Federal Drive interviews – Sept. 25

On the Federal Drive show blog, you can listen to the interviews, find more information about the guests on the show each day and links to additional resources.

This is the Federal Drive show blog. Here you can listen to the interviews, find more information about the guests on the show each day and links to additional resources.

Today’s guests:

Jason WilsonAnalyst, Bloomberg Government

Federal agencies strapped for cash are using data analytics for everything from helping homeless veterans to catching Medicare fraudsters and crafting program budgets. But is it really a money-saving approach? Bloomberg Government analyst Jason Wilson estimates the government is spending $3 billion dollars a year on data analytics. He gives Federal News Radio a preview of his reporting and explains where this money is going. You can read his story Wednesday at bgov.com.


Joe Petrillo Procurement attorney, Petrillo and Powell

Past performance is considered a reliable measure of how well contractors will do in new business. But individual agencies and contractor officers don’t rate a given contractor the same way. To make performance ratings more reliable, the Federal Acquisition Regulation Council is proposing a more standardized grading system across government. In today’s Legal Loop, attorney Joe Petrillo of Petrillo and Powell explains how the federal government can grade vendors. A proposal to use the same evaluation system is now posted in the federal register.


Captain John SpicerHead, Performance-Based Logistics Program Office, Defense Logistics Agency

The Defense Logistics Agency is expanding a new buying model that it says could save the Defense Department up to 20 percent a year. And that is without cutting contractors’ profits. It’s called performance-based logistics, a concept that some portions of the military have used since the 1990s. But now the DLA plans to expand the model across the Defense Department. Captain John Spicer is the head of the performance-based logistics department at the Defense Logistics Agency. He shares what the department does and the savings accrued.


Daria O’ReillyFaculty Director, Field Evaluation & Economic Assessment Program, Programs for Technology in Health (PATH) Research Institute at McMaster University

A cornerstone of the Obama administration’s approach to health care reform might be based on incomplete information. The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act included billions of dollars for health care providers to buy and install electronic health records. The thinking was, paperwork is inefficient, so e-health records will cut medical costs. But a new study of e-health record literature shines doubt on that theory. Daria O’Reilly, an assistant professor and medical economist at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, discusses the results of the study.

Read related stories:
Obama administration warns hospitals on fraud (Federal News Radio)

A Major Glitch for Digitized Health-Care Records (Wall Street Journal – pay site)


David MaurerDirector for Homeland Security and Justice Issues, GAO

Federal prisons are growing more crowded. And while they’ve largely escaped the violence and problems that has come with overcrowding at state prisons, corrections officers are raising alarm bells. And the guards are using a new Government Accountability Office report to call for changes. David Maurer wrote the report and he describes conditions at the nation’s federal prisons and what options are available to reduce the inmate population.


Also on the show:

Senators call for bipartisan push to prevent sequestration

Obama administration warns hospitals on fraud

What would a second term for President Obama mean for feds?

Congress seeks more guidance about WARN Act notices

Cybersecurity Update:

DoD Report:

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