The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services identifies the underlying purpose of its exclusion authority as to protect federal health care programs and their beneficiaries from “untrustworthy health care providers, i.e., individuals and entities who pose a risk to program beneficiaries or the integrity of these programs.” The OIG now has published a new proposed rule that would greatly expand the bases upon which it could affirmatively exclude an individual or entity from participation in federal health care programs, and Reed Smith lawyers Carol Loepere, Elizabeth Carder-Thompson, Scot Hasselman, Katie Hurley, and Erin Atkins have prepared a full summary of this proposed rule.
In particular, this summary examines the OIG’s position that there should be no statute of limitations applicable to when it may seek exclusion, because limitless look-back authority could place a tremendous burden on providers and suppliers if their conduct and compliance efforts are second-guessed many years into the future, when supporting documentation and witnesses are long gone. The proposed rule also revises relevant definitions, provides new grounds for exclusion, proposes procedures for early reinstatement, among other things, and is a by-product of provisions of the Affordable Care Act, which expanded the OIG’s exclusion authority and allowed for testimonial subpoenas in investigations of exclusion cases.
