OFCCP Audit Jurisdiction Expanding to Hospitals and Health Care Systems

All health care executives should be aware of the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs' (OFCCP) recent aggressive efforts to dramatically broaden the definition of "federal contractor." OFCCP is pursuing several different theories against hospitals and medical service providers in a growing effort to assert government contractor status over these entities when they are inadvertently selected for an audit. Although Medicare Parts A and B reimbursement absolutely will not subject a hospital to OFCCP coverage, OFCCP has reserved the right to assert coverage based on Medicare Parts C or D. OFCCP also now asserts that:

• Contracts with HMOs that, in turn, contract with the federal government to provide medical services to federal employees and their beneficiaries, are covered subcontracts.
• The Department of Defense's TriCare program (formerly Champus), has three regional program managers; hospitals and medical institutions that have signed onto those three networks as participating providers, and who receive more than $50,000 in reimbursement annually, are covered subcontractors.
• A "covered contract" includes a Federal Prison System purchase order to pay for more than $50K in emergency heart care to one (1) federal prisoner.

It is critical that hospital counsel and top-level human resource executives understand fully the background of these scenarios, OFCCP's legal theories, and the consequences if OFCCP is successful in expanding its jurisdictional reach.

Littler Mendelson's Health Care and OFCCP Practice Groups are combining to present a 60-minute complimentary web seminar, with 45 minutes of content and 15 minutes of live audio questions.

If your health care organization is definitely a direct federal contractor, this web seminar is not geared for you. It is aimed at hospitals and medical institutions that believe they are not government contractors, and their respective trade associations and federal lobbyists.

To identify whether you have direct federal contracts prior to deciding to register for the web seminar, go to:

www.usaspending.gov or
www.fedspending.org or
www.fpds.gov/fpdsng_cms/

July 27, 2010
10:00 am Pacific Time
11:00 am Mountain Time
12:00 pm Central Time
1:00 pm Eastern Time

Login information will be sent two days prior to the webinar. For questions, please contact Keith Upton at 415.399.8450 or kupton@littler.com.