Watchdog report faults Medicare agency's contract management
Source: Associated Press
Watchdog report faults Medicare agency’s contract management
By RICHARD LARDNER
July 16, 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Medicare and Medicaid programs failed to properly manage more than $6 million in communications and outreach contracts, giving broad authority over federal employees to a Republican media strategist she worked with before joining the Trump administration, a government watchdog said in a report to be released Thursday.
Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and other agency leaders did not administer the contracts “in accordance with federal requirements,” according to the inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services. CMS is part of the department.
The contracts, which are no longer active, were for strategic communications services, such as public engagement and interacting with the media. But the inspector general said CMS used them as personal services contracts and exerted a level of control over the contractors’ work that exceeded what’s allowed under that type of a federal award.
Verma sharply disputed the inspector general’s findings. In a response that accompanies the report, she said CMS has “deep concerns” with the conclusions, which “are based on unsubstantiated assumptions and incomplete analysis.” She also said the report relies on mischaracterizations of contractor tasks and duties and misrepresents federal acquisition rules.
Verma, a protege of Vice President Mike Pence, came to the Trump administration after designing Indiana’s Medicaid expansion when Pence was governor of that state.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/b256b5ca3755b7fd0c6bbdcd69132afd
FILE - In this April 7, 2020, file photo, Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, speaks about the coronavirus, in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. Verma failed to properly manage more than $6 million in communications and outreach contracts, giving broad authority over federal employees to a Republican media strategist she worked with before joining the Trump administration, a government watchdog said in a report to be released Thursday, July 16. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
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