Lawyers from the defense and plaintiff’s bar and current and former prosecutors from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts (Office) and the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General gathered in May at the Boston Bar Association’s White Collar Crime Conference. The conference ran the gamut of thought leadership in the white collar crime space, but the highlight was the panel on healthcare fraud.
The key takeaway for stakeholders in the healthcare and life sciences industry, especially those headquartered and/or operating in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, was to be prepared for the Office’s increased focus on pursuing potential fraud and abuse based on data analytics. The repeated emphasis on data-driven investigations, coupled with additional messages such as the US government’s increasing use of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in white collar cases should grab stakeholder’s attention.
The other question that loomed large at the conference—how do the Office’s enforcement methodologies relate to the US Department of Justice’s continued emphasis on corporate compliance and self-disclosure? While representatives of the Office reiterated their request for companies to disclose fraud and compliance program failures early and often, conference attendees left with little clarity on the tangible benefits of self-disclosure under the Department of Justice’s arguably “new” policy position.
Given the recent turnover in the wake of former US Attorney Rachel Rollins’s resignation and First Assistant Joshua Levy’s ascendancy to acting US Attorney, it will be important for stakeholders to monitor these and other messages coming from the Office. Partner Scott Memmott and associate Jonathan York discuss these and other key takeaways from the conference on our As Prescribed blog.