' Social Security numbers (SSN) and their eligibility based on the correct SSN. HHS reported that is it targeting deployment of the SSN update functionality in 2017. However, as of December 2018, HHS officials had not provided GAO with evidence that the agency had implemented this recommendation. In December 2019, HHS told GAO it continues to evaluate steps necessary to implement the recommendation, and expects close-out by October 2020. We will continue to monitor the agency's progress in this area.

Recommendation: To better oversee the efficacy of PPACA's enrollment control process; to better monitor costs, risk, and program performance; to assist with tax compliance; to strengthen the eligibility determination process; to provide applicants with improved customer service and up-to-date information about submission of eligibility documentation; and to better document agency activities, the Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct the Acting Administrator of CMS to reevaluate CMS's use of Prisoner Update Processing System (PUPS) incarceration data and make a determination to either (a) use the PUPS data, among other things, as an indicator of further research required in individual cases, and to develop an effective process to clear incarceration inconsistencies or terminate coverage, or (b) if no suitable process can be identified to verify incarceration status, accept applicant attestation on status in all cases, unless the attestation is not reasonably compatible with other information that may indicate incarceration, and forego the inconsistency process.

Agency: Department of Health and Human Services
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: In April 2016, HHS reported it considers this recommendation closed because in 2015, it made the determination to no longer require application filers to submit documentation regarding incarceration status. We were aware of that determination, but the recommendation was to reevaluate use of PUPS from the specific standpoint of using the data as it was intended to be used as in indicator of further research and then draw a conclusion on the use of the data. In May 2016, we requested documentation demonstrating that in the period since we made this recommendation, CMS has undertaken the reevaluation in the fashion that we indicated. As of December 2018, HHS officials had not provided GAO with evidence that the agency had implemented this recommendation. In December 2019, HHS told GAO it continues to evaluate steps necessary to implement the recommendation, and expects close-out by October 2021. We will continue to monitor the agency's progress in this area.

Recommendation: To better oversee the efficacy of PPACA's enrollment control process; to better monitor costs, risk, and program performance; to assist with tax compliance; to strengthen the eligibility determination process; to provide applicants with improved customer service and up-to-date information about submission of eligibility documentation; and to better document agency activities, the Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct the Acting Administrator of CMS to create a written plan and schedule for providing Marketplace call center representatives with access to information on the current status of eligibility documents submitted to CMS's documents processing contractor.

Agency: Department of Health and Human Services
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: In April 2016, HHS reported that since May 2015, call center representatives have received daily updates on the status of eligibility documentation. HHS reported that it is working to provide call center representatives with real-time data. HHS reported it considers this February 2016 recommendation to be closed. In May 2016, GAO noted that its February 2016 recommendation was focused on providing such real-time capability and requested (1) confirmation that call center representatives currently have on-demand, real-time access to up-to-date, application-level document status; and documentation showing development and implementation of this capability; or (2) a written plan and schedule for providing this capability as recommended. However, as of December 2018, HHS officials had not provided GAO with evidence that the agency has implemented this recommendation. In December 2019, the agency provided new evidence in support of closure, for which GAO requested supporting information. We will continue to monitor the agency's progress in this area.

Recommendation: To better oversee the efficacy of PPACA's enrollment control process; to better monitor costs, risk, and program performance; to assist with tax compliance; to strengthen the eligibility determination process; to provide applicants with improved customer service and up-to-date information about submission of eligibility documentation; and to better document agency activities, the Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct the Acting Administrator of CMS to fully document prior to implementation, and have readily available for inspection thereafter, any significant decision on qualified health plan enrollment and eligibility matters, with such documentation to include details such as policy objectives, supporting analysis, scope, and expected costs and effects.

Agency: Department of Health and Human Services
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: In April 2016, HHS reported it considers this recommendation closed because CMS prepares an annual Marketplace and Related Programs Cycle Memo to fulfill reporting requirements for internal control. The Memo describes all significant eligibility and enrollment policy and process changes, including new internal key controls associated with these changes, and the 2015 Memo was released in September 2015. In May 2016, we notified HHS that its actions do not close the recommendation. Information contained in the Memos is after-the-fact and while useful, does not meet the full range of documentation contemplated by our recommendation, especially development and analysis of changes prior to implementation. As of December 2018, HHS officials had not provided GAO with evidence that the agency has implemented this recommendation. In December 2019, HHS reversed its initial concurrence with the recommendation and said it would provide additional information on that decision. We will continue to monitor the agency's progress in this area.

