The February Profile in Courage Award goes to the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health & Human Services.  In its very first Advisory Opinion of the year, the OIG has boldly proclaimed that a provider may give free diapers to Medicaid mothers without fear of federal indictment for violation of either the Anti-Kickback Statute or the Civil Monetary Penalty rules.

Advisory Opinion No. 15-01, posted February 2, also allows the provider to give Medicaid mothers free portable playpen cribs without fear of prosecution.

This is good news not only for the provider but also for the Medicaid mothers, since receiving a kickback is just as illegal as giving one.  It also spares us the prospect of little tykes giving testimony through playpen bars in an effort to put their mothers behind federal pen bars.

You can’t make this stuff up.