FCC Circulates Proposed Order and FNPRM to Curb Lifeline Waste, Fraud and Abuse
The FCC circulated a proposed "administrative clean-up" order and Further NPRM to address "serious and persistent" problems with waste, fraud and abuse in the Lifeline program, said agency officials Monday. If adopted, the new order would prohibit participating carriers from enrolling subscribers unless a national verifier database identifies the customer as living or the customer produces documentation demonstrating both identity and status as living. It would also prohibit telecom carriers from paying commissions to employees or sales agents based on the number of consumers who apply for Lifeline, and would require employees and sales agents to register with the Universal Service Administrative Co. before accessing any program databases.
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The FNPRM would seek comment on the best goals and metrics to modernize the Lifeline program and what new requirements are needed to help eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in the program.
USAC will continue to roll out its Lifeline national verifier program, with plans to expand it nationally by year-end, FCC officials said (see 1907080009). The new proposals are meant to eliminate registering duplicate customers using variations on the spelling of a subscriber's name, fake accounts at nonexistent addresses, and as new subscribers persons who died before registration. Under existing rules, USAC relies on a Social Security master death index to de-enroll customers as they die, but that leaves the possibility of administrative error. Now the FCC wants USAC to verify a potential subscriber as living during enrollment by checking the same Social Security index and, in event of a clerical error, allow a subscriber to submit evidence such as a current driver's license. That change would require a vote by the commissioners, officials said.
The duplicate subscriber problem typically comes from a single carrier attempting to register the same person multiple times rather than a customer seeking Lifeline benefits from multiple carriers, FCC officials said. The agency cited spreadsheets during carrier audits with as many as 40 variants of a single subscriber's name.
The new order would give carriers more flexibility in the identifying information it collects from employees who interact with USAC databases. Some carriers met with the FCC to raise privacy concerns in docket 17-287 about a proposal that would require employees to provide the last four digits of their Social Security numbers to register subscribers in the program (see 1907240056). The FCC is trying to balance those concerns against the need to reduce waste, fraud and abuse, officials said, suggesting it may allow other information such as driver's license numbers instead.
The proposed order also seeks to clarify the states' role in the Lifeline program and would return states' primacy over the eligible telecommunications carrier designation process.
The proposals that went on circulation Monday don't address other Lifeline questions, such as whether the USF would set an overall USF budget cap (see 1907300005), Lifeline support should exclude wireless resellers from the program (see 1809200018), subscribers should pay a minimum contribution to the service cost (see 1703210045) or minimum service standards set to take effect Dec. 1 should be delayed (see 1908160048).