The regular screening of federal lists for individuals who are ineligible to participate in federal contracts is required of all federal healthcare contractors. The OIG and SAM lists, as they are commonly called, are the primary federal databases that require monthly monitoring. OIG and SAM checks and verification on a monthly basis is the only way to assure that excluded parties are not on your payroll.

As an organization that monitors these lists hourly for many organizations, Streamline Verify is an expert on the are exclusion data found in the federal databases. Streamline Verify recently discovered data in the General Service Administration’s (GSA’s) SAM.gov list of suspended and debarred entities that raised questions the accuracy of the database. The issue we uncovered is likely to create confusion for other users of the database.

While performing a routine SAM.gov screening, Streamline Verify found what appeared to be questionable data that first appeared in the 7/30/2021 SAM.gov file.

Below is a partial screenshot of the data found:  

When Streamline Verify cross-verified the listed individuals to other federal lists, we discovered that 16 have NPI records that match to real people. In addition, each individual is also excluded in OIG’s List of Excluded Individuals/Entities (LEIE) and other exclusion databases. Through the years Streamline Verify has developed open channels with the GSA and other relevant federal agencies, so when our team reached out to the GSA with concerns about the SAM.gov search results, we were immediately informed that these records were accurate. We were later updated that the GSA, upon further consideration, has escalated the finding for further investigation.

We do not know that outcome of the GSA investigation into what appears to be the inclusion of questionable data in SAM.gov. However, we wanted to alert the health care industry about the issue. When we learn the results of the GSA review, we will update this Alert.