The Biden Administration is expected to devote significant resources to investigating fraud and abuse in the health care industry. Not only will the Biden Administration likely continue investigating traditional health care priorities, but it likely will exercise heightened scrutiny over the use of funds relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and other current issues, such as nursing home care and the opioid epidemic. We also anticipate additional resources devoted to these investigations overall. Below, we outline each of the Biden Administration’s most likely enforcement priorities in this industry.

Pandemic-Related Fraud -

Like the housing and financial crisis in 2007–2008, which triggered substantial federal government spending and corresponding oversight and enforcement actions for many years, the COVID-19 pandemic has injected billions of federal dollars into the U.S. economy across multiple sectors, with health care companies as major recipients of government aid. As with any program involving significant federal monies, there will likely be commensurate attention devoted to oversight and investigations involving these funds.