Exclusion, Sanction, and Termination, what’s the difference?
The differences between exclusion, sanction, and termination are crucial for healthcare employers to understand when seeking to find and retain skilled professionals. Because the HHS-OIG and GSA-SAM federal databases refer to exclusions as “sanctions,” healthcare and compliance professionals often confuse the two terms because they are incorrectly used interchangeably. A sanction results from an administrative hearing where an individual or entity violates an administrative rule, civil law, or criminal offense, leading to various penalties. Sanctions are enforced by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or a state Medicaid program. A sanction from a