Entities that provide goods and services to the federal government, including health care providers and life sciences companies, should take note of the new civil monetary penalty amounts applicable to False Claims Act ("FCA") violations. After much anticipation, the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") issued an interim final rule on June 30, 2016 confirming speculation that the penalty amounts will increase twofold.
The new minimum per-claim penalty amount will increase from $5,500 to $10,781, and the maximum per-claim penalty amount will increase from $11,000 to $21,563. The DOJ penalty increase mirrors the penalty spike announced by the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board ("Railroad Board") in May of this year and discussed in our previous blog post.
The new penalty amounts will take effect August 1, 2016 and will apply to all violations that occurred after November 2, 2015. This November date was the date that Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (the "Act"), which is the legislation that requires federal agencies that handle FCA cases to update their penalty amounts to adjust for inflation.
After this first adjustment, the Act allows DOJ and other federal agencies to make additional annual adjustments to penalty amounts based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPI-U). Guidance on these annual adjustments is slated to be issued by the Office of Management and Budget this December.
If you would like to comment on this interim final rule, you must act quickly as the deadline for comments is August 29, 2016.
This post was written with assistance from Olivia Seraphim, a 2016 Summer Associate at Epstein Becker Green.
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