WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) and U.S. Representative Charles Boustany Jr., M.D. (R-LA) – both physicians – sent HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius a letter asking serious questions about “ongoing significant weaknesses in HHS’ financial management” outlined in HHS’s FY2012 financial audit.

The Members noted, “many of these issues [had] been discussed every year in Ernst & Young’s audits,” so they found it “perplexing that they are appearing yet again in the 2012 audit report.”

Coburn and Boustany noted HHS’s “increasingly complex duties” related to the full implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and noted “it is vital the Department’s fiscal management systems are sound and orderly.” They asked for HHS’s response to a number of questions, as well as a detailed corrective action plan for the issues the audit identified by July 15, 2013.

The doctors also questioned Secretary Sebelius in 2012 regarding findings from the FY2011 HHS financial audit, and in 2011 regarding findings from the FY2010 audit.