Legislation and Compliance Update: New Guidance from Office of Inspector General on permissive exclusion authority

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released a new guidance on the implementation of its permissive exclusion authority. This new guidance outlines four factors that will be considered when determining whether to exclude an individual.

These are:

1. the circumstances of the misconduct and the seriousness of the offense;
2. the individual’s role in the sanctioned entity;
3. the individual’s actions in response to the misconduct;
4. and information about the entity.

This Guidance allows for entities, their owners, officers and managing employees to reinforce their defensibility from potential OIG enforcement exposures as part of employment backgroundscreening processes.