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HRD-82-87 1 (1982-06-03)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabmrd0001 and id is 1 raw text is: t . UNITED STATES GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE o. :WASHINGTON, D.C. 20548 HUMAN R£SOURCES DIVISION Edward N. Brandt, Jr., M.D. Assistant Secretary for Health 119796 Department of Health and Human Services Dear Dr. Brandt: Subject: Administration of Hill-Burton Assurances and Loan Assistance Program Needs To Be Improved (GAO/HRD-82-87) We recently completed a review of several aspects of the administration of the Hill-Burton program under titles VI and XVI of the Public Health Service Act. The review was prompted by a joint request from the Chairmen of the Sub- committee on Health And the Environment and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. We testified on our review results before the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment on April 30, 1982. We also gave the Subcommittee two background papers--one on the administration and enforcement of the Hill-Burton assurances, the other on the administration of the hospital loan assistance program. Copies of the testimony and background papers are enclosed. In addition to obtaining information and statistical data from Bureau of Health Facilities (BHF) and Office of Civil Rights officials in HHS headquarters, we reviewed documents and interviewed officials in 4 HHS regional offices, 7 State health agencies, and 14 Hill-Burton facilities. We discussed our findings with program officials and made several recommendations to improve assurances monitoring, loan moni- toring, and the recovery/waiver process. Although the testimony and background papers contained no formal recommendations, we have summarized the recommendations we made to program officials so you will know what steps we believe should be taken to improve operations in these areas. The page numbers in parentheses refer to the sections of the appropriate back- ground paper that discuss the detailed information obtained during our review. (102544)