Provider Signals™The OIG Exclusion List by the numbers
83,256 providers and entities are currently excluded from Medicare and Medicaid participation. The LEIE grew 8.2% in 41 months, adds roughly 7 new exclusions every day, and changes in ways that make one-time screening inadequate. Here is the full picture.
Source: OIG LEIE full-replacement files — Dec 2022 · Dec 2023 · Dec 2024 · Nov 2025 · May 2026. Analysis by NPI Data Services / Provider Signals.
1. How big is the LEIE — and how fast is it growing?
The OIG LEIE contained 83,256 excluded providers and entities as of May 2026, up from 76,972 in December 2022. That is a net increase of 6,284 records (+8.2%) in just 41 months — an average of 153 net new entries every month.
| Snapshot | Total on LEIE | Net change | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 2022 | 76,972 | — | baseline |
| Dec 2023 | 78,659 | +1,687 | +2.2% |
| Dec 2024 | 81,200 | +2,541 | +3.2% |
| Nov 2025 | 82,290 | +1,090 | +1.3% |
| May 2026 | 83,256 | +966 | +1.2% |
The growth rate is not uniform. 2024 saw the sharpest single-year increase — 2,541 net new records — driven by a spike in new exclusion actions that year. The list has never contracted; every snapshot is larger than the last.
Implication: An organization that last screened its providers in 2022 and has not re-screened since is working from a list that is missing more than 6,000 currently excluded individuals. That is not a compliance program — it is a snapshot.
2. How many new exclusions are added each year?
Gross new exclusions — providers being added to the list for the first time — averaged ~2,600 per year from 2022 through 2025. 2024 was the most active recent year at 3,132 new exclusions, nearly 9 per day.
| Year | New exclusions added | Per month (avg) | Per day (avg) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2,057 | 171 | 5.6 |
| 2021 | 1,518 | 127 | 4.2 |
| 2022 | 2,489 | 207 | 6.8 |
| 2023 | 2,252 | 188 | 6.2 |
| 2024 | 3,132 | 261 | 8.6 |
| 2025 | 2,545 | 212 | 7.0 |
| 2026 (Jan–May) | 1,135 | 227 | 7.5 |
Monthly volume fluctuates significantly — ranging from 73 to 351 per month over the last two years. There is no predictable seasonal pattern. This unpredictability reinforces the case for monthly exclusion screening rather than quarterly or annual checks.
Key stat: In 2024, a new provider was added to the LEIE every 2.8 hours. Organizations that check annually miss an entire year's worth of newly excluded providers.
3. Why are providers excluded? The breakdown by exclusion type
The single largest reason for exclusion is license revocation or suspension (§1128(b)(4)) — 39.8% of all exclusions. This is a "permissive" exclusion triggered by a state licensing board revoking or suspending a provider's license. It is not necessarily a federal criminal conviction, which means it will not appear in a standard criminal background check.
| Exclusion type | Reason | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| §1128(b)(4) | License revoked or suspended | 33,136 | 39.8% |
| §1128(a)(1) | Program-related crime conviction | 25,760 | 30.9% |
| §1128(a)(2) | Patient abuse or neglect | 8,073 | 9.7% |
| §1128(a)(3) | Felony healthcare fraud | 5,826 | 7.0% |
| §1128(a)(4) | Felony controlled substances | 3,551 | 4.3% |
| §1128(b)(14) | Default on health education loans | 2,167 | 2.6% |
| §1128(b)(8) | Entity controlled by excluded person | 1,497 | 1.8% |
| §1128(b)(1) | Misdemeanor healthcare fraud | 936 | 1.1% |
| §1128(b)(5) | Ownership/control by excluded person | 803 | 1.0% |
| §1128(b)(7) | Fraud, kickbacks, prohibited acts | 735 | 0.9% |
Nearly 4 in 10 excluded providers lost their license at the state level — not through a federal proceeding. These exclusions are invisible to background check vendors that only scan federal criminal databases. Direct LEIE screening is the only way to catch them. See what is the LEIE for a full explanation of mandatory vs. permissive exclusions.
4. Who gets excluded? Specialties and provider types
Nurses and nurses' aides account for 41.5% of all excluded individuals — 34,538 people. The common assumption that exclusion risk falls primarily on physicians is not supported by the data. The list is dominated by support staff: aides, personal care providers, home health workers, and employees.
| Specialty / role | Excluded individuals | Share of total |
|---|---|---|
| Nurse / Nurses' aide | 34,538 | 41.5% |
| Personal care provider | 3,182 | 3.8% |
| Owner / operator | 3,179 | 3.8% |
| Health care aide | 2,949 | 3.5% |
| Chiropractic | 2,023 | 2.4% |
| General practice / family medicine | 1,863 | 2.2% |
| Employee (unspecified) | 1,803 | 2.2% |
| Pharmacist | 1,724 | 2.1% |
| Home health agency | 1,388 | 1.7% |
| Physician (MD/DO) | 3,182 | 3.8% |
The practical implication: any organization employing nursing staff, home health aides, or personal care workers carries significant LEIE exposure — not just those credentialing physicians. RCM firms, home health agencies, and skilled nursing facilities face higher roster risk than hospital credentialing departments because of the staff mix they employ.
