Civil Monetary Penalties Law (CMPL)

The Civil Monetary Penalties Law (CMPL) is a critical but sometimes overlooked companion to the False Claims Act. While the FCA focuses on fraud, the CMPL targets a wide range of misconduct that wastes federal healthcare funds.

When the conduct at issue concerns federal healthcare programs such as Medicare, the CPML is generally administered by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Health and Human Services. The CMPL allows the government to impose fines on individuals or organizations that submit false or fraudulent claims, offer kickbacks, or fail to return overpayments. Penalties can include monetary fines, exclusion from Medicare or Medicaid, and even assessments up to three times the amount claimed.

The CMPL is a purely civil law, so the government cannot use it as a basis for criminal prosecution (unlike the Anti-Kickback Statute, which can be enforced both criminally and civilly). It also lacks a qui tam provision, so it cannot be enforced by private whistleblowers in the same way that the False Claims Act can. However, the significant financial penalties that the government can impose under the CMPL can make it an attractive tool for when the government wants to address misconduct without pursuing full-scale litigation.

The CMPL complements whistleblower efforts by creating additional layers of accountability and by deterring providers from engaging in borderline or reckless billing practices.

At Barrett Johnston, we view the CMPL as a quiet but powerful enforcement tool—one that underscores how seriously the government takes its responsibility to protect healthcare funds.