Federal Manager's Daily Report

While the TSA has been improving its handling of injury compensation claims by its employees since a 2007 audit, there is still room for improvement, an IG audit has found.

Both the earlier and present reports address an ongoing management issue that in the case of TSA resulted in more than $60 million in chargebacks in 2014 under the Federal Employees Compensation Act. That’s up by about $8 million over the prior year despite a decrease in claims from about 9,000 to about 7,200.

Among reasons cited for the increase were higher medical and pharmacy costs, decisions overturned on appeal and the use of vocational rehabilitation services.

Since the prior audit, TSA has put in place comprehensive policies for submission and management of those claims, has increased the number of staff overseeing the program and has put in place a strategy to address long-term, high-cost claims.

However, the report said that TSA has not demonstrated improvements in the processing or management of claims and that it lacks a formal process for reviewing the Labor Department’s charges billed to TSA. TSA concurred with recommendations including to consider integrating all of TSA into one medical case management system.