On January 3, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) published Advisory Opinion No. 23-12, approving a physician-owned hospital’s offer to redeem over a two-year period the...more
This opinion addresses a proposed arrangement (“Proposed Arrangement”) by the manufacturer of cochlear implants (“Requestor”), where the Requestor would provide certain patients who receive one of their implants with a free...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) recently considered the question whether an employed physician can be paid bonus compensation relating to procedures performed by the...more
Does your practice pay to advertise in online directories? Or do you contract with a website to allow patients to book appointments or look for services? If the answer to these questions is “yes,” you may be interested in a...more
The US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently issued Advisory Opinion (AO) 23-03, analyzing a proposed arrangement in which a company that manufactures an at-home colon cancer...more
On March 29, 2023, OIG posted Advisory Opinion No. 23-03 regarding a laboratory’s proposed arrangement to provide a prepaid card of up to $75 to encourage individuals to return the sample collection kit associated with the...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently issued Advisory Opinion 23-03, approving a proposal by the manufacturer of a colorectal cancer screening test and its wholly owned...more
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently posted Advisory Opinion 22-20, approving an acute care hospital’s arrangement under which its employed nurse practitioners...more
On August 19, 2022, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) published Advisory Opinion 22-16 (Advisory Opinion) in which it declined to impose sanctions for an arrangement under which the requestor provides gift cards to...more
On April 28, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published Advisory Opinion 22-09, declining to approve a laboratory company’s proposal to pay hospitals a fair market...more
On April 27, 2022, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) published Advisory Opinion 22-08 (Advisory Opinion) in which it declined to impose sanctions against a federally qualified health center (Requestor) for an arrangement...more
On March 2, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published Advisory Opinion 22-04, approving a program under which the requestor provides digital contingency management...more
On February 14, 2022, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued Advisory Opinion No. 22-03 (Advisory Opinion) regarding a home health agency’s (Requestor) proposal to pay nurse aide certification tuition costs on behalf of...more
On January 19, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) released a favorable advisory opinion, OIG Advisory Opinion No. 22-01 (the “Opinion”), analyzing a proposed expansion of...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) on July 8, 2021, issued Advisory Opinion No. 21-08, a favorable opinion authorizing a manufacturer of gene therapy to provide...more
On July 24, 2020, OIG issued an Advisory Opinion (AO), AO 20-04, regarding whether an arrangement where a charitable organization purchases or receives donations of unpaid medical debt from health care providers, and then...more
On July 1, 2020, OIG published an advisory opinion regarding a discount medical plan organization (DMPO). A DMPO is not an insurer but contracts with providers who agree to reduce their fees for the DMPO’s members. Under...more
On June 26, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued Advisory Opinion No. 20-03 approving the payment by a discount medical plan organization (DMPO) of a five dollar ($5.00) fee...more
In its last Advisory Opinion of 2019 (19-06), the OIG approved a proposed arrangement involving a retailer rewards program through which out-of-pocket costs on in-store pharmacy purchases would qualify customers for future...more
On September 5, 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued OIG Advisory Opinion 19-04 ( Advisory Opinion). The Requestor asked OIG if providing an online healthcare...more
Regulation - OIG Issues Advisory Opinion Addressing Eligible Managed Care Organizations' Safe Harbor - On Oct. 11, 2018, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)...more
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a favorable opinion for an arrangement involving a charitable trust and contributions of the trust's individual trustees to support a medical research center (institute) – a...more
Practitioners in the Medicare or Medicaid managed care space place heavy reliance on the protection of the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) Safe Harbor found at 42 C.F.R. § 1001.952(t), generally known as the “EMCO [eligible...more
A recent Advisory Opinion (Advisory Opinion 18-03) from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services addresses potential kickback issues involved in the donation of telehealth...more
A group of six government-operated fire departments has received a green light from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) to enter into a mutual aid agreement to provide backup emergency ambulance services and to bill for...more