SubscribeAttendees at the Health Care Compliance Association’s Health Care Enforcement Compliance Institute are reporting that, Michael Granston, Director, Civil Frauds, Commercial Litigation Branch of the Civil Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ), announced a significant shift in policy for the DOJ in dealing with False Claims Act (FCA) complaints that are deemed “frivolous” on the merits. Acknowledging the burden on the resources of all parties caused by the litigation of frivolous FCA matters, Mr. Granston reportedly stated that, going forward, once it has determined that the allegations of a qui tam complaint lack merit, the DOJ will more aggressively exercise its discretion to move to dismiss the case rather than leave to the qui tam relator in every instance the option of whether to continue the litigation. Senior management—including boards of directors, in-house corporate counsel and chief compliance officers—should take notice of this new, potentially meaningful, opportunity to extricate FCA defendants from burdensome qui tams pursued by relators purely for settlement value. (more…)
Health Care Compliance Association
How to Use the New OIG-HCCA Compliance Resource Guide in Your Compliance Program
Released on March 27, 2017, the Compliance Program Resource Guide (Resource Guide), jointly prepared by the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) reflects the result of a “roundtable” meeting on January 17, 2017, of OIG staff and compliance professionals “to discuss ways to measure the effectiveness of compliance programs.” The resulting Resource Guide document catalogues the roundtable’s brainstorming discussions to “…provide a large number of ideas for measuring the various elements of a compliance program…to give health care organizations as many ideas as possible, to be broad enough to help any type of organization, and let the organization choose which ones best suit its needs.”
Here are a few main takeaways from the Resource Guide:
- Ideas for Auditing: The Resource Guide contributes to the critical conversation about how to evaluate compliance program effectiveness by listing additional ideas on what to audit and how to audit those areas. The items listed in the Resource Guide generally center on ideas on auditing and monitoring compliance program elements, such as periodically reviewing training and policies and procedures to ensure that they are up-to-date, understandable to staff and accurately reflect the business process as performed in practice. Legal and compliance can use this document to identify those particular elements that may be most applicable to their individual organization.
Organizations would also benefit from considering the questions listed in the new compliance program guidance issued in February by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, “Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs” (DOJ Guidance), as part of examining compliance program effectiveness. (We covered the DOJ Guidance previously.) Health care organizations may also use the various provider-specific compliance program guidance documents created by OIG over the years as another source for ideas on what to measure.
- Not a Mandate: The Resource Guide is very clear that it is not intended to be a “best practice”, a template, or a “‘checklist’ to be applied wholesale to assess a compliance program.” This clarification is an important one since there is the potential for the Resource Guide to be (incorrectly) viewed by qui tam relators or others as creating de facto compliance program requirements or OIG recommendations.
- How to Measure: The Resource Guide does not delve into how or who should undertake or contribute to the effectiveness review. Who conducts the review is a question that may have legal significance given the nature of a particular issue. General counsel and the chief compliance officer should consider this issue as part of the organization’s ongoing compliance program review. It may be valuable to include the organization’s regular outside white collar counsel to comment on such critical, relevant legal considerations as the proper conduct of an internal investigation; preserving the attorney-client privilege in appropriate situations; coordinating communications between legal, compliance and internal audit personnel; and applying “lessons learned” from the practices of qui tam relators and their counsel. Outside consultants may [...]
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New Board Compliance Guidance Prompts General Counsel Focus
Health care general counsel should review and brief their internal clients on the new Practical Guidance for Health Care Governing Boards on Compliance Oversight (Guidance), released on April 20, 2015. A joint effort by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Association of Healthcare Internal Auditors, the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) and the Health Care Compliance Association, the Guidance is a useful and timely resource for both the general counsel and the board.
While the Guidance does not break new ground, it updates and condenses prior publications, addressing such important compliance program considerations as:
(1) The definition of the interrelationship between, and the roles of, the organization’s audit, compliance and legal functions;
(2) Mechanisms for effective and appropriate reporting of compliance issues within an organization;
(3) Methods for identifying regulatory risks; and
(4) Means of encouraging accountability for achievement of compliance goals and objectives throughout the organization.
For a detailed analysis of the Guidance, please read “New Board Compliance Guidance Prompts General Counsel Focus.”
By McDermott’s Health Regulatory Compliance Developments Team: Michael Peregrine, Bernadette Broccolo, Joshua T. Buchman, Tony Maida, Kelsey Leingang and Laura McLane
