Mexico-US-Canada Health Fraud (MUCH) Working Group Terms of Reference

Purpose:

To consolidate and maintain a formal framework for trilateral cooperation in combating health fraud, so as to protect and promulgate the health and economic well being of citizens of all three nations and to identify appropriate lines of communication to ensure a continual exchange of information on compliance and enforcement activities among the three countries.

Health Fraud Definition:

For the purposes of this Working Group, health fraud may include the following:

The false, deceptive, or misleading promotion, advertisement, distribution, sale, possession for sale, or offering for sale of products or provision of services, intended for human use, that are represented as being safe and/or effective to diagnose, prevent, cure, treat, or mitigate disease (or other conditions), to rehabilitate patients or to provide a beneficial effect on health.

Objective:

To the extent compatible with their laws, enforcement policies, and other important interests, each member country shall

• develop and implement comprehensive collaborative approaches and mechanisms to deal with health fraud;
• share information describing current trends in health fraud and strategies for addressing emerging problems;
• cooperate in the detection of cross-border health fraud;
• inform counterpart agencies as soon as practicable of significant investigations and proceedings involving health fraud occurring or originating in the jurisdiction of each member country;
• consider counterpart agency requests to investigate domestic activities having harmful cross-border effects;
• consider coordinating related enforcement activities with counterpart agencies in appropriate cases;
• coordinate import surveillance activities and share information that would maximize surveillance efforts;
• develop and disseminate joint consumer and business education messages about health fraud;
• seek to promote cooperation among federal, state, provincial and local law enforcement agencies of all three member countries, and as appropriate, seek to include such agencies in cooperative efforts to combat health fraud; and
• develop further strategies to achieve coordinated compliance and enforcement; joint consumer and business education; trilateral communication and information exchanges; and the building of partnerships to combat health fraud.

Membership:

The MUCH Working Group shall consist of the following:

• Representatives of the regulatory agencies relevant to the control of health fraud from the three signatory countries;
• Representatives of the regulatory and law enforcement agencies with authority or jurisdiction over health fraud issues; and
• Representatives from other government agencies as deemed appropriate by each member country.

Each country shall identify a lead representative and an alternate representative to the Working Group. These three leads and their alternates shall be individuals with responsibility for implementing or recommending policy changes within their organizations.

Structure:

Each country will be assigned the responsibility of chairing the Working Group based on a three-year rotation scheduled identified in Section 6C of the Charter. The designated lead country will chair the meetings and conference calls; report, on behalf of the Working Group, to the Trilateral Steering Committee; and provide secretariat services to the Working Group (refer to Section 6C of the Charter).

Ad hoc committees shall be created or disbanded according to Working Group needs. Ad hoc committee members are to be drawn from the Working Group membership, although non-members may be asked to contribute on the basis of specific expertise.

Each ad hoc committee shall develop Terms of Reference and structures as required. As a general rule, ad hoc committees shall report directly to the full Work Group membership unless urgency dictates a more immediate response. In such cases, the Working Group Chair shall determine the appropriate reporting process.

Decisional Process:

Decisions shall be based upon consensus rather than majority vote.

Meetings Schedule:

The Working Group shall conduct its business on a continual basis and shall meet in person two times a year at the Trilateral meetings as stipulated in the Section 9 of the Charter and conduct regular business via e-mails, conference calls or video-teleconference as often as the Working Groups deems necessary to meet its objectives.

Language:

The meetings and teleconferences shall take place in English and Spanish pertaining to the ensemble of the Working Group membership. French interpretation will be available when required. The host country shall be responsible for ensuring simultaneous interpretation as may be necessary.

With respect to press releases, communiqués, and other such materials, each member country shall be responsible for ensuring appropriate translation for dissemination within their own national boundaries, obtaining necessary approvals and/or clearances within mutually agreeable time frames.