OIG LEIE — Exclusion Anatomy
The federal healthcare blacklist is mostly people, and mostly license actions
The HHS-OIG List of Excluded Individuals/Entities (LEIE) names 68,055 parties currently barred from billing federal health programs (snapshot 2026-05-08). 97.6% are individuals. Two statutory bases — license revocation under §1128(b)(4) and program-related convictions under §1128(a)(1) — account for 71.2% of the list. Aggregate counts only; no excluded party is named.
Key findings
individuals and entities are currently listed on the OIG LEIE — barred from billing Medicare, Medicaid, and every federal health program as of the 2026-05-08 snapshot.
of the active list are individuals (66,454); only 1,601 records are organizations or businesses.
rest on a single basis — license revocation or suspension under §1128(b)(4) (27,907 records), a larger slice than any conviction-based authority.
fall under the mandatory §1128(a) authorities (conviction-based, five-year minimum term); the other 48.1% are permissive §1128(b) exclusions decided case by case.
carry an NPI (7,025) — most exclusion records omit the National Provider Identifier, so the list is matched largely by name.
of all exclusions name a nurse or nurse's aide — the single largest provider specialty on the list (29,090 records).
At a glance
Why people are excluded — the §1128 authorities
Every exclusion cites a paragraph of Section 1128 of the Social Security Act. The mandatory §1128(a) authorities are conviction-based and carry a five-year minimum term. The permissive §1128(b) authorities are applied case by case and include non-criminal bases such as license revocation and health-education loan default. License revocation under §1128(b)(4) is the single largest category on the entire list — larger than any conviction-based basis — followed by program-related convictions under §1128(a)(1). The two together account for 71.2% of the active register.
| Statutory authority | Basis | Records | Share of active list |
|---|---|---|---|
| §1128(b)(4) — License revocation or suspension | Permissive | 27,907 | 41.0% |
| §1128(a)(1) — Conviction of a program-related crime | Mandatory | 20,579 | 30.2% |
| §1128(a)(2) — Conviction relating to patient abuse or neglect | Mandatory | 6,795 | 10.0% |
| §1128(a)(3) — Felony conviction relating to health-care fraud | Mandatory | 4,792 | 7.0% |
| §1128(a)(4) — Felony conviction relating to controlled substances | Mandatory | 2,960 | 4.3% |
| §1128(b)(14) — Default on a health-education loan or scholarship | Permissive | 1,824 | 2.7% |
| §1128(b)(1) — Misdemeanor conviction relating to fraud | Permissive | 787 | 1.2% |
| §1128(b)(8) — Entity controlled by a sanctioned individual | Permissive | 716 | 1.1% |
| §1128(b)(5) — Exclusion or suspension under a federal or state health-care program | Permissive | 639 | 0.9% |
| §1128(b)(7) — Fraud, kickbacks, and other prohibited activities | Permissive | 463 | 0.7% |
| §1128(b)(3) — Misdemeanor conviction relating to controlled substances | Permissive | 269 | 0.4% |
| §1128A(a) — Civil monetary penalty / assessment authority | Civil money penalty | 91 | 0.1% |
| §1128(b)(6) — Claims for excessive charges or unnecessary services | Permissive | 66 | 0.1% |
| §1128(b)(2) — Conviction relating to obstruction of an investigation or audit | Permissive | 55 | 0.1% |
| §1156 — Failure to meet professionally recognized standards of health care | Quality of care | 46 | 0.1% |
| §1128(b)(15) — Individual controlling a sanctioned entity | Permissive | 28 | 0.0% |
| Settlement agreement — Breach of a settlement agreement | Agreement breach | 15 | 0.0% |
| §1128(b)(11) — Failure to provide payment information | Permissive | 10 | 0.0% |
| Corporate integrity agreement — Breach of a corporate integrity agreement | Agreement breach | 6 | 0.0% |
| §1160 — Quality-of-care sanction (peer review) | Quality of care | 5 | 0.0% |
| §1128(b)(16) — Making false statements or misrepresentation of material fact | Permissive | 1 | 0.0% |
| §1128(b)(12) — Failure to grant immediate access | Permissive | 1 | 0.0% |
Mandatory vs permissive — the list is not one population
51.6% of records sit on the mandatory §1128(a) authorities — a federal criminal conviction with a hard five-year floor (program crime, patient abuse or neglect, health-care-fraud felony, or controlled-substance felony, accounting for 20,579, 6,795, 4,792, and 2,960 records respectively). The remaining 48.1% are permissive §1128(b) exclusions, where a license may have been surrendered during a board inquiry with no criminal case at all. Reading every entry as a convicted fraudster misstates about half the list.
