The Department of Justice is on pace to hand out a record $5.6 billion-plus in total fines and penalties under the False Claims Act this year, a clear indicator that the agency has removed the kid gloves as the pandemic has started to wane, legal experts said.
There are ways, however, that long-term care providers can take steps to stay out of DOJ crosshairs, they emphasized.
The DOJ is headed well above last year’s $5.4 billion in FCA fines and penalties and should eclipse the record of $5.6 billion set in 2014, according to Michael Volkov of The Volkov Law Group.
“The pandemic, the whole country’s in crisis, all healthcare workers are heroes … that’s all over in the government perspective,” Matt Murer, Healthcare, Public Policy and Government Investigations Department Chair for Polsinelli, told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Nov. 18.
“The government went out of their way to accommodate healthcare providers under the public health emergency. You saw really scaled back enforcement in surveys, really scaled back enforcement as far as DOJ investigations, but that’s all over. Even though the public health emergency is still in place, providers have already felt in their annual complaint surveys that the state surveyors are taking a harder line.”
The best way to mitigate risk and protect one’s group against enforcement actions is to cultivate a “culture of compliance,” Alison Schurick with BakerDonelson told McKnight’s.
“Healthcare organizations should assess, and, where...
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