Life sciences organizations are subject to numerous legal and regulatory requirements, including an obligation to screen the healthcare professionals and organizations (HCP/Os) that they contract and engage with to ensure they are not caught off guard by any infractions that exist, a process known as sanctions screening. Sanctions screening involves verifying these individuals and entities against various lists* of known or suspected individuals and organizations that have been convicted of Medicare and Medicaid fraud, terrorism, money laundering and other criminal activity.

To comply with these requirements, many life sciences organizations turn to sanctions screening services that specialize in screening individuals and entities against various lists of sanctioned parties. These services use advanced technology to conduct a thorough screening process and provide a comprehensive report, giving peace of mind that your organization is compliant with legal and regulatory requirements. Sanctions screening services can be customized to fit your specific needs, whether you need to screen your employees, vendors or partners.

There are several reasons why life sciences organizations should explore sanctions screening through a service:

  1. It helps you comply with legal and regulatory requirements. Failure to comply with these requirements can result in fines, legal penalties and damage to your reputation.
  2. Sanctions screening services can save you time and effort. Screening individuals and entities against various lists of sanctioned parties can be a time-consuming process. By outsourcing this task to a service, you free up your time to focus on your core responsibilities, enabling you to grow your business compliantly.
  3. Using advanced technology to conduct a thorough screening process, sanctions screening services can provide you with a higher level of accuracy. This technology can quickly and accurately match individuals and entities against various lists of sanctioned parties, reducing the risk of false positives/negatives and reducing the chance of failing to find a sanctioned individual in the list.
  4. It can provide you with ongoing monitoring to ensure ongoing compliance. Once individuals and entities are screened, they should be continuously monitored to ensure that they do not become sanctioned parties in the future.
  5. Using a sanction screening service allows you to screen against multiple sources on an ongoing basis, significantly reducing the risk of working with a sanctioned individual or organization. Some companies may tend to believe that screening their partners, employees or vendors against one federal or state sanction list is sufficient, but it’s important to understand that not all lists are the same. Each list contains different data sets that may or may not be pulled together into one comprehensive list, and each list is published and updated at different frequencies.
  6. Sanction screening services can help you mitigate reputational risk. Doing business with sanctioned parties can damage your reputation and erode client trust. By using a sanctions screening service, you can demonstrate to your stakeholders that you take compliance seriously and are committed to doing business ethically.

MediSpend offers a trusted sanctions and exclusion monitoring service for the life sciences industry. MediSpend’s Sanctions Screening Service delivers trusted one-time and ongoing HHS OIG, GSA-SAM.gov, and state Medicaid exclusion list monitoring to ensure your organization remains protected. To learn more about how our Sanctions Screening Service can save you time and effort staying compliant, provide a high level of accuracy and help mitigate reputational risk, contact us today.

*Lists:

  • OIG-LEIE: List provided by Office of Inspector General for excluded individuals
  • SAM: System for Award Management (SAM.gov) used to register to do business in US
  • EPLS: The Excluded Parties List System (EPLS) is an electronic directory of individuals and organizations that are not permitted to receive federal contracts or assistance from the United States government
  • Available state Medicaid lists (42 states) and Medicare opt-out and NPI validation

 

Neeraj Singhal
VP, Product Management

Bryan Stinehour
Director of Product Management

 

April 6, 2023