The HHS Office of Inspector General
Summary
HHS's own fraud watchdog ran on $452.4 million and 1,499 people in FY2026 -- and says its work returns $12.70 to the federal government for every dollar it costs, per its own FY2025 accounting.
What is this organization?
What does it do?
In the six months ending March 31, 2026, 's investigators, auditors, and evaluators issued 77 audit and evaluation reports⧉ on programs and closed 881 investigations⧉. Its enforcement work produced 317 criminal actions and 287 civil actions⧉ against health-care fraud, and excluded 1,212 individuals and entities⧉ from billing Medicare, Medicaid, or other federal health programs. 's hotline and web portal fielded 95,776 tips⧉ reporting suspected fraud, waste, or abuse across the more than 100 programs it oversees.
What does it cost to run — money and people?
Congress enacted $452.4 million in FY2026 budget authority⧉ for -- $93.5 million for general oversight of 's other programs plus $358.9 million tied to Medicare and Medicaid antifraud work -- rising to $460.4 million with HCFAC collections and supporting 1,499 full-time staff⧉, up slightly from 1,498 in FY2025. Measured against the Census Bureau's 341.8 million U.S. residents⧉ as of July 2025, that budget authority works out to about $1.32 per person.
View data as table
| HCFAC: Medicare & Medicaid antifraud oversight | 366.9 | 1,206 FTE |
|---|---|---|
| PHHS: general HHS program oversight | 93.5 | 293 FTE |
Why is it good for society?
puts its own return in dollars: in FY2025, for every $1 invested in OIG, its work returned $12.70⧉ to the federal government, rising to $15.20 for Medicare and Medicaid oversight alone⧉ that year. The counterfactual is concrete: the 1,212 people and entities OIG excluded⧉ this period -- many convicted of Medicare or Medicaid fraud -- would otherwise remain free to keep billing federal health programs; without 's audits, the $447.6 million in "funds put to better use" it identified⧉ this period simply keeps being spent as before, unreviewed.
- 's FY2026 enacted budget authority ($452.4M) works out to about $1.32 per U.S. resident -- funding a watchdog that 's own accounting says returned $12.70 per dollar invested in FY2025.
- excluded 1,212 people and entities from federal health programs in just six months (Oct. 2025-Mar. 2026) -- a bar, sometimes for decades, says keeps convicted fraudsters from billing Medicare and Medicaid while it is in effect.
Your handles.* Report suspected fraud, waste, or abuse in programs -- confidentially -- through the OIG Hotline (or call 1-800--TIPS). Before hiring a provider or entering a health-care contract, check the LEIE exclusions database to confirm they haven't been barred from federal health programs. To see new audits, evaluations, and enforcement actions as they post, sign up for OIG email updates.
Sources(5) ▾
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, HHS-OIG FY 2027 Justification of Estimates for Congress (2026-03-30) — 's own FY2027 congressional budget justification -- the All-Purpose Table (p.12) gives the most current dated FY2025 Final / FY2026 Enacted / FY2027 President's Budget summary of 's own budget authority, program level, and staffing, and the Inspector General's cover message states 's FY2025 return-on-investment figure. This entry's budget/ KPIs, PHHS-vs-HCFAC chart, and ROI figure come from here. hhs.gov (parent domain) blocks direct fetch with a 403 (Akamai edge); oig.hhs.gov does not -- fetched directly, sealed via the newsroom's own capture endpoint. oig.hhs.gov · original document
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Spring 2026 Semiannual Report to Congress (OIG-SAR-SPRING-2026) (2026-07-10) — 's statutorily required semiannual report to the Secretary and Congress, covering October 1, 2025-March 31, 2026 -- the source for this entry's workload numbers (reports issued, investigations closed, criminal/civil actions, exclusions, hotline contacts, funds put to better use) and the report's own Introduction states the statutory basis for semiannual reporting. Issued 2026-07-10 per 's newsroom listing. oig.hhs.gov · original document
- Office of the Law Revision Counsel / U.S. Government Publishing Office (govinfo.gov), Inspector General Act of 1978 (Public Law 95-452), compiled current text (COMPS-1012) (2023-02-01) — GPO's official compiled current text of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (as amended through P.L. 117-286) -- Section 10(c)'s footnote documents that the 1978 Act made technical amendments to Public Law 94-505, the 1976 statute that first established an Inspector General at the Department of H.E.W. (-'s direct predecessor), and Section 13 sets the 1978 Act's effective date. This is the statute itself, the strongest available source for the founding-date claim. govinfo.gov · original document
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, About OIG (oig.hhs.gov) (2026-07-16) — 's own 'About / Who We Are' page -- the source for the '1976 establishment' / 'more than 100 programs' identity claim and the statement that the majority of 's resources go toward Medicare and Medicaid oversight, both used in this entry's identity and mechanism sections. oig.hhs.gov · original document
- U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Population Growth Slows Due to Historic Decline in Net International Migration (Vintage 2025 national population estimate) (2026-01-27) — The Census Bureau's own Vintage 2025 national population estimate release, giving the U.S. resident population as of July 1, 2025 -- the per-resident denominator for this entry's cost-per-person KPI, per better_metrics.md's sourced-denominator discipline. Re-verified 2026-07-16 (same document this newsroom sealed for good-citizen-gao); capture reused since it is the identical primary document. census.gov · original document
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- traces to Public Law 94-505⧉, signed October 15, 1976, which created a statutory Inspector General inside the old Department of Health, Education, and Welfare -- says it has been "at the forefront of the Nation's efforts to fight waste, fraud and abuse" across more than 100 HHS programs⧉ ever since. The government-wide Inspector General Act of 1978⧉, effective October 1, 1978, folded the office into the standard structure that survives today: the Inspector General must report semiannually to both the HHS Secretary and Congress⧉ -- oversight that sits inside the department it audits but answers outside it.