The CMS is working to implement a rule that would apply False Claims Act penalties to providers that withhold Medicare overpayments for 60 days after they should have figured out the excess payments were received. More than 120 medical societies and interest groups representing virtually all community hospitals in America have lobbied to change the regulation.

George Breen, a healthcare attorney with Epstein Becker & Green, noted in a session on individual executive accountability that the reform law called on the U.S. Sentencing Commission to increase the severity of healthcare fraud penalties by stipulating that the aggregate dollar amount of false claims to government health programs is now considered evidence of the intended loss to the government by the offender.

The reform law also added several new offenses that can get providers and executives excluded from Medicare, including false applications and false statements to the program, as well as violations of the 60-day repayment rule, Breen noted.