Employers must check its employees, contractors and vendors to see if an individual or organization is excluded from participating in federal and/or state programs. While there are a variety of exclusion programs at the federal and state level affecting individuals, entities, contractors and others related and unrelated to healthcare services, this post will address exclusion by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (the “OIG”), a well-known entity that excludes individuals or entities from participation in federal healthcare programs. 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7.

On April 11, 2024, a jury convicted Northern Kentucky Center for Pain Clinic owner Dr. Timothy Ehn (who was not a medical doctor) and medical director, Dr. William Lawrence Seifert, for their roles in a scheme that defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and commercial insurance companies of over $4 million for medically unnecessary urine drug testing.