Who Walks the Watchdog? Bureaucratic Oversight and the Government Accountability Office

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Joseph O'Connell
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Mulligan ◽  
John A. Romley ◽  
Rebecca Myerson

Abstract Objective The 340B Drug Pricing Program allows hospitals to purchase covered drugs at a discount and potentially generate profit if they are reimbursed at rates that exceed 340B acquisition prices. Disproportionate share hospitals (DSH) are eligible to participate in 340B if their DSH adjustment–a measure that identifies hospitals that treat a disproportionate share of low income Medicare or Medicaid patients–is above 11.75%. To assess whether hospitals behave strategically to gain access to the program, we examined data on the number of hospitals just above versus below the DSH adjustment threshold for 340B eligibility and conducted McCrary density tests to assess statistical significance. Results In 2014–2016, the number of hospitals increases by 41% just above the 340B eligibility threshold. McCrary density tests found this increase to be statistically significant across a range of bandwidths in 2014–2016 (p < 0.01). From 2011–2013, the findings are sensitive to the bandwidth around the threshold, but insignificant in 2008–2010. We found no comparable change among hospitals ineligible for the 340B program. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that some hospitals adjust their DSH to gain 340B eligibility. Our findings support recent calls from the Government Accountability Office to improve oversight of the 340B program.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 601-610
Author(s):  
Kamran Behdinan ◽  
Soumya Ranjan Mishra

AbstractMaturity assessments of technology is a crucial process to identify and acquire compatible technologies for a system’s development. However, being a complex and highly subjective process, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reported cost overruns and schedule slippages through the years. This study provides a unique Weighted Technology Readiness Level (WTRL) framework which utilizes cardinal factors to ascertain the maturity, schedule and trend of NASA’s 7 Technologies based on their maturity time. The framework utilizes MCDM methods to determine the cardinal complexity of each TRL. It allows the assimilation of other cardinal factors using a simple, open structure to track the overall technology maturity and readiness. Furthermore, this study highlights the importance of tailored TRL frameworks to determine the accurate cardinal coefficient of the said technology and the inferences derived otherwise. It eliminates several limitations of previous frameworks and compares against their performance using a verified statistical representation of processed data.


2019 ◽  
Vol 100 (5) ◽  
pp. 67-69

High school students and recent graduates rate how well their schools are helping them learn. A UNESCO report details how migration affects schools around the world. A new study shows that as young people’s screen time goes up, their well-being goes down. The Government Accountability Office finds that schools with high levels of poverty and smaller schools offer fewer advanced math and science courses. The National Council on Teacher Quality analyzes how six school systems improved their teacher evaluation programs.


Author(s):  
Mark Hansen ◽  
Carolyn McAndrews

FAA regulates the safety of the aviation industry through the safety oversight system, which is a system of rulemaking, standard-setting, certification, accident investigation, rule enforcement, and surveillance activities. Federal programs, including those of FAA, use performance indicators to measure the achievement of program goals. As part of a broader program of developing risk management methodologies, FAA is researching performance indicators that can be used to measure the performance of the safety oversight system. One of its goals is to create performance indicators that can describe the safety oversight system's influence on safety outcomes such as fatalities. Creating performance measures that link activities to safety outcomes is challenging because it is difficult to establish the causation between oversight activities and these safety outcomes. This challenge is not unique to FAA, and external reviewers such as the Government Accountability Office have recommended that other high-reliability sectors, including rail, develop such indicators. In addition to safety outcomes, other aspects of safety oversight system performance can be described with meaningful metrics. The background and motivation for oversight evaluation in the aviation industry and in general are discussed, as well as the challenges, some generic and some unique, of evaluating aviation safety oversight activities. Research is also presented on how safety oversight evaluation is conducted outside aviation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 28-33
Author(s):  
Ramu de Bellescize

Le Government Accountability Office (GAO) aux États-Unis et le National Audit Office (NAO) au Royaume-Uni se rapprochent du modèle de la Cour des comptes françaises par leurs missions : s’assurer, en toute indépendance, du bon emploi de l’argent public. Ils s’en éloignent en revanche parce que les deux institutions ont fait ce travail, selon les époques, au profit soit du législatif soit de l’exécutif.


Author(s):  
Martha Minow

This book argues that US democracy presumes a news industry but that industry currently is failing. It focuses on the contributions of digital platforms and legal rules to the current situation and on the government's responsibilities for alleviating the problem. As the book shows, the First Amendment of the US Constitution assumes the existence and durability of a private industry. Despite some concerns that government action now is not permitted, nothing in the Constitution forecloses government action to regulate concentrated economic power, to require disclosure of who is financing communications, or to support news initiatives where there are market failures. Moreover, the federal government always been involved in shaping the media environment; it has contributed financial resources, laws, and regulations to develop and shape media in the United States. The government has subsidized development of the internet and crafted legal immunities for digital platforms; the government has crafted the direction and contours of America's media ecosystem. The shift of people’s attention to media platforms that borrow news stories without paying for them and spread misinformation jeopardizes journalism, reliable news sources, and the very respect for truth-telling. To maintain government accountability and inform a public as required in a democracy, The book outlines an array of reforms, including a new fairness doctrine, regulating digital platforms as public utilities, using antitrust authority to regulate the media, policing fraud, and more robust funding of public media. As the text stresses, such reforms are not merely plausible ideas; they are the kinds of initiatives needed if the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press continues to hold meaning in the twenty-first century.


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