The GAO has issued a report entitled “Medicare Program Integrity: CMS Continues Efforts to Strengthen the Screening of Providers and Suppliers.” The GAO describes how CMS and its contractors use provider and supplier enrollment information to prevent improper payments, along with factors that may affect the usefulness of this information. The report also provides an update on CMS’s progress in implementing new provider and supplier enrollment screening procedures mandated by the ACA. For instance, CMS informed the GAO that it plans to contract with two Federal Bureau of Investigation-approved contractors to conduct fingerprint-based criminal background checks of high-risk providers and suppliers by the end of 2012. CMS also plans to extend the surety bond requirement to high-risk providers and suppliers beyond DMEPOS suppliers (potentially impacting home health agencies, independent diagnostic testing facilities, and outpatient rehabilitation facilities). The GAO also reports that CMS has charged a new automated screening contractor with, among other things, identifying additional data sources for screening checks (e.g., financial, tax, and business data sources). CMS also contracted with a site visit contractor to perform nationwide physical site visits for all providers and suppliers, except DMEPOS suppliers, in the moderate- and high-risk screening categories.