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Top Takeaways: New Steps for Compliance: A Closer Look at the DOJ’s Revised Corporate Compliance Program

The US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) revised compliance program document “The Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs,” released June 1, 2020, helps organizations understand how DOJ evaluates compliance programs for effectiveness. Below are the the top takeaways from this revision that you should be aware of. For a deeper dive into this revision, listen to our webinar recording.

Three questions the DOJ looks to answer are:
- Is the corporation’s program well designed?
- Is the program being applied earnestly and in good faith? (In other words, is the program adequately resourced and empowered to function effectively?)
- Does the corporation’s program work in practice?
Under the June 2020 updates, the DOJ will increase its focus on evaluating how effectively compliance programs are tailored to the organization’s risk profile, including the company’s size, industry, geographic footprint, regulatory landscape and other factors.
Compliance programs should continuously evolve to pass muster under the DOJ’s updated guidance. Programs are expected to adapt based on review of new data, as well as lessons learned from the company’s own experiences and the experiences of similar companies.
The design of compliance programs will be even more closely scrutinized. The DOJ has added more detailed questions on program design, including, among others, have the policies and procedures been published in a searchable format?; how do employees ask questions during on-line trainings; and does the company take measures to test whether employees are aware of the compliance hotline and feel comfortable using it?
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Top Takeaways: Permissible Provider Collaborations During COVID-19 and Beyond

As the healthcare industry continues to cope with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and form strategic and short- and long-term plans, providers are faced with numerous decisions that have critical antitrust implications. Whether seeking to collaborate with competitors for pandemic response or exploring potential transactional opportunities, there are both traditional antitrust guidelines and COVID-specific developments applicable to these business decisions. We discussed these important issues on our May 20 webinar. Below are top takeaways from the program. For a deeper dive into these issues, listen to our webinar recording.

Competitor collaborations

Antitrust compliance remains an important priority in the US. While companies have been engaged in finding creative solutions to COVID-19 challenges and regulators are expressing a willingness to be more flexible in interpreting and enforcing the law, the pandemic is not a carte blanche to engage in anti-competitive activity.
Regulators are more prone to accept collaborations limited in scope to respond to COVID-19 and its aftermath, and arrangements undertaken at the behest of or in partnership with government actors. Companies should avoid high-risk conduct such as direct exchanges of competitively sensitive information.
Procompetitive agreements not relating to price, wages or market/product allocations remain possible. Companies should conduct an antitrust analysis before entering new collaborations and consider whether it would be helpful or advisable to engage with federal antitrust authorities or state governments to receive feedback.

Avoiding antitrust violations in labor markets

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