Looks like the OIG means business.

Over the course of the past 13 days, over $250,000 in fines have been meted out due to the alleged employment of excluded individuals.  The first involved a Minnesota pharmacist who owned and managed a pharmacy that participated in Federal health care programs while he was excluded from participating in these programs.  The second involved an Alabama hospital which employed an individual who was excluded from participating in any Federal health care programs.  And the third involved a group home in Arizona, which had employed a nurse who has been excluded from participation in Federal health care programs.

Three different states; three different types of providers; three different fields of employment.

All nailed under the same exclusion mandate.

Points to ponder:

• The excluded individual at the Alabama facility was identified through ‘a data analysis project initiated by the OIG’s Office of Evaluation and Inspections’.  The OIG post and website make no mention of when, how, and why this data analysis project was launched; nor of how extensive it is, and which providers are earmarked for future data analyses.
• Penalties extended across several states and types of facilities; nobody appears to be immune.

Employers take note.