Rock Creek Roundup (June 25 Edition)

Posted by: Meagen Ryan, Director of Strategy Jun 25, 2010 0 Comments

A new OMB website helps fight federal waste and fraud, California considers an innovative digital approach to increasing revenue, a Florida community gives citizens easy access to crime information, and the Department of Health and Human Services gets a new health insurance-focused website ready for its big debut, all in this week’s version of the Rock Creek Roundup.

—In late 2009, the Office of Management and Budget released a report noting that federal agencies had made an estimated $98 billion dollars in “improper” payments—payments that were the result of fraud, payments to vendors who are ineligible for government contracting work, or simple clerical mistakes. In an effort to decrease improper payments while increasing agency accountability, OMB this week launched PaymentAccuracy.gov, a website set up to highlight how well agencies are performing by detailing the number and amount of improper payments an agency has issued. Visitors to the website can track the overall rate of payment accuracy across federal agencies as well as submit their own concerns about waste, fraud, or abuse.

—Imagine this: You’re sitting in traffic on the 101 in California, and a few seconds after the car in front of you stops again, you see something odd: the car’s license plate is displaying what appears to be an advertisement. It’s not as far-fetched as you might think. Earlier this week, the state Senate approved a bill that gives the California DMV the green light to explore digital license plate technology as a way to help generate additional revenue for the state. In addition to advertising, proponents also point out that the digital plates could be used to broadcast important information like safety warnings or even Amber Alerts. The bill is currently before the Legislature.

—What was going on last night when you heard all of those sirens racing through your neighborhood? Citizens in one Florida county need go no further than their web browser to get the inside scoop on crimes that occurred in their area. This month, officials in Florida’s Pinellas County unveiled Crime Viewer, a GIS database-powered site that lets citizens map crime occurring in their community. Updated every 24 hours, the website is intended to give citizens a “snapshot of what types of crime are happening in a community around the clock.” Officials anticipate allowing citizens to receive alerts and notifications via e-mail and text message in the near future.

—If you’ve every shopped around online for health insurance, you know it’s an overwhelming and frustrating task trying to find insurance providers that cover people in your state and separating legitimate insurance offers from insurance scams. But thanks to a website set to launch July 1, insurance seekers will have one-stop access to insurance information for individuals and small businesses in their state. The Department of Health and Human Services’ new website Healthcare.gov will initially provide a simple list of company names and web links for all private and government health plans available within a specific state, but as soon as October will begin providing additional information like health plan cost and benefits information.

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Meagen Ryan

Director of Strategy

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