About HHS

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) promotes the economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and integrity of HHS programs, as well as the health and welfare of the people they serve. Our work provides objective oversight for HHS’s over $1 trillion portfolio of health and human services programs that touch the lives of virtually all Americans. We are trusted guardians, relied upon by taxpayers, HHS officials, and policymakers to ferret out fraud, waste, and abuse and to recommend sound improvements to program operations. We do this with data-driven reviews and investigations, supported with modern auditing, investigative, and evaluative methods. In all we do, we strive to be impactful, innovative, and people-focused.

The challenge

How can we promote public health and safety through technology?

HHS-OIG supports a dynamic mission. HHS OIG’s priorities range from safeguarding the Medicare trust funds to combatting cybersecurity threats to protecting beneficiaries from prescription drug abuse, including opioids. Currently, at the forefront of this oversight work is promoting public health and safety in response to the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To support these priorities, HHS OIG is making investments in data analytics, technology, expertise, and training to promote secure and effective use of data and technology (see HHS OIG 2020-2025 Strategic Plan).

Specifically, the Office of the Chief Data Officer (CDO) and the Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) are partnering to mature OIG’s use of cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and advanced data analytics capabilities to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse, enhance decision making, and optimize OIG processes. As part of this effort, the Office of the CDO/CIO is seeking one Presidential Innovation Fellow to work on the following challenges:

• Maturing OIG’s Hybrid-Cloud Architecture and Governance: OIG’s IT infrastructure supports a diverse array of functions and large data sets across a widely disbursed geographic area. HHS-OIG has made strategic investments in cloud computing and network modernization. This includes investments in migrating OIG’s legacy applications to the cloud as well as developing OIG’s Integrated Data Platform (IDP), which provides key analytical capabilities to enable our staff to apply advanced analysis and logic-based techniques, including machine learning (ML), to a large amount of data. As we continue to migrate applications and large data sets such as Medicare, Medicaid, and grants data, we are seeking expertise to help optimize our hybrid-cloud infrastructure and governance process to enable a secure, cost effective, and modern infrastructure.
• Advancing advanced data analytics and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI): OCDO’s team of highly trained data analysts, scientists, and statisticians partner with OIG investigators, auditors, attorneys, and evaluators to identify HHS’s most significant risks and better target fraud, waste, and abuse. Specifically, OCDO provides a suite of self-service tools, advanced analytics support, and data operations infrastructure that put “data at the fingertips” of OIG staff. HHS OIG is seeking expertise to help advance OIG’s data infrastructure and tools to support text analytics; machine learning, natural language processing, robotics process automation, and predictive analytics; integrate data analytics and AI into OIG’s investigative and oversight business processes; and enable an AI-ready workforce.