Rather than targeting corporations, federal enforcers are beginning to narrow their focus on individual executives in the fight against healthcare fraud, according to a Boston Globe report.
In addition to fines paid by companies, senior executives can face criminal charges even if they weren't involved in the fraudulent scheme but could have prevented it had they known. Federal enforcers say they grew frustrated with repeated violations and decided to resort to enforcement tools that have been less common in the past.
"To our way of thinking, the men and women in the corporate suite aren't getting it," Lewis Morris, chief counsel for the inspector general of the Health and Human Services Department, said in the report. "If writing a check for $200 million isn't enough to have a company change its ways, then maybe we have got to have the individuals who are responsible for this held accountable. The behavior of a company starts at the top."
Government and corporate attorneys are attributing this shift in enforcement style to investigators and lawyers at the HHS inspector general's office, the Department of Justice and the Food and Drug Administration, but not so much the Obama administration, according to the report.
Read the Boston Globe report on healthcare fraud and executives.
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In addition to fines paid by companies, senior executives can face criminal charges even if they weren't involved in the fraudulent scheme but could have prevented it had they known. Federal enforcers say they grew frustrated with repeated violations and decided to resort to enforcement tools that have been less common in the past.
"To our way of thinking, the men and women in the corporate suite aren't getting it," Lewis Morris, chief counsel for the inspector general of the Health and Human Services Department, said in the report. "If writing a check for $200 million isn't enough to have a company change its ways, then maybe we have got to have the individuals who are responsible for this held accountable. The behavior of a company starts at the top."
Government and corporate attorneys are attributing this shift in enforcement style to investigators and lawyers at the HHS inspector general's office, the Department of Justice and the Food and Drug Administration, but not so much the Obama administration, according to the report.
Read the Boston Globe report on healthcare fraud and executives.
Related Articles on Healthcare Fraud:
10 Recent Stark, False Claims and Kickback Lawsuits Involving Hospitals and Health Systems
12 Fraud and False Claims Cases Involving Physicians
5 Recent Fraud Cases Involving Healthcare CEOs