On January 12, 2017, just a week prior to President Trump’s Inauguration, the Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) published a final Rule (Rule) regarding one of its most important enforcement mechanisms: its exclusion authority. The Rule, published nearly three years after it was initially proposed by the OIG back in May 2014, expands the OIG’s authority to exclude individuals and entities participation in federal healthcare programs and codifies certain provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Rule’s original effective date was February 13, 2017, but due to the Trump Administration’s administrative freeze on the effective date of regulations that had not yet gone as of January 20, 2017, the Rule’s effective date is now set for March 21, 2017.
Continue Reading New OIG Exclusion Authority Rule Set To Go Into Effect on March 21, 2017