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B-302710 1 (2004-05-19)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptapql0001 and id is 1 raw text is: G A 0 Comptroller General SIntegrity Reliability of the United States ~ccountabthty Inert Rea iy United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 Decision Matter of: Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services-Video News Releases File: B-302710 Date: May 19, 2004 DIGEST 1. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services's (CMS) use of appropriated funds to pay for the production and distribution of story packages that were not attributed to CMS violated the restriction on using appropriated funds for publicity or propaganda purposes in the Consolidated Appropriations Resolution of 2003, Pub. L. No. 108-7, Div. J, Tit. VI, § 626, 117 Stat. 11, 470 (2003). 2. CMS, in using appropriations in violation of the publicity or propaganda prohibition, incurred obligations in excess of appropriations available for that purpose. See B-300325, Dec. 13, 2002. Accordingly, CMS violated the Antideficiency Act, 31 U.S.C. § 1341, and must report the violation to the Congress and President in accordance with 31 U.S.C. § 1351 and Office of Management and Budget Circular No. A-11. DECISION In a March 10, 2004, opinion, we concluded that the Department of Health and Human Services's (HHS) use of appropriated funds to produce and distribute a flyer and print and television advertisements, as part of a campaign to inform Medicare beneficiaries about changes to Medicare under the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA), did not violate publicity or propaganda prohibitions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2004, Pub. L. No. 108-199, Div. F, Tit. VI, § 624, 118 Stat. 3, 356 (2004), and the Consolidated Appropriations Resolution of 2003, Pub. L. No. 108-7, Div. J, Tit. VI, § 626, 117 Stat. 11, 470 (2003). B-302504, Mar. 10, 2004. During our development of that opinion, we learned that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, had prepared as part of this campaign video news releases or VNRs, including a news story for television broadcast, to provide information to the television medium. Letter from Dennis G. Smith,

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