United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Accounting and Information Management Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1998-09-28 monographic deposited born digital 53 p. GA 1.13:AIMD-98-284 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-284 P0b002ee1803917f9 f:ai98284 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-284 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-284 AIMD-98-284 Claims processing Computer software verification and validation Systems compatibility Data integrity Information resources management Internal controls Strategic information systems planning Systems conversions HCFA Medicare Transaction System Medicare Program Y2K Letter Report AIMD Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the extent to which the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) is: (1) making progress in renovating its Medicare systems to be year 2000 (Y2K) compliant; (2) directing and overseeing the Y2K effort; (3) ensuring that all data exchanges necessary for processing Medicare claims are identified, renovated, tested, and validated; and (4) developing and initiating business continuity and contingency plans for key business processes.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) HCFA and its contractors are severely behind schedule in repairing, testing, and implementing the mission-critical systems supporting Medicare; (2) HCFA has recently begun improving its management of Y2K matters, including establishing a Y2K organization and hiring independent contractors to assist in overseeing the Y2K work; (3) in August HCFA reported that as of June 30, 1998, less than a third of Medicare's 98 mission-critical systems had been fully renovated, and none had been validated or implemented; (4) compounding this difficult task is HCFA's lack of key management practices necessary to adequately direct and monitor its Y2K project; (5) to date, HCFA has not: (a) developed an adequate overall schedule and a critical path that identifies and ranks Y2K tasks, and helps ensure that they can be completed in a timely manner; (b) implemented risk management processes necessary to highlight potential technical and managerial weaknesses that could impair project success; and (c) planned for or scheduled end-to-end testing to ensure that Medicare-wide renovations will work as planned; (6) HCFA has also not been effectively managing the identification and correction of its electronic data exchanges; (7) neither has HCFA determined whether needed agreements with data exchange partners have been made; (8) this increases the risk that Y2K errors will be transferred through data exchanges from one organization's computer systems to another's; (9) given the magnitude of the task and risks ahead, and the limited time remaining, it is highly unlikely that all of the Medicare systems will be compliant in time to ensure the delivery of uninterrupted benefits and services into the year 2000; (10) it is more critical than ever that HCFA have sound business continuity and contingency plans in place, which can be implemented should systems failures occur; (11) HCFA is late in establishing its business continuity and contingency plans; (12) HCFA is relying on its Medicare contractors to develop plans for their own systems; several contractors told GAO they do not plan to begin developing their individual plans until 1999; (13) also, HCFA has not yet developed a Medicare-wide business continuity and contingency planning framework; and (14) HCFA has only recently completed drafting a set of contingency planning guidelines, and does not plan to have its Medicare-wide plan completed and tested until June 20, 1999. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-284/html/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-284.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-284/pdf/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-284.pdf GAO/AIMD-98-284 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-284 Letter Report GAO/AIMD-98-284; Medicare Computer Systems: Year 2000 Challenges Put Benefits and Services in Jeopardy; Claims processing Computer software verification and validation Systems compatibility Data integrity Information resources management Internal controls Strategic information systems planning Systems conversions HCFA Medicare Transaction System Medicare Program Y2K