Review of Practitioner Compliance with the Requirements of the Hurricane Katrina Health-Care-Related Professional Workforce Supply Grant for the Greater New Orleans Area

摘要

Section 6201(a)(4) of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 authorizes the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to award the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH), Bureau of Primary Care & Rural Health (the Bureau), a Professional Workforce Supply Grant (the Federal grant) to restore access to health care in communities impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The $50 million Federal grant funds payments to licensed health care professionals for retention and recruitment and covers the period March 1, 2007, through September 30, 2012. (As of September 30, 2009, all of the Federal grant funds had been distributed.) Pursuant to Department of Health & Human Services grant administration regulations (45 CFR SC 92.40(a)), the Bureau, as the grantee, is responsible for managing the day-to-day operation of grant-supported activities and must monitor grant-supported activities to assure compliance with applicable Federal requirements and achievement of performance goals. Our objective was to determine whether the practitioners who received payments under the Federal grant were performing in accordance with the Bureaus obligations under the Federal grant.