HHS and the Justice Department have launched a six-month pilot letting healthcare companies resolve self-disclosed False Claims Act violations through a coordinated civil release.
Five notes for dental leaders:
- Participating companies must disclose all relevant details of the potential violations, provide documents showing the full nature of the conduct and describe the remedial steps they have taken, according to an Oct. 22 news release.
- The release does not single out dentistry but applies to healthcare companies broadly.
- Companies must also repay the government under a protocol that applies a multiplier of 1.25 to 1.6. The multiplier varies based on multiple factors, including the timeliness of the disclosure, the duration and scope of the misconduct, senior leadership involvement, the financial benefit to the company and whether the company promptly remediated misconduct it was liable for as a successor.
- In exchange, participants receive a release from the Justice Department for the disclosed conduct. The HHS Office of Inspector General will not impose an exclusion or require a corporate integrity agreement, CMS will not revoke enrollment or billing privileges, and neither agency will impose civil monetary penalties.
- Companies may submit disclosures electronically until April 22.
