u.s. department of health and human services. >>> good afternoon, welcome to the san francisco board of supervisors meeting of tuesday, january 14, 2014. madam clerk please call the roll. >> the clerk: yes, mr. president. supervisor avalos, present, breed, present, campos present, chiu present, supervisor cohen, present, farrell present, supervisor kim,

of the 20,000 dollar bill. >> just within 2013 alone health and human services admitting to improperly spending billions of your tax dollars. diane macedo is here to explain what happened. >> hi answerly. the u.s. department of health and human services estimates it improperly spent more than $65 billion in tax payer funds in 2013 including roughly 60 billion in payments to medicare and medicaid. according to the department's fiscal year 2013 financial report last year's total of $365 billion of erroneous payments is up and hhs estima n 64.3 billion of the payments were related to medicare or medicaid. while both of those anythings include under payments the majority were over payments. we are talking $59.6 billion. what caused all of these improper payments? when it comes to medicare hhs sites administrative and documentation errors medically unnecessary services and errors by physicians at hospitals same goes for miss spent medicaid payments which were attributed to errors verifying case eligibility and pricing errors. in all reports estimate total of 60.6 billion in over payments by health and human services last year. to put that in perspective that's about three times the expected deficit reduction u

u.s. department of health and human services has a toll free number. confidential call. >>> the national security agency's surveillance program, deliver it's findings back in december. while the secrets reveals by edward snowden on the president to take action by the president political commentator. guys let's start with what you want the president to say about the nsa. >> first of all i'm in chicago. i have to give chicago it's proper due. >> hello, now i see the proper background. >> you know, there are a lot of things i want to hear many the president. the nsa had fortfully quotes remember this isn't a brand new program this is something that for many americans embrace after the 9/11 attacks. i want to hear him talk about edward know den. i would like him to talk about why he changed his stance. he campaigned on transparency. he campaigned and he needs to explain why he didn't follow through while he was in office. >> what do you want to hear from the president? >> he has been on the record defending the program and saying that it is essential to th

u.s. department of health and human services released its first land for tobacco control. this plan provides a framework to rejuvenate efforts to end the epidemic. now today's surgeon general's report underscores the essential commitment initially outlined in that plan, and include high impact pass media campaigns and increased efforts to prevent kids from being embargoed by images of smoking in the movies, fully funded, comprehensive's statewide tobacco control programs at cdc recommended levels, higher prices on cigarettes and other tobacco products that will drive down consumption, complete protection of the entire population, not just half the population, to a indoor policies. effective implementation of fda tobacco product regulation authorities, full access to sufficient counseling and fda- approved medications were smokers, and this list is just a start. most important of all, we need committed leadership through every sector of society, leadership that will reject the andus quote as acceptable move our nation to a healthier future. it is time to reclaim the social

u.s. department of health and human services kathleen sebelius. know, secretary sebelius is the 21st secretary of the department of health and human services, sworn in in 2009. in her time in office, the secretary has traveled to many of our communities, many of our cities, to meet with us and others, to discuss the president's signature legislation, the affordable care act, as it is being rolled out nationwide. as we all know, as mayors and as citizens of the united states, it was a bit of a bumpy start, but recent signs are showing that the number of people securing access to health insurance is on the rise. we welcome the secretary for being here with us today to let us know more about the progress. a warm u.s. conference of mayors welcome to our secretary of health and human services secretary sebelius. thank you for being here. [applause] thank you, mayor schmidt. it is nice to see mayor gray here. trying to get away from you, i was just right in the spotlight of the slide deck. it is good to have a chance to visit with all of you for a few mi

