Under the authority of the Federal Employees Health Care Protection Act of 19988 and the Governmentwide Nonprocurement Debarment and Suspension Common Rule, the Suspension and Debarment Team suspends and debars from participation in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) health care providers who have, among other things:
- lost professional licenses;
- been convicted of a crime related to delivery of or payment for health care services;
- violated provisions of a Federal program; or
- are debarred by another Federal agency.
Debarring or suspending these providers protects the integrity of the FEHBP as well as the health care interests of FEHBP participants. These sanctions assure that FEHBP funds will not be paid, either directly or indirectly, to such providers. FEHBP participants are free to obtain services from debarred providers, but then they will be personally responsible for the resulting costs. If FEHBP participants, however, obtain such services in good faith and without knowledge that a provider with whom they dealt had been sanctioned, then their costs will be covered.
The names of health care providers who have been sanctioned by our office are published in the General Services Administration's Governmentwide List of Parties Excluded from Federal Procurement and Nonprocurement Programs.