A call for balancing of agency sentinel priorities

Currently, a plethora of enforcement initiatives are directed at the healthcare industry. This Article suggests that budget and time allocations for issuing regulations and guidelines to interpret the law in this area have been disproportionately set when compared to the budget and time allocations set to support these enforcement initiatives. As a result, HCFA and OIG have been seriously delinquent in providing the industry with needed regulatory guidance and workable instructions. The use of enforcement initiatives in lieu of formal rulemaking to regulate the industry accords little respect to the legitimate healthcare providers who constitute the vast majority of the industry. This Article calls for a reexamination of enforcement agencies' priorities to provide regulatory guidance through formal rulemaking, rather than through use of coercive enforcement initiatives.