Senate Finance Committee Issues Report on Activities During 114th Congress (Part 2 of 2)
Continues from Part 1 of 2
SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES
In the 114th
Full Committee Hearings
2016
Full Committee Executive Meetings
2016
FEDERAL DEBT LIMIT
SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES
In the 114th
Full Committee Hearings
2015
2016
OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS
SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES
On
Bipartisan findings of the report include:
During the years 2010 to 2013, IRS management failed to provide effective control, guidance, and direction over the processing of applications for tax-exempt status.
The Committee also found that the workplace culture in the Exempt Organizations Division placed little emphasis or value on providing customer service.
- Few if any of the managers were concerned about the delays in processing the applications, delays that possibly harmed the organizations ability to function for their stated purposes.
Issuance of the report was delayed for more than a year after the IRS belatedly informed the committee that it had not been able to recover a large number of potentially responsive documents that were lost when
By failing to locate and preserve records, making inaccurate assertions about the existence of backup data, and failing to disclose to
Background:
On
In
TIGTA provided their findings to the committee on
Upon completing the report, committee investigators had interviewed more than 32 current and former IRS and
On
Findings from the report include:
The financial incentives from PODs increase utilization. Analysis done by committee staff found that as a percentage of patients seen, POD surgeons performed surgery at a much higher rate (44% higher) than non-POD surgeons. And furthermore, in absolute number, POD surgeons performed nearly twice as many fusion surgeries (94% more) as non-POD surgeons.
Sunshine reporting requirements are insufficient and PODs are changing their behavior in response to these requirements. It appears that PODs are not complying with their reporting requirements, and PODs are changing the way they pay their physician owners in an attempt to skirt Sunshine requirements. PODs are moving from large hospital chains to small rural hospitals as many large hospital chains have implanted strict POD policies. It remains difficult to identify POD physicians.
PODs are now located in at least 43 States and the
This white paper was the culmination of nearly 5 years of work by majority staff of the committee examining the role of PODs in the health-care marketplace. The committee initially released an analysis of PODs in
In March of 2013 the OIG-HHS issued a Special Fraud Alert on PODs declaring that many of the models utilized by those forming PODs were "inherently suspect." Later that year in
The committee also held a hearing on PODs in
On
This white paper examined potential reforms to the law governing
The
As a follow-up to the white paper, the committee held a hearing on potential changes to the Stark law in
On
The majority staff white paper issued by the two committees detailed a number of issues plaguing the law's income eligibility verification process. The process, which is used to both determine eligibility and repayment for taxpayer-funded subsidies, has come under scrutiny in more than a dozen reports from independent watchdogs. The white paper highlights these reports and details how the Obama administration has failed to implement necessary safeguards and recommendations from these watchdogs to prevent fictitious applicants from receiving subsidies and wasting taxpayer dollars. The white paper also outlines how the administration has failed to reconcile and reclaim excess subsidies, and has instead relaxed standards for income eligibility verification in the Federally-facilitated marketplace.
On
The bipartisan white paper describes and compares guidance from CMS and that recently developed from the
Full Committee Hearings
In their
The Hatch Act should be revised to designate all IRS,
The IRS should track the age and cycle times of applications for tax-exempt status to detect backlogs early in the process and allow management to take steps to address those backlogs.
The Exempt Organizations Division should track requests for assistance from both the Technical Branch and the Chief Counsel's office to ensure the timely receipt of that assistance.
A list of over-age applications should be sent to the Commissioner on a quarterly basis.
Minimum training standards should be established for all managers within the EO Division to ensure that they have adequate technical ability to perform their jobs.
This hearing was a follow-up to hear what, if any, of these had been acted upon by IRS and the status of those actions.
Full Committee Executive Meetings
2015
Senators Only Meetings
2015
NOMINATIONS
Charles P. Blahous III, of
Charles P. Blahous III, of
Charles P. Blahous III, of
BILLS AND RESOLUTIONS REFERRED TO THE COMMITTEE
There were 712
REPORTS, PRINTS, AND STUDIES
During the 114th
(TABLE OMITTED)
OFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS
During the 114th
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