Nursing Facilities & Kickbacks – Is the DOJ Shifting Away from Pharma?

DOJ may have a new focus for Anti-Kickback Statute violations: care facilities and their owners. This year alone, at least two high-profile cases have emerged where a care facility wound up in high-profile enforcement actions involving antikickback violations. This article examines the cases and explores why life science compliance professionals should pay attention to them.

For many years now, the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has focused its anti-kickback attention on the pharmaceutical industry. We have seen scores of enforcement actions targeting salespeople paying kickbacks to physicians in exchange for prescribing specific drugs, and executives charged for allegedly overseeing improper medical device promotion practices within their company. However, recently, the DOJ has recently started branching out. Now the DOJ is applying the anti-kickback laws in earnest to long-term care facility owners.

Read the full article in the January 2017 issue of Life Science Compliance Update.