Debt Collection

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO evaluated the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) debt collection efforts under its financial assistance programs for health professions and medical facilities, focusing on the: (1) Health Professions Student Loan Program; (2) Nursing Student Loan Program; (3) National Health Service Corps Scholarship Program; (4) Health Education Assistance Loan Program; and (5) Health Facilities Direct and Guaranteed Loan Program.

GAO found that: (1) HRSA imposed several measures which resulted in significant declines in loan delinquency rates for health professions schools, but not for nursing schools; (2) the delinquency rates for nursing schools will decline when HRSA terminates a large number of these schools from the program for noncompliance with performance standards; (3) health professions and nursing schools reported $47.5 million in delinquent loans as of June 30, 1986, of which $27 million was more than 3 years delinquent; and (4) HRSA has not established a time frame in which schools must request write-off approval for uncollectible loans. GAO also found that: (1) lack of a comprehensive debt management system, staffing shortages, and failure to follow established procedures have seriously hindered HRSA attempts to collect on delinquent debts; (2) HRSA untimely issued collection notices, made few personal contacts with delinquent debtors, and improperly granted additional time for delinquent debt repayment; and (3) HHS opposes offsetting delinquent educational debts from Medicare reimbursements to physicians.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone: