Compliance is an issue that you should look at as an expedition rather than an endpoint. Board complaints can be a terrifying ordeal, especially if you don’t keep up on compliance in your clinic. Board complaints are something that you have to expect to happen but you can turn that negative into something positive. It’s a chance to look in your clinic and find out how it operates in regards to compliance and make improvements. These are changes that can be executed right away and can improve your practice.

One of the many parts of the compliance program is to see if your current staff (including yourself, regular staff and associate doctors) have been placed on the OIG (Office of the Inspector General) List of Excluded Individuals and Entities (LEIE).

OIG has the authority to exclude individuals and entities from federally funded health care programs and maintains a list (List of Excluded Individuals and Entities (LEIE)) of all currently excluded individuals and entities. Anyone who hires an individual or entity on the LEIE may be subject to monetary penalties.

It’s as simple as 1…2…3...

1.Go to http://exclusions.oig.hhs.gov/ 

Click on Search for multiple individuals

2. Type in staff’s name

If a name contains punctuation, you must include the punctuation in your search text. For example, if you are searching for the name "O'Connor," you must include the apostrophe. An individual with a hyphenated name should be checked under each of the last names in the hyphenated name (e.g., Jane Smith-Jones should be checked under Jane Smith and Jane Jones, in addition to Jane Smith-Jones).

3. Print off the Sheet and place it in your compliance manual 

To avoid liability, it is recommended to routinely check (every 3 months) the LEIE to ensure that new hires and current employees are not on the excluded list.

Thanks to Dr. Chris Anderson for this article.