Recent Developments in OIG Exclusion: Health Care Corporate Executives in the Crosshairs

Earlier this month, Arent Fox attorney David S. Greenberg published an article in Bloomberg BNA’s Pharmaceutical Law & Industry Report that provides an overview of important trends at the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services (OIG) that have made health care executives a target of the government.

The chief counsel for OIG, Gregory Demske, has warned that corporate executives remain firmly on OIG’s exclusion radar when their companies are the focus of a criminal investigation: “(W)e have decided we should at least consider exclusion of executives at that company, who were in a position of responsibility at the time the crimes occurred.”

One of the most powerful tools in the government’s health fraud enforcement arsenal is the ability to exclude entities and individuals from participation in federal health care programs. The article discusses the threat of permissive and mandatory OIG exclusion for corporate owners and officers, citing specific recent examples, and lays out the practical implications of the OIG’s increased focus on corporate office exclusion.

To read the article, click here.

If you have any questions about issues raised in the article, please get in touch with David S. Greenberg.