Working in collaboration with OWCP and the Postal Service's Office of Inspector General, the Duplicate Medical Bill Review project was initially launched in June to one of the OWCP districts to identify and recover medical overpayments made to providers. This project will be rolled out to all of the 12 OWCP district offices by early 2006. The Postal Service also has contractual agreements with several corporations that have resulted in $4 million in direct savings and significant cost avoidance to help reduce workers' compensation costs.

OWCP credits monies recovered from pursuit of third party claims and overpayments to the Postal Service chargeback. Ongoing efforts with the Credit Recovery program attained in 2005 totaled $41 million which surpassed the recovery goal of $29 million.

L. WORKERS’ COMPENSATION FRAUD

Once postal inspectors or the Office of Inspector General (OIG) identify fraud in the Workers' Compensation Program, they then seek a resolution. The resolution may be an arrest, removal from duty, job suspension, withdrawal of a claim by the claimant, or the reduction or discontinuance of an employee's compensation benefits (as determined by the Department of Labor). Postal inspectors and the OIG also search for and identify fraud during the period that injured workers are receiving continuation of pay (COP) from the Postal Service before progressing to the Department of Labor's compensation rolls.

In 2005 investigations by the Inspection Service and the Office of the Inspector General identified 969 individuals alleged to have defrauded the workers' compensation program, resulting in long term cost avoidance and COP savings of $259 million. The Inspection Service and Office of the Inspector General for the Postal Service partnered on 134 of these identifications, which resulted in more than $17.6 million in avoided Postal Service compensation costs.

Statistics of these investigations are listed in Table 1-3.

Notes: "Front-end" refers to fraudulent workers' compensation claims which terminate as a result of Inspection Service investigation prior to involvement by the Office of Personnel Management. Long-term cost avoidance is calculated based on an actuarial lifetime.

M. HOMELAND SECURITY/EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

1. BIOHAZARD DETECTION SYSTEM AND RELATED PROGRAMS

The main purpose of the Biohazard Detection System (BDS) is to provide an early warning of a potential threat of a biohazard, allowing an immediate evacuation and containment response and reducing the risk of exposure to Postal Service employees and the general public.

In support of BDS deployment, the Postal Service conducted 275 training sessions for more than 6,500 employees. Incident Management Training was provided to 1,500 employees to better prepare them to respond to all categories of incidents. Additionally, 200 managers were trained in the use of the Postal Emergency Management System, an important tool that facilitates communication in all phases of emergency management. To date 216 postal inspectors have been certified and equipped as Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response technicians able to respond to and conduct BDS crime-scene investigations. Familiarity training was made available to all postal inspectors on chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive response.

The Postal Service continues to develop relationships with each state's Office of Emergency Management and local first responders. An aggressive outreach campaign was conducted to help federal, state, and local emergency responders better understand the Postal Service and its evolving role in managing the consequences associated with acts of terrorism, natural or manmade, biological and chemical disasters. Currently, Postal Service groups and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies serve on a multiphase project to assess potential terrorist acts that employ chemical, biological, radiological, or explosives threats against the Postal Service.

The Postal Service also participated in national emergency communications tests as part of the Continuity of Operations Plan to ensure that viable communications will exist between the Postal Service and other federal agencies in the event of an emergency. During 2005, 80 field test screening units, 37 response vehicles, and 18 mobile command centers were deployed throughout the country to enhance response time. Several of the response vehicles and mobile command centers have been integral to response efforts for this year's hurricanes.

Currently, postal inspectors serve as liaisons with three federal agencies (CIA, FBI, and DHS) to collect intelligence on threats that could affect the Postal Service, and enable other agencies to work with the Postal Service in developing and analyzing threat information as part of a comprehensive, risk-management program. The Inspection Service completed a comprehensive threat and vulnerability risk assessment.