For RCM and billing companies specifically: Your client rosters include every provider type whose claims you submit — nurses, aides, therapists, and support staff who may never have been formally credentialed but whose NPI (if they have one) appears on claims. See exclusion screening for billing companies →
5. Which states have the most OIG exclusions?
California leads the national total with 9,676 excluded providers (11.6%), followed by Florida and Texas. The top 5 states — CA, FL, TX, NY, OH — account for 38.9% of all exclusions despite representing roughly 37% of the US population, a slight overrepresentation suggesting higher enforcement activity in these markets.
| State | Excluded | Share | Relative volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| California (CA) | 9,676 | 11.6% | |
| Florida (FL) | 8,991 | 10.8% | |
| Texas (TX) | 5,880 | 7.1% | |
| New York (NY) | 4,410 | 5.3% | |
| Ohio (OH) | 3,787 | 4.5% | |
| Pennsylvania (PA) | 3,563 | 4.3% | |
| Arizona (AZ) | 2,669 | 3.2% | |
| Illinois (IL) | 2,384 | 2.9% | |
| Mississippi (MS) | 2,048 | 2.5% | |
| Louisiana (LA) | 1,941 | 2.3% |
6. The NPI blind spot — most LEIE records carry no NPI
This is the most consequential — and least discussed — finding in the data. 74,648 of 83,256 LEIE records (about 90%) carry no valid NPI. Important nuance: OIG does not systematically record NPIs in the LEIE, so a blank NPI means the list doesn't identify the person by NPI — not necessarily that they were never issued one. Either way, the effect is the same for screening. This coverage has barely changed across four years of snapshots:
| Snapshot | With valid NPI | % of total | Without NPI | % of total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 2022 | 6,513 | 8.5% | 70,459 | 91.5% |
| Dec 2023 | 7,060 | 9.0% | 71,599 | 91.0% |
| Dec 2024 | 7,838 | 9.7% | 73,362 | 90.3% |
| Nov 2025 | 8,341 | 10.1% | 73,949 | 89.9% |
| May 2026 | 8,608 | 10.3% | 74,648 | 89.7% |
These 74,648 providers — overwhelmingly nurses' aides, home health workers, personal care staff, and other support roles — cannot be found using an NPI lookup. You cannot screen them by running an NPI list against the LEIE. The only way to identify them is through name + date-of-birth matching.
Why it matters: Any compliance workflow that checks "does this provider's NPI appear on the LEIE?" will miss 9 out of every 10 excluded individuals. Organizations with large nursing or home health staff rosters carry the most exposure from this gap. Use our LEIE lookup tool to search by name and DOB.
7. What does this mean for your organization?
With roughly 2,600 providers newly excluded each year out of approximately 1.2 million active providers in NPPES, the probability that any specific provider on your roster becomes newly excluded in a given year is ~0.22%. That sounds small — until you account for roster size.
| Roster size | Expected new exclusions per year | Monitoring frequency needed |
|---|---|---|
| 100 providers | ~0.2 | Annual check is probably adequate |
| 500 providers | ~1.1 | Semi-annual recommended |
| 1,000 providers | ~2.2 | Monthly — OIG standard |
| 2,500 providers | ~5.4 | Monthly — material exposure |
| 5,000 providers | ~10.9 | Monthly — multiple exclusions likely |
| 10,000 providers | ~21.7 | Monthly — nearly 2 per month |
Any organization with more than 1,000 credentialed providers, contractors, or employees should expect to encounter at least 2 newly excluded individuals per year. At 5,000 providers, that is nearly one per month. Billing on behalf of even one excluded provider can trigger Civil Monetary Penalties of up to $20,000 per claim plus treble damages under the False Claims Act.
Reinstatements also happen: between 66 and 162 NPI-tracked providers are removed from the LEIE each year after reinstatement. Compliance records need updating in both directions — when a provider is added, and when they are cleared. See monthly exclusion screening for how to structure a continuous program.
Monitor your roster against every LEIE update.
Upload once. Provider Signals re-screens against each monthly OIG refresh and alerts you to new matches — by name+DOB, not just NPI.
Related exclusion screening resources
- OIG exclusion screening — continuous LEIE monitoring and alerts
- Monthly exclusion screening — why the OIG recommends monthly, not annual
- What is the LEIE? — mandatory vs. permissive exclusions explained
- LEIE lookup tool — search the exclusion list by name and DOB
- Billing for an excluded provider — penalties and what happens when you miss one
- Exclusion screening for billing companies — managing large multi-client rosters
- OIG exclusion screening best practices — checklist for a defensible program
Data & methodology
Source: HHS Office of Inspector General — Exclusions Program. Informational only — not legal or compliance advice. Statistics reflect the OIG federal exclusion list only; state Medicaid exclusion lists are maintained separately.