OIG screening is essential for healthcare providers to avoid financial penalties. Additionally, it significantly reduces the chances of reputational and financial damage. The screening process helps you identify whether individuals or entities are involved in illegal or criminal activities. As a result, it offers you the advantage of working with only well-qualified and professional individuals, vendors, and service providers. OIG stands for Office of Inspector General and has the authority to add individuals or entities to the exclusions list OIG.
Individuals or entities that are excluded by OIG are prohibited from participating in federal-funded healthcare programs. These programs include Medicare, Medicaid, and other state-funded healthcare programs. Consequently, the excluded party will not receive any financial aid, items, or services that are state- or federal-funded.
OIG or sanctions screening is the ethical and moral responsibility of every healthcare organization. Therefore, the official recommends that the screening process should be done at least once per month. This is done to ensure that the individuals, vendors, and service providers in the organizations are screened against the latest OIG exclusion list.
Potential Hazards of Working with OIG Excluded Individuals
Organizations are exposed to multiple risks when they work with excluded individuals or entities. The detailed explanation of these risks is given below:
1. Risks of Financial Fraud
OIG excluded individuals or entities (vendors or service providers) are often involved in financial fraud or other kinds of scams. Therefore, working with such individuals exposes healthcare organizations and providers to potential financial fraud.
2. Reputational Damage
Working with excluded individuals or vendors can damage your reputation severely. Being unprofessional and unqualified can also put the party on the Exclusions List OIG. Working with or hiring such people reduces the quality of your services. Consequently, it translates to a bad reputation among the patients.
3. Low-Quality or Delayed Services
Vendors and service providers are responsible for providing essential goods and services to healthcare organizations. Excluded vendors and service providers are associated with delays in delivery and low-quality products and services.
4. CMP, Civil Monetary Penalties and Fines
CMPs or civil monetary penalties are imposed on those organizations and healthcare providers who work with OIG-excluded individuals or entities. The amount of CMPs is $10,000, and the organization may face additional fines depending on the amount of federal-funded services and items used by the excluded party.
The above points emphasize more on the importance of OIG checks and the screening process. Performing accurate and regular compliance screening checks ensures that neither your current employees nor future hires are in the LEIE (list of excluded individuals and entities).
Benefits of Hiring a Trusted Compliance Partner
OIG checks and screening are a continuous process, and the officials suggest that you should perform these checks once every month. This implies that you will have to check your current staff, potential hires, current service providers, the potential service providers. As a result, you will be spending a significant amount of your working hours on the screening process.
Meanwhile, a trusted compliance partner will save your precious working hours and money. With their experience, they can provide you with cost-efficient screening solutions. Having an experienced compliance partner is also necessary for accuracy. Trusted compliance partners like Venops have been providing screening and compliance solutions since 2014. They will help you with a wide range of screening services, including automated and unlimited daily screening. The major benefit is that you will get all these high-quality services within the right price range.
Healthcare organizations can themselves perform OIG or sanction checks. However, they will need to spend their precious working hours, and it also interferes with their workflow. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you partner with a trusted compliance partner for screening purposes.
Conclusion
Screening your employees, staff members, vendors, and service providers against the exclusions list OIG is crucial for healthcare organizations. It saves them from potential financial fraud and significantly increases the treatment quality. Additionally, OIG screening helps you to avoid working with excluded individuals and entities. As per the law, working with such excluded individuals and entities subjects the organization to severe civil monetary penalties and financial fines.
In order to avoid all these risks, you can partner with a trusted compliance and screening service provider like Venops. They will help you with their automated screening and also provide you with other high-quality screening services.
