You’ve probably memorized the range of civil monetary penalties that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) can assess in conjunction with settlements under the False Claims Act. That amount has been a minimum of $5,500 to a maximum of $11,000.
Well, get ready to memorize some new numbers.
On Thursday, June 30, 2016 the DOJ published their intent to raise those amounts to a minimum of $10,781 to a maximum of $21,563, almost doubling the previous range. The change was made in accordance with the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 which allows for inflationary adjustments to be made. The rule will become effective August 1, 2016.
Healthcare compliance programs started to become much more common place over 20 years ago when the government began increasing the number of enforcement actions and multi-million and even billion dollar settlements based on fines assessed through the False Claims Act. This inflationary adjustment should serve as a reminder of the stiff financial repercussions that can occur because of a lack of compliance in healthcare.
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