When parties were added
The active list spans exclusions added from 1977-07-01 to 2026-05-20. Because reinstated parties drop off, the file skews toward recent decades — but it still carries records going back to the 1970s. Annual additions peaked in 2016 (2,785 records). The full year-by-year series is in the downloads.
| Decade added | Records | Share of active list |
|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 33 | 0.0% |
| 1980s | 1,404 | 2.1% |
| 1990s | 9,584 | 14.1% |
| 2000s | 21,927 | 32.2% |
| 2010s | 22,656 | 33.3% |
| 2020s | 12,451 | 18.3% |
Where they are — top states and territories
The exclusion address spans 57 states and territories. The four largest — California, Florida, Texas, and New York — are also the four most populous states, so this is broadly a population effect rather than a per-capita ranking. The table shows the fifteen highest-volume jurisdictions; the rest are in the downloads.
| State / territory | Records | Share of active list |
|---|---|---|
| CA | 7,896 | 11.6% |
| FL | 6,816 | 10.0% |
| TX | 4,816 | 7.1% |
| NY | 3,538 | 5.2% |
| OH | 3,166 | 4.7% |
| PA | 2,882 | 4.2% |
| AZ | 2,205 | 3.2% |
| IL | 2,000 | 2.9% |
| MS | 1,669 | 2.5% |
| LA | 1,596 | 2.3% |
| AL | 1,561 | 2.3% |
| NC | 1,555 | 2.3% |
| TN | 1,500 | 2.2% |
| CO | 1,458 | 2.1% |
| KY | 1,447 | 2.1% |
Who they are — provider category and specialty
The LEIE publishes a general category and a specialty for each record. The nursing workforce dominates: nurses and nurses' aides are the single largest specialty at 42.7% of the entire list (29,090 records). Licensed individual health-care service providers and the nursing profession lead the category field. Labels below are reproduced as the OIG publishes them in the source file.
| Provider category (source field) | Records | Share of active list |
|---|---|---|
| IND- LIC HC SERV PRO | 17,138 | 25.2% |
| NURSING PROFESSION | 10,572 | 15.5% |
| EMPLOYEE - PRIVATE S | 4,412 | 6.5% |
| INDIVIDUAL (UNAFFILI | 3,729 | 5.5% |
| MEDICAL PRACTICE, MD | 3,645 | 5.4% |
| SKILLED NURSING FAC | 3,568 | 5.2% |
| BUS OWNER/EXEC | 3,400 | 5.0% |
| PHYSICIAN (MD, DO) | 2,637 | 3.9% |
| HOSPITAL | 2,006 | 2.9% |
| PHARMACY | 1,739 | 2.6% |
| PRIVATE CIT/ENTITY | 1,596 | 2.3% |
| DME COMPANY | 1,563 | 2.3% |
| CHIROPRACTIC PRACT | 1,444 | 2.1% |
| HOME HEALTH AGENCY | 1,070 | 1.6% |
| DENTAL PRACTICE | 991 | 1.5% |
| Provider specialty (source field) | Records | Share of active list |
|---|---|---|
| NURSE/NURSES AIDE | 29,090 | 42.7% |
| PERSONAL CARE PROVID | 2,680 | 3.9% |
| (blank) | 2,557 | 3.8% |
| OWNER/OPERATOR | 2,548 | 3.7% |
| HEALTH CARE AIDE | 2,481 | 3.6% |
| CHIROPRACTIC | 1,730 | 2.5% |
| NO KNOWN AFFILIATION | 1,705 | 2.5% |
| GENERAL PRACTICE/FP | 1,557 | 2.3% |
| PHARMACIST | 1,481 | 2.2% |
| EMPLOYEE | 1,466 | 2.2% |
| DENTIST | 1,147 | 1.7% |
| HOME HEALTH AGENCY | 1,145 | 1.7% |
A note on reinstatement
Reinstatement to federal health programs is not automatic when an exclusion term ends — a party must apply to the OIG and receive written notice that reinstatement was granted. Once it is, the party is removed from the published LEIE. That is why every record in this snapshot has a null reinstatement date and the count of reinstated parties here is 0: the file is a view of currently active exclusions, not a cumulative history. Only 3 active records carry a program waiver.
