News Release

HHS Issues Performance and Accountability Report: Sixth Consecutive Clean Opinion On Its Audited Financial Statements

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced a "clean" audit opinion on its consolidated financial statements as part of the HHS Performance and Accountability Report (PAR) for fiscal year (FY) 2004 for the sixth consecutive year. The FY 2004 PAR, audited by an independent accounting firm, shares program management and financial performance information with the President, the Congress and the public.

"We have so much to be proud of as this is HHS' annual report to its stockholders, the American people," Secretary Thompson said. "As the report shows, HHS is an excellent steward of the resources entrusted to us. Through the dedication and commitment of our employees and partners, we are accomplishing our goals and managing our programs well. This report shows the high standard of accountability to which we are held."

HHS has been preparing financial statements as prescribed by the CFO Act since 1996 and has earned an unqualified, or clean audit opinion each year since 1999. With each successive year, HHS has improved the utility and informative value of its annual report. The FY 2004 PAR is the third HHS annual report to consolidate the audited financial statements and key pieces of performance and management information into a single, comprehensive document.

HHS reports on program performance in the PAR pursuant to the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, which requires all federal agencies to engage in strategic planning processes that directly aligns resources with results and enhances the accountability of all government endeavors to the American taxpayers who finance them.

The HHS FY 2004 PAR is produced under the Reports Consolidation Act of 2000 and consists of a high level overview of the following:

• The department's purposes, programs, accomplishments, and challenges;
• The nature of resources entrusted to HHS; and
• HHS' management and accountability of those resources.

As the principal federal agency responsible for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves, HHS is responsible for more than 300 programs and is the nation's largest health insurer as well as the Federal Government's largest grant-making agency. HHS is responsible for more than one-half trillion dollars in resources, the largest budget in the Federal Government. In 2004, these resources helped:

• HHS to fund and foster a nationwide network of almost 3,600 community health center sites that provided primary and preventive care to 12.4 million medically-underserved patients;
• HHS enroll approximately 45,000 health care providers in the Vaccines for Children program, furnishing free vaccines to more than one-third of the nation's children;
• HHS provide comprehensive development services and support under the Head Start program for more than 909,000 low-income preschool children, ages birth to five, including more than 70,000 children under the age of three served through approximately 19,200 Early Head Start centers and 47,000 classrooms;
• HHS coordinate public health efforts in response to multiple widespread disease outbreaks, including the West Nile virus epidemic, the global outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and the first U.S. human cases of Monkeypox;
• Medicare contractors process more than 1 billion Fee-for-Service (FFS) claims, answer numerous inquiries, process appeals, enroll and educate providers, and assist beneficiaries;
• HHS provide more than $240 billion of the more than $387 billion in federal funds awarded to states and other entities in FY 2003;
• HHS partner with the Aging Network, which includes 56 state units on aging, 655 area agencies on aging, 236 Tribal and native organizations representing 300 American Indian/Alaska Native Tribal organizations, and two organizations serving Native Hawaiians, plus thousands of service providers and innumerable caregivers and volunteers; and
• HHS support networks of state and private agencies to provide and improve substance abuse and mental health services.

"This report, and the efforts leading to its clean audit opinion, clearly illustrate HHS' commitment to inform the decisions of policymakers who make critical choices that impact our programs," said HHS Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget, Technology and Finance Kerry Weems. "Our success in producing the report is the direct result of the collaborative efforts and professionalism of our staff across the department."

The FY 2004 PAR also highlights not only the significant Department initiatives undertaken or continued during the year, including Steps to a HealthierUS and "One HHS," but also the prominent accomplishments of each HHS agency. It addresses how the department is supporting such government-wide initiatives as the President's Management Agenda and discusses the top management challenges that HHS faces as identified by the Office of the Inspector General.

The report is on the Web at http://www.hhs.gov/of/library/par04/pdfmenu/.

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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.

Last Revised: December 16, 2004