On May 9, 2014, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a proposed rule that would significantly expand the exclusion regulations applicable to persons or entities that receive, directly or indirectly, funds from federal health care programs (the Proposed Rule). The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded the OIG’s authority for exclusion and authorized the use of testimonial subpoenas in investigations of exclusion cases. In this Proposed Rule, the OIG incorporates these statutory changes, revises the definitions applicable to exclusions, proposes early reinstatement procedures, and offers a number of proposed policy changes as to when and how exclusions may take place.

This Client Alert provides an overview of the Proposed Rule, including:

• The proposed revisions in the definitions
• The three new grounds for exclusion
• Clarifications to existing regulations to add mitigating and aggravating factors
• The proposed early reinstatement procedures
• Proposed procedural changes in the OIG’s exclusion authorities

In particular, we discuss the OIG’s assertion that there should be no statute of limitations within which it would have to seek exclusion. This limitless look-back authority could place a tremendous burden on providers and suppliers, since their conduct and compliance efforts could be second-guessed many years into the future, when supporting documentation and witnesses may be long gone. We also discuss how these proposed changes to the OIG’s exclusion authorities could impact the debarment authority applicable to government contracts more generally.

Download the .PDF to read the full Client Alert.

Client Alert 2014-137