. >> is erin bliss, he was with health and human services department and is the assistant inspector general for evaluation and inspections, welcome to the program. >> good morning. >> remind people of the role ofthe inspector general office is in comparison to hhs itself . >> our mission is to protect the integrity of health and human services programs such as medicare and the healthand well-being of the people that they serve . so we do oversight and enforcement of the programs of the health and human services department. >> you turn your attention recently to the topic of hospice. why is that, what are you looking to find out? >> the health and safety of medicare beneficiaries is one of our top priorities and help is a particularly vulnerable population so we looked at information about deficiencies being cited at health providers related to quality of care and patient harm . >> expand on that, what doyou find looking into this ? >> a report shed light on how common it is to have as providers to be sided with some type of deficiency related to the quality of care they're providing and in

i would like to know how to connect with erin bliss. connected with groups who are complaining of problems. in california, the foundation aiding the elderly dealing with problems and nursing homes, another is the national -- thetion of organization is run by carol hermon. another group run by dr. sam apg.r is called aa somethinghere specific you would like to discuss with our guest? communityers in the have been with mildly cognitive impaired individuals, they are totally negligent of that area, they specifically disregard it. guest: thank you for raising these important issues. is ant abuse and neglect very serious concern and a top priority for the office of inspector general. we've been looking at this issue across a range of settings. specific to the recent reports looking at this issue in hospice care, we have identified vulnerabilities in terms of limited reporting requirements to medicare in the hospice program. for example, hospice providers are only required to report patient harms to medicare if they receive an allocation -- a