GAO Lifeline Report Should Cause Improvements, Not Hysteria, Wireless Lawyer Says

waste, fraud and abuse in the low-income subsidy program are "prevalent" and "everything" has gone wrong (see 1706290037). "No one asserts that the program is perfectly structured or administered. And, where corrections and improvements in the program can be made, they should be made," wrote Frappier. "But there are some significant limitations on the data and analysis in the report of which readers should be aware. Probably most importantly, the report is based on data from 2014, and therefore necessarily takes virtually no account of the many additional safeguards and improvements that have been made." She cited specific FCC efforts to improve Lifeline enrollment verification procedures and "some real difficulties in doing large scale comparisons of data cross multiple databases," as GAO did. "The report notes that the Improper Payments Information Act rate for the Lifeline program was 0.45 percent in 2015. That is quite a low number -- lower than for the E-rate program, which in that same year was 6.33 percent (see the FCC Fiscal Year 2015 Agency Financial Report at p. 88) and much lower than the typical improper payment rates for programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ benefits, etc.," she wrote. "As a result, the appropriate reaction to an improper payment rate of less than one-half of one percent is to use this data to continue to make improvements to the program, not to treat the program as in any sort of crisis calling for an urgent or hysterical response." The National Grange issued a statement Thursday urging continued support for Lifeline. An FCC Wireline Bureau public notice Thursday in docket 11-42 reminded Lifeline providers of their primary responsibility to ensure the eligibility of consumers seeking program support.