Methodology
The study uses public.oig_leie_exclusions, the Fonteum warehouse table populated from the HHS-OIG List of Excluded Individuals/Entities monthly file released 2026-05-08. Counts are grouped on the source fields exclusion_type (the §1128 authority code), state, the year of excl_date, and the general_desc / specialty_desc provider fields. The mandatory/permissive split is derived from the authority code prefix (1128a = mandatory, 1128b = permissive).
The snapshot is signed, attested, chained, and re-checkable through Fonteum's snapshot process. It is aggregate-only by construction: this page and its downloads carry counts, statutory labels, source fields, and dates, but no excluded individual or entity name, and no date of birth.
Reproduce this
These are the aggregate queries used for the committed snapshot:
-- The Anatomy of the Federal Healthcare Blacklist — the OIG LEIE, by the numbers.
-- Source table: public.oig_leie_exclusions (HHS-OIG List of Excluded Individuals/Entities).
-- Snapshot: LEIE monthly file released 2026-05-08; queried 2026-06-25.
-- Aggregate-only: every query below publishes counts, never individual names.
-- Headline totals (individuals vs entities, NPI coverage, waivers, date span).
SELECT
count(*) AS total,
count(*) FILTER (WHERE last_name IS NOT NULL AND last_name <> '') AS individuals,
count(*) FILTER (WHERE business_name IS NOT NULL AND business_name <> ''
AND (last_name IS NULL OR last_name = '')) AS entities,
count(*) FILTER (WHERE npi IS NOT NULL AND npi NOT IN ('', '0')) AS with_npi,
count(*) FILTER (WHERE waiver_date IS NOT NULL) AS with_waiver,
count(*) FILTER (WHERE reinstatement_date IS NOT NULL) AS reinstated,
count(DISTINCT exclusion_type) AS distinct_authorities,
count(DISTINCT state) AS states_covered,
min(excl_date) AS earliest_exclusion,
max(excl_date) AS latest_exclusion
FROM oig_leie_exclusions;
-- total 68,055; individuals 66,454; entities 1,601; with_npi 7,025; with_waiver 3;
-- reinstated 0; distinct_authorities 22; states_covered 57;
-- earliest 1977-07-01; latest 2026-05-20.
-- By statutory exclusion authority (the §1128 categories).
SELECT exclusion_type, count(*) FROM oig_leie_exclusions GROUP BY exclusion_type ORDER BY 2 DESC;
-- 1128b4 27,907; 1128a1 20,579; 1128a2 6,795; 1128a3 4,792; 1128a4 2,960; 1128b14 1,824; ... (22 codes)
-- By basis: mandatory (§1128(a)) vs permissive (§1128(b)) vs other.
SELECT
CASE WHEN exclusion_type LIKE '1128a%' THEN 'mandatory'
WHEN exclusion_type LIKE '1128b%' THEN 'permissive'
WHEN exclusion_type LIKE '1128A%' THEN 'civil_money_penalty'
ELSE 'other' END AS basis,
count(*)
FROM oig_leie_exclusions GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY 2 DESC;
-- mandatory 35,126; permissive 32,766; civil_money_penalty 91; other 72.
-- By state / territory (top 15 shown on the page; 57 jurisdictions in total).
SELECT state, count(*) FROM oig_leie_exclusions GROUP BY state ORDER BY 2 DESC;
-- CA 7,896; FL 6,816; TX 4,816; NY 3,538; OH 3,166; PA 2,882; ...
-- By the year the party was added (full annual series 1977-2026).
SELECT EXTRACT(YEAR FROM excl_date)::int AS yr, count(*)
FROM oig_leie_exclusions WHERE excl_date IS NOT NULL GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY 1;
-- 1997 1,703; 2016 2,785 (peak); 2024 2,616; ...
-- By provider category and specialty (source-published fields; top rows shown).
