The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) maintains the List of Excluded Individuals/Entities. This database provides information to the health care industry, patients and the public regarding individuals and entities currently excluded from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and all Federal health care programs (People who committed fraud). Individuals on the list cannot work for your organization (assuming you are licensed Medicare/Medicaid).
It is the requirement of your organization, in any state, to check all potential employees against this list before they are hired. There is no cost, it is web-based, and provides an instant result.
1. Visit http://exclusions.oig.hhs.gov/
2. Enter the Last, First Name of the applicant
3. Print the page for your records that says:
"No results were found for Maupin, Matthew;
Search conducted 3/20/2007 9:19:29 PM EST on OIG LEIE Exclusions database.
Source data updated on 3/6/2007 3:48:02 PM EST"
You can enter up to five names at once. The OIG says that you should conduct this search not just on new hires but all current employees every six months. In addition, volunteers and contracted service providers must be checked.
This is a process that many operators are not aware of. What's the penalty? If you employ someone on the list, the OIG is likely to discover this via financial record audits they perform up to five years after the employment. An OIG official may visit your facility to conduct an investigation. Fines for this infraction can be tens of thousands of dollars to your facility. At a minimum, you will incur a $10,000 fee plus wages that were paid to the excluded employee.
Click here to read the Advisory Bulletin from the OIG.
Go back right now and run all employees if you have not been doing so. If you don't, and you continue to employ someone on the Exclusion List, then a year from now you may end up paying a hefty Civil Monetary Penalty.
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