Year 2000 Computing Challenge

Successful Year 2000 conversion of the computer systems that the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) and its contractors use to process Medicare claims is essential to guarantee the unimpeded delivery of health care services to millions of Americans. GAO reported in April 1999 that HCFA has responded to GAO's recommendations for improving the agency's program management but that critical Year 2000 risks and challenges remained. (See GAO/T-AIMD-99-160.) This testimony summarizes HCFA's progress in addressing its Year 2000 problems and describes the key challenges that remain in completing the final Year 2000 tests of HCFA's mission-critical systems by November 1, 1999. GAO also discusses the need for HCFA to (1) ensure that Medicare contractors are testing with providers; (2) monitor managed care organization's efforts to address their Year 2000 risks; and (3) complete and validate internal, contractor, and managed care organization business continuity and contingency plans.

GAO noted that: (1) HCFA and its contractors have made progress in addressing Medicare year 2000 issues; (2) however, until HCFA completes the ongoing recertification tests, the final status of the agency's year 2000 compliance will remain unknown; (3) limited time remains to completely test all systems that process Medicare claims for year 2000 compliance (internal, fee-for-service contractor, managed care organization (MCO), and provider); (4) nevertheless, HCFA must sustain its efforts, because any progress made in testing these many systems lowers the risk of disruptions to Medicare and the claims payment process; (5) HCFA must also continue to closely monitor contractor testing with providers that to date has been limited but has uncovered year 2000 problems; (6) in addition, HCFA needs to continue its efforts to ensure that MCOs are adequately addressing their year 2000 challenges; and (7) given the considerable amount of work that remains in the next few months, it is crucial that the development and testing of internal, contractor, and MCO business continuity and contingency plans move forward rapidly to ensure that, no matter what, providers will be paid and beneficiaries will receive care.