About OIG
Who We Are
Since its 1976 establishment, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) has been at the forefront of the Nation's efforts to fight waste, fraud and abuse and to improve the efficiency of Medicare, Medicaid and more than 100 other Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) programs. OIG has approximately 1,600 personnel. The majority of the agency’s resources go towards the oversight of Medicare and Medicaid – programs that represent a significant part of the Federal budget and that affect this country’s most vulnerable citizens.
Frequently Asked Questions
The OIG Hotline accepts tips and complaints from all sources about potential fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement in Department of Health and Human Services’ programs. Please submit your complaint via the OIG Hotline online form. If you prefer to contact the Hotline by phone, the telephone number is 1-800-447-8477. For more information about our Hotline, please see our Hotline Webpage.
Most tips fall into the following categories:
- fraud/waste in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants,
- crimes or gross misconduct committed by HHS employees/contractors,
- conflicts of interest on the part of HHS employees,
- cost overruns in HHS programs/initiatives due to mismanagement,
- false applications for HHS contracts/grants,
- failure to provide the services/products for HHS grants/contracts,
- false/fraudulent claims submitted to Medicare/Medicaid,
- kickbacks/inducements for referrals by Medicare/Medicaid providers,
- medical identity theft involving Medicare and/or Medicaid beneficiaries,
- door-to-door solicitation of Medicare/Medicaid beneficiaries,
- misrepresentation of Medicare private plans,
- failure of a hospital to evaluate and stabilize an emergency patient,
- abuse/neglect in nursing homes and other long term care facilities, and
- failure to pay child support (limited to interstate cases).
End of Translation
If your complaint doesn't fall into one of the above categories, consider contacting a different agency's Office of Inspector General. The Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency maintains a list of all Federal agency OIG websites here https://www.ignet.gov/content/inspectors-general-directory.
Tips not typically forwarded after OIG review include:
- complaints about HHS policy (Contact the Office of the Secretary).
- allegations by HHS employees of discrimination on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, or sexual preference (contact your agency's Equal Employment Opportunity officer).
- appeals of administrative decisions made by HHS agencies/contractors, including Medicare payment decisions and contract/grant awards (consult the guidelines for the particular program).
- appeals of judicial decisions by State/Federal courts involving HHS programs (contact the court that issued the decision).
- complaints of failure to safeguard medical information, i.e., HIPAA violations (contact the HHS Office for Civil Rights https://www.hhs.gov/ocr/).
- customer service complaints involving HHS employees/contractors (contact management of the relevant agency).
- Social Security disability fraud (contact the Social Security Administration OIG https://oig.ssa.gov/).
- failure to pay child support (intrastate cases) (contact the court that issued the child support order).
- allegations of identity theft unrelated to HHS programs (contact the Federal Trade Commission.)
All final HHS-OIG audit and inspection reports are available on our website.
The OIG updates its List of Excluded Individuals/Entities (LEIE) monthly. Sign up here to receive email notifications when the list is updated.
More information about the Exclusions Program can be found on our website. If you still have any questions about Exclusions, contact the Exclusions Program directly at
HHS, OIG, OI
Exclusions Staff
7175 Security Boulevard, Suite 210
Baltimore, MD 21244
Phone: 410-281-3060
Fax: 410-265-6780
Email: exclusions@oig.hhs.gov
Please contact your regional CMS office. Click here to view the list of CMS Regional Offices.
Sign up here to receive email updates from HHS-OIG.
If you have a question or problem related to a child support enforcement case, please contact your State's child support enforcement office. These offices handle the majority of child support cases and issues, including the day-to-day operations of child support collections.
Please note that even if a case appears to meet the criteria for Federal prosecution, there are many elements that go into the decision to investigate and prosecute such cases at the Federal level. The ultimate decision on whether to prosecute a child support case at the Federal level lies with the Department of Justice. (For more information, please see the U.S. Department of Justice's Citizen's Guide to Federal Law on Child Support Enforcement).