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HHS Office of Inspector General — Provider Relief Fund and COVID-19 Uninsured Program

HHS OIG Provider Relief Fund — 6 court filings in the archive, mostly from HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG); audited: HRSA, filed between July 1, 2023 and December 1, 2025.

Case facts

CourtHHS Office of Inspector General (OIG); audited: HRSA (2 filings); HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG); audited: HHS / HRSA (1 filing)
Filings6 public filings
Filed2023-07-01 – 2025-12-01
Original PDFs2 of 6

Case summary

This page collects six documents dated between July 2023 and December 2025: four audit reports of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General on the Provider Relief Fund and the COVID-19 Uninsured Program administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration, one report in brief accompanying the first of them, and a False Claims Act settlement agreement. The audits examine Uninsured Program payments made on behalf of individuals who had health insurance, oversight of automatic Provider Relief Fund payments, hospital compliance with the balance billing requirement, and health centers reimbursed twice for the same COVID-19 testing. The settlement agreement of June 6, 2024 resolves United States ex rel. Kitzinger v. CityMD over claims submitted to the Uninsured Program for patients who had health insurance coverage.

Case at a glance

PartiesIssuing body: HHS Office of Inspector General, Office of Audit Services. Audited: the Health Resources and Services Administration and HHS. The settlement agreement is between the United States and CityMD, with a relator
Court and docketAgency / no docket for the audit reports, which carry report numbers A-02-21-01013, A-02-20-01025, A-02-22-01018 and A-02-23-02009. The settlement resolves United States ex rel. Kitzinger v. CityMD
ProgramProvider Relief Fund (PRF) and the HRSA COVID-19 Uninsured Program (UIP), including the Phase 1 General Distribution and COVID-19 supplemental grants to health centers
ClaimsAudit findings and recommendations to HRSA and HHS, and, in the settlement, the United States' contention that CityMD submitted and caused false claims to the Uninsured Program
Disposition or statusEach audit closes with recommendations; HRSA concurred with both recommendations in the December 2025 report. CityMD agreed to pay $12,037,109, of which $8,996,487 is restitution, and the agreement is neither an admission of liability by CityMD nor a concession by the United States
Status checked2026-09-23 · against DOJ press releases through 2026-09-22; court docket not yet read

What did the Uninsured Program audit find?

That payments for 58 of 300 sampled patients, totalling $294,294, were improper because they were made on behalf of individuals who had health insurance coverage or for testing and treatment services that were not provided or were unrelated to COVID-19, and that on the basis of the sample the OIG estimated nearly $784 million of $4.2 billion in Uninsured Program payments in the audit period were improper.

What did the audit of automatic Provider Relief Fund payments find?

That HHS's oversight was generally effective for most of approximately $39.3 billion in automatic payments, but that HHS did not ensure approximately $2.16 billion, or 5.5 percent, were properly calculated as intended and did not prevent more than $247 million from being disbursed to ineligible providers.

What do the two 2025 reports find?

That 17 of 25 selected hospitals billed patients amounts that did not comply or may not have complied with the Provider Relief Fund balance billing requirement, and that 12 of 106 sampled health centers charged $313,270 in laboratory costs to COVID-19 supplemental grants and were reimbursed for the same services by the Uninsured Program.

Summary written from the documents on this page; every sentence is sourced.

Filings

6 public filings from this case, in filing-date order.

  1. HHS-OIG Audit A-02-21-01013 — Report in Brief: HRSA UIP…
  2. HHS-OIG Audit A-02-21-01013 — HRSA COVID-19 Uninsured Program…
  3. HHS-OIG Audit A-02-20-01025 — HHS Oversight of Automatic…
  4. Settlement Agreement — United States ex rel. Kitzinger v…
  5. HHS-OIG Audit A-02-22-01018 — Seventeen of Twenty-Five…PDF
  6. HHS-OIG Audit A-02-23-02009 — Health Centers Received Duplicate…PDF

Court, dates and docket numbers are as recorded on the filings.

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