Gary L. Cantrell

Gary Cantrell has served as a Senior Executive in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Inspector General (OIG) for more than 10 years. In 2012, he was appointed Deputy Inspector General for Investigations. In total, Mr. Cantrell has served the OIG for more than 24 years in a variety of front line and leadership roles. Over the last five years, Mr. Cantrell’s leadership of OIG’s investigative efforts resulted in nearly 4,000 criminal actions and 3,000 civil actions, and over $19 billion in fines, penalties, and restitutions. These actions protect HHS programs from fraud while also preventing harm to program recipients. Through his engagement with the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), Mr. Cantrell coordinates with the Department of Justice and State law enforcement agencies to prevent fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

This partnership has overseen numerous national health care fraud takedowns and resulted in over three thousand indictments and over four billion dollars in investigative receivables. Mr. Cantrell also engages extensively with the private sector to prevent and detect fraud in health care. He serves on the Board of Directors for the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association, represents OIG on the Health Care Fraud Prevention Partnership, and frequently speaks on the topic of health care fraud before numerous private associations. Mr. Cantrell holds bachelor’s degrees in Criminal Justice from Georgia State University and in Computer and Information Science from the University of Maryland University College. He is the recipient of two Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency awards for Excellence in Information Technology, numerous HHS OIG awards for excellence, the HHS Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service (2018), the Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Health Care Fraud Unit’s, Leadership Award (2019), and was recognized as a 2020 Samuel J. Heyward Service to America Medals finalist.