The Department of Justice (DOJ) has revised its Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations, which govern how federal prosecutors investigate, charge, and prosecute corporate crimes, including health care fraud. A number of the revisions address the area of cooperation credit, including providing that credit for cooperation will not depend on a corporation’s waiver of attorney-client privilege or work product protection, but rather on the disclosure of relevant facts. The guidelines also instruct prosecutors not to consider a corporation’s advancement of attorneys’ fees to employees when evaluating cooperativeness, and specify that the mere participation in a joint defense agreement will not render a corporation ineligible for cooperation credit. Moreover, prosecutors may not consider whether a corporation has sanctioned or retained culpable employees in evaluating whether to assign cooperation credit to the corporation.
Reed Smith’s Health Industry Washington Watch blog has new posts about these guidelines as well as new FDA initiatives; Medicare DMEPOS accreditation requirements; the Medicare Part B drug CAP program; Congressional hearings and markups; OIG and GAO reports; upcoming health care industry events; and other policy developments.
