How to handle penalties against non-compliant partners

You cannot effectively impose penalties against non-compliant partners without clear provisions for punitive action. Our experts, thus, urge providing for sanctions, and specifically for monetary penalties, within your group documents.

Ask your attorney if your present contracts permit assessing penalties for non-compliant behavior. If they do, undertake partner-level adoption of a specific penalty system. Among other reasons, just doing so (and following it whenever necessary) helps prove the group's intent to carry out an effective Medicare compliance program, possibly mitigating any fines in case of audit.

These days, effective groups' documents should specifically address performance expectations and permit penalizing for failure to meet them. You are better served to improve your legal structure before a problem arises than to find yourself hamstrung when you need to act.