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By Debt Program Division, Debt Management Services

In its continued effort to recover delinquent tax and non-tax debts, the Financial Management Service (FMS), Debt Management Services (DMS) offers Non-Treasury Disbursing Office (NTDO) agencies the ability to collect debts through its NTDO Vendor Payment program. The NTDO process allows for the offset and/or levy of   supplier payments issued by payment disbursing agencies to collect delinquent tax and non-tax debts. Here are two agencies’ stories:

The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS)

CMS began participation in the NTDO Vendor Payment program to fulfill its obligation to levy monies owed to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for tax debts owed by Medicare providers. They underwent a five-month period of extensive testing, involving various scenarios with the electronic exchange of files through Connect:Direct. CMS transitioned into production by phasing in two contractors to serve as “pilots”, meeting the established October 6, 2008 target date for program implementation.

After program startup, additional contractors transitioned into production. FMS now interfaces with a total of 20 CMS contractors utilizing the Healthcare Integrated General Ledger Accounting System (HIGLAS). More contractors will be added in the future, with files processed and returned to CMS on a daily basis. As of May 19, CMS levied $25,718,696.62.

In addition to levying tax debts owed to IRS, legislation was passed in August 2008 that allows CMS to collect non-tax debts by offsetting Medicare payments owed to health care providers. The target date for implementation is FY2010.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) 

FMS has been working with USPS to bring their NTDO vendor payments into the Treasury Offset Program. A Service Level Agreement between FMS and USPS was entered into and signed by the Assistant Commissioner of DMS on December 3, 2008. In early 2009, USPS’ s system requirements, design, and development began.

Currently, the Debt Program Support Branch is conducting various tests of the batch file process with USPS and its contractor staff in support of this effort. FMS expects to complete the Customer Acceptance Test phase of the project plan and have USPS fully participating in the NTDO program by June 30, 2009.

Other agencies currently participating in the NTDO Vendor program include the Army Corps of Engineers and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service.

For further information regarding the NTDO Vendor program, please contact Debt Management Services, Debt Program Relations Branch on (202) 874-0540.

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