Recent Threatened Exclusion of Pharmaceutical Company CEO Reveals the Dangers of Increasingly Aggressive Enforcement Under Section 1128(b)(15) of the Social Security Act

On April 12, 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG) notified Howard Solomon, the long-time CEO and Chairman of Forest Laboratories, a leading manufacturer of antidepressant pharmaceuticals, that it was contemplating initiating proceedings to exclude him from all federal health care programs. The notification came in the wake of Forest Laboratories’ civil and criminal settlement with the federal government.