SELECT general_desc, count(*) FROM oig_leie_exclusions GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY 2 DESC;
SELECT specialty_desc, count(*) FROM oig_leie_exclusions GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY 2 DESC;
-- NURSE/NURSES AIDE is the single largest specialty: 29,090 (42.7%).
Re-check the source snapshot
Every figure traces to a signed source snapshot. The OIG LEIE pull is content-hashed and chained, so the aggregate can be re-checked against the attestation.
Re-check a snapshot -> or review the source-family registry at /sources.
How to cite this
Fonteum (2026). The Anatomy of the Federal Healthcare Blacklist. Derived from the HHS-OIG List of Excluded Individuals/Entities (LEIE), snapshot 2026-05-08. https://fonteum.com/gov/research/oig-exclusion-anatomy-2026
Canonical URL: https://fonteum.com/gov/research/oig-exclusion-anatomy-2026 · License: U.S. Government Works (public domain; 17 U.S.C. §105)
Related evidence
- The Name-Only Exclusion List — UEI/CAGE coverage of SAM.gov exclusions →
- The Federal Blacklist Is Mostly People — SAM.gov exclusion composition →
- Federal Suspension & Debarment Scorecard →
- The SAM exclusion list — what it is and how to check it →
- Exclusion and sanction-list screening →
- Federal contractor records by entity →
- The State of Federal Contractor Integrity 2026 →
- The US + EU Sanctions Universe →
- Sources registry →
Limitations
- This is a snapshot of active OIG LEIE records as released 2026-05-08, not a historical time series and not a count of unique people or organizations over time.
- Reinstated parties are removed from the published file, so the list under-represents the cumulative number of exclusions ever issued and shows no reinstatement events.
- The statutory authority, provider category, and specialty are source-published administrative fields. They are not normalized into legal conclusions or severity rankings.
- The state, provider-category, and specialty tables show the highest-volume rows; smaller rows are included in the totals and downloads but not individually displayed.
- This page does not identify any excluded party. Confirm a specific party's current exclusion status at the official OIG source before acting.
Sources
One primary government source: the HHS Office of Inspector General List of Excluded Individuals/Entities (LEIE), the federal health-program exclusion registry, with statutory authorities defined in Section 1128 of the Social Security Act.
Source: HHS Office of Inspector General — List of Excluded Individuals/Entities (LEIE), snapshot 2026-05-08. Public domain (U.S. Government Works). Confirm a party's current status at oig.hhs.gov/exclusions. Confirm current status at SAM.gov →
Frequently asked questions
Who is on the OIG exclusion list?
As of the 2026-05-08 snapshot, the OIG LEIE held 68,055 active exclusion records. 66,454 (97.6%) are individuals and 1,601 are entities. Excluded parties cannot bill Medicare, Medicaid, or any other federal health-care program. These are aggregate counts from the published LEIE file, not a list of names.
What is the most common reason for an OIG exclusion?
License revocation or suspension under §1128(b)(4) is the single largest basis — 27,907 records, or 41.0% of the active list. Program-related criminal convictions under §1128(a)(1) are second at 20,579 (30.2%). Together those two authorities account for 71.2% of every active exclusion.
Are OIG exclusions mostly criminal convictions?
Roughly half. The mandatory §1128(a) authorities — which are conviction-based and carry a five-year minimum — cover 51.6% of the list. The permissive §1128(b) authorities, which the OIG applies case by case and which include non-criminal bases such as license actions and loan defaults, cover 48.1%. Reading every record as a fraud conviction overstates roughly half the list.
Does the list show reinstatements?
No. The LEIE publishes only parties whose exclusion is currently active. When the OIG grants reinstatement the party is removed from the published file, so a reinstatement is not observable in this snapshot — every active record here has a null reinstatement date. The list is a point-in-time view of active exclusions, not a cumulative history.
Is this a finding of misconduct about any person or entity?
No. This study is descriptive. It reports how the active OIG LEIE is distributed by statutory authority, state, year added, and provider category. It names no excluded party, assigns no rating or score, and makes no claim about any individual record beyond the aggregate counts published here.
How can I reproduce these numbers?
Use the SQL linked on this page against public.oig_leie_exclusions: GROUP BY queries on exclusion_type, state, the exclusion year, and the provider category fields. The JSON and CSV downloads are committed aggregate snapshots generated from those results against the LEIE file released 2026-05-08.