AHLA Annual Meeting: The Government’s Focus on Individual Accountability: Has it Been a Game Changer or Is It Just Business as Usual?

George B. Breen, Chair of the firm's National Health Care and Life Sciences Practice Steering Committee, will co-present "The Government’s Focus on Individual Accountability: Has it Been a Game Changer or Is It Just Business as Usual?" at the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) Annual Meeting, with Robert DeConti, Assistant Inspector General for Legal Affairs - Office of Counsel to the Inspector General (OCIG), and Jeffrey W. Dickstein of Phillips & Cohen.

Mr. Breen will present at the following times:

• Tuesday, June 27, 11:00am - 12:15pm
• Wednesday, June 28, 8:00am - 9:15am

Reports suggest that there has never been a greater enforcement effort made to hold individuals accountable for alleged corporate wrongdoing. Late last year, the Department of Justice issued new guidance - known as the "Yates Memo"- which provides 6 specific criteria designed to guide prospective enforcement in this area. One year later, we have seen FCA settlements with a former hospital CEO, a nursing home CFO and even a member of the Board of Directors of a health care organization.

The Office of Inspector General has made plain its intent to place more emphasis - and resources - towards the pursuit of individuals for exclusion and violation of the CMP laws. One year ago it created a new Affirmative Litigation Team to pursue such cases; earlier this year, OIG released revised guidance describing how it will use its permissive exclusion authority.

Have these enforcement efforts changed the landscape for healthcare entities? In this session, featuring Government, Defense and Relator counsel, we will consider such questions as:

• How should corporate entities now respond to investigations in light of the government's focus on individuals - including company executives and board members?
• With more resources devoted to exclusion and CMP enforcement efforts, are individual employees now more at risk than ever?
• How has this enforcement effort impacted relators? Should more qui tam cases naming individuals be expected?
• How - and when - does this effort impact a company's defense? Has it already impacted corporate resolutions?
• Are there now different compliance obligations which arise from a focus on individuals? How is the corporate compliance program impacted here?

For more information, please visit HealthLawyers.org.