and members of the committee. my name is frank baitman, and i'm deputy assistant secretary for information technology and the chief information officer at the u.s. department of health and human services. while i appreciate the committee's interest in healthcare.gov, as you know, two days ago i spent eight hours in a transcribed interview with committee staff and with you and representative jordan respectively answering your questions. i received the committee's invitation to testify at today's hearing approximately 36 hours ago at the close of tuesday's transcribed interview. i will do my best to answer think questions you still have given the minimal time i've had to prepare. i'd like to make clear to the committee the role of my office, that is the office of the chief information officer for the department of health and human services, in healthcare.gov. i personally and my office generally have very little visibility into the development and operational oversight for the web site. the department manages its i.t. portfolio through a federated governance structure. most of hhs' operating divisions have their own chief information officer and chief information security officer, one o

u.s. department of health and human services releasing affordable care act enrollments. 2.2 million americans signing up by december 29. of those, 79% qualify for federal subsidies. 24% are in the age group of 22-34. we are joined by a fellow at the manhattan institution for policy research. thank you for being with us. 2.2 million, that's far below the 3.3 million the government wanted by this time. what do you make of the numbers? >> the numbers aren't great, the administration has been constantly undershooting. it wasn't enough to meet the goal. >> when you sign up, you can choose from four different categories and they've started to choose. bronze. 20% chose bronze. silver, 60% like the silver plan. gold, 13%, and platinum, 7%, so what makes that silver plan so attractive? why do that he like that one the best? >> the interesting thing is 79% are subsidized. most of them are low income. when they get silver plans, they get cost sharing reductions, lowering company pace and insurance, less for the premiums and cost sharing portions. >> i hear people saying this is just another government g

want to make sure i mention to you all today, is that the department of health and human services helps refugees once they've arrived in the u.s. we provide the aid thanks to you all, for the first 30 to the 0 days. 0 days. r that it's -- 9 but after that it's up to h.h.s. >> i've i'm giving you an opportunity here to tell us that maybe the worst is yet to come. and prepare members of congress who are sympathetic with the bill you may send us. so if i were you, i would suggest to take this opportunity to sit down and write out what we may be facing as a nation in terms of our obligations to stabilize the region. that's all i'm asking. >> and we very much appreciate that. just to your point, we keep passing the worst case scenario. so we need to be thinking of that. there have already been extraordinary strains on the system. we keep coming up with new ways of addressing it and we will continue to be faced with that pressure and we would very much welcome the opportunity to work with you all further on envisioning what that might take. we were able to do the response that we did in this last fiscal year because of the very impo

department of public health. as the director of the rhode island department of human services. and formerly as counsel and deputy chief of staff to the late u.s senator jon chaffee of rhode island. so we're very happy to have christy with us as well. mili kaufman also has joined us. she's the executive corredirect the d.c. health benefit exchange authority. and served as the superintendant of insurance of the state of maine from 2008 to 2011. she also has served in key leadership positions at the national association of insurance commissioners and was formerly an associate research professor and project director at the georgetown university health policy institute. and joining us on the line by phone from california we're happy to have peter lee who's the executive director of covered california, a sacramento-based insurance exchange and these states insurance exchange for small businesses. he formerly served as the deputy director of the center for medicare and medicaid innovation at cms where he helped shape initiatives to implement higher quality care at lower costs. he also served as the director of delivery system reform at the federal h

of this obamacare web site steering committee is the u.s. chief technology officer in the white house science office who also happens to be the immediate past cto of the department of health and human services. upon learning this, i as chairman of the oversight subcommittee along with the full committee chairman, mr. smith, and research and technology subcommittee chairman, dr. but shop, sent a letter to the white house requesting that mr. todd park, u.s. cto and healthcare.gov's steering committee chairman make himself available to the committee to answer questions regarding the security issues with healthcare.gov. by january 10th, last friday. the white house has ignored that letter that the committees request until just yesterday when it provided a last minute response that rebuffed this committee. let me repeat, rebuffed this committee. that letter did not come from the senate-confirmed president's science adviser to whom the letter was addressed, but from the politically-appointed ostp legislative affairs director. my question for the panel simply is this: don't the american people deserve answers from those who are in charge of overseeing the implementation of the obamacare web site's