(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) Because states have been slow to fully implement Medicaid electronic assess verification systems, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will be assessing what type of information states are now collecting to verify applicant eligibility based on financial assets to determine how it will best provide technical assistance.

I’ve seen it on TV shows several times. An official with a federal agency swoops in on the local police force or investigative agency and essentially takes over a major investigation, showing a fair amount of arrogance all the while in the full belief that the locals simply do not know what they are doing. I had hoped this couldn’t happen in real life, but I’ve been proven wrong.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Single Audit Information Service.) The Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General urged HUD to improve its internal controls over the Section 8 Management Assessment Program (SEMAP) by reducing its reliance on self-certified public housing agency data and Circular A-133 single audits.

No one ever said change was easy, and that certainly seems to be holding true for the System for Award Management, or SAM for short. We have spotlighted the delays in launching SAM in past blog posts, but now other bothersome issues are emerging.

After a late summer lull in the conference department, I’ll get the chance to head out of the office again in the next few days to attend some intriguing grants-related events. Luckily, both are in the D.C. area, so it won’t cost me much in gas.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) The Health Resources and Services Administration is taking steps designed to improve the oversight of Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act grants by centralizing all monitoring documentation and enhancing its communication with grantees.

(This guest blog was written by the staff of Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC and ran in Thompson's education blog Title 1-derland.) At the annual meeting of the Association of Education Federal Financial Administrators (AEFFA) last October in Charleston, Kay Rigling from the Office of General Counsel stated that U.S. Department of Education (ED) would publish a blog post on “Granting Administrative Flexibility for Better Measures of Success” and would seek recommendations on reducing burden on the time and effort requirements under OMB Circular A-87.  Rigling stated that ED was well aware of all the audit exposure generated from the A-87 rules.  So, last Friday, ED’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) issued guidance, retroactive to July 1, 2012, that makes substantive changes to the application of A-87 to the federal education arena.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Single Audit Information Service.) New York health officials are taking steps to limit the issuance of multiple Medicaid identification numbers in response to a New York Office of State Comptroller’s (OSC) audit that found that the state overpaid about $17.3 million in Medicaid benefit payments resulting from recipients enrolled with multiple IDs.

It sounds like a good, patriotic thing to do at first, restricting bilateral activity with China. But, oh, the questions it has raised. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration now dubs it “The China Thing.”