Recommendation: To improve the transparency and accountability of HHS's section 1115 Medicaid demonstration approval process, and to ensure that federal Medicaid funds for the demonstrations do not duplicate other federal funds, the Secretary of Health and Human Services should issue criteria for assessing whether section 1115 expenditure authorities are likely to promote Medicaid objectives.

Agency: Department of Health and Human Services
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) partially concurred with this recommendation and has taken some steps to address the problems GAO identified. Initially, in August 2015, HHS posted on its website general criteria for assessing whether Medicaid section 1115 demonstration expenditure authorities are likely to promote Medicaid objectives, but GAO found the general criteria were not sufficiently specific. HHS later removed these criteria from its website and replaced them with six broad areas of reform that HHS encourages states to consider. As of January 2020, HHS does not have specific criteria for approving section 1115 expenditure authorities, but officials noted that the agency had begun including in approval letters the agency's rationale for approving specific expenditure authorities. GAO considers this a positive step towards improving the transparency of HHS's approval decisions, and if implemented consistently would address the intent of GAO's recommendation. HHS officials indicated that this step would be included in written protocols the agency is drafting but did not have a date for their completion. If these protocols are completed and consistently implemented, HHS's bases for its approvals of expenditure authorities, which can amount to billions of dollars in federal spending, will be more transparent. We will continue to monitor HHS's actions in response to this recommendation.

Recommendation: To improve the transparency and accountability of HHS's section 1115 Medicaid demonstration approval process, and to ensure that federal Medicaid funds for the demonstrations do not duplicate other federal funds, the Secretary of Health and Human Services should ensure the application of these criteria is documented in all HHS's approvals of section 1115 demonstrations, including those approving new or extending or modifying existing expenditure authorities, to inform internal and external stakeholders, including states, the public, and Congress, of the basis for the agency's determinations that approved expenditure authorities are likely to promote Medicaid objectives.

Agency: Department of Health and Human Services
Status: Open

Comments: HHS agreed with this recommendation and, as of January 2020, had taken some steps to ensure that the bases for its approval decisions are documented in all approvals of section 1115 demonstrations. In December 2017, HHS's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a letter to state Medicaid officials, stating it had begun requesting additional documentation of the demonstration purposes being served by certain types of previously approved funding in demonstration proposals. Additionally, the agency noted it was taking certain steps to ensure that only allowable costs were matched by federal Medicaid funds. In April 2018, CMS officials stated that the agency had begun addressing in approval documents how each intervention proposed by the state was determined to be likely to promote Medicaid objectives. Officials reported that this step would be included in formal written protocols that outline the agency's procedures for application review and preparation of approval documents for section 1115 demonstrations, but as of January 2020, the agency did not have time frames for the completion of these protocols. If CMS completes and implements the written protocols, stakeholders should be able to more easily and consistently assess the agency's decisions. We will continue to monitor CMS's efforts in this area.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the Treasury should issue guidance on how funding or assistance from other government programs can be combined with the NMTC including the extent to which other government funds can be used to leverage the NMTC by being included in the qualified equity investment.

Agency: Department of the Treasury
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: The Department of the Treasury (Treasury) has not issued guidance on how funding or assistance from other government programs can be combined with the NMTC, as GAO recommended in July 2014. However, Treasury has taken steps toward addressing this action. The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund), which administers the NMTC program, completed new empirical research assessing the extent to which other government programs are being combined with the NMTC. The findings of this research (issued in August 2017) indicate that some NMTC projects, especially those using other government funds to leverage the NMTC, potentially received more government funds than needed to close a financing gap. As of January 2020, CDFI Fund officials said that they intend to solicit public comments on additional data to be collected from the Community Development Entities before using these data to identify NMTC-financed projects that may have excessive public funding. Once fully implemented, these additional actions could help ensure that low-income community projects do not receive more government assistance than required to finance a project.

Recommendation: To reduce the cost of the crop insurance program, Congress may wish to consider limiting the subsidy for premiums that an individual farmer can receive each year or reducing the subsidy for all farmers participating in the program, or both limiting and reducing these subsidies.

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: As of March 2020, Congress has not taken action to implement this matter.