HHS Inspector General Resigns

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HHS Inspector General Resigns

Medicare’s Inspector General (IG), Janet Rehnquist, resigned in March. The resignation occurred after several members of Congress called for an investigation into her conduct and the management of her office. Ms. Rehnquist, whose responsibilities included investigating and rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse from Medicare and Medicaid, came under investigation last year. Senators asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to look into why she replaced 19 senior managers who had broad experience investigating fraud, as well as allegations of the unauthorized possession of a gun, the shredding of government documents, and her delay of a federal audit of the Florida state employee’s pension fund at the request of Governor Jeb Bush, the president’s brother. Rehnquist was a 2001 appointee of President George Bush.

One week after announcing her resignation, a draft audit of the Florida employee’s pension fund became public. According to The Associated Press, the audit concluded that the state of Florida owes the U.S. government more than $500 million. The federal government contributes pension money for employees working in the Medicaid program, the health insurance program for low-income persons. The federal government matches a certain percentage of state Medicaid funds. Although the amount held by the Florida pension fund was adequate to pay pension obligations, according the Associated Press, the state created a contingency reserve that did not meet federal standards. This action resulted in improperly overcharging the federal government for Medicaid pension costs.

Rehnquist’s postponement of the audit insured that the audit results would not become public until after Governor Bush’s 2002 re-election. Government documents indicated that had she not intervened, the draft audit would have been finished prior to the election.

In an October letter to the GAO, Rehnquist said she welcomed the review. “I am confident that your findings will further illustrate our many successes,” she wrote.

In December, TREA Senior Citizens League sent a letter to Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA), Max Baucus (D-MT) and John Breaux (D-LA) expressing support of their request for the investigation and thanking them for their efforts to protect federal health care programs from fraud, waste and abuse.

Sources: “Senators Call for HHS Office Probe,” The Associated Press, October 22, 2002. “Top Health Official Resigns Under Pressure,” Christopher Marquis, The New York Times, March 5, 2003. “Draft Audit: Florida Owes US $500 Million,” Larry Margasak, The Associated Press, March 12, 2003.

To read more on this see, “Medicare’s Inspector General Under Investigation”at http://www.tscl.org/NewContent/101778.asp and “Legislative Update: Medicare Fraud is Picking Our Pockets” at http://www.tscl.org/NewContent/101806.asp.

June 2003