Make your employee background checks a priority, a recent HHS Office of Inspector General notice reminds providers. After it self-disclosed conduct to the OIG, Valley’s Best Hospice in Lancaster, California, agreed to pay $27,420 “for allegedly violating the Civil Monetary Penalties Law,” the OIG says on its website. “OIG alleged that VBH employed an individual that it knew or should have known was excluded from participation in Federal health care programs.” Valley’s Best is accredited by the Joint Commission, the hospice says on its website.