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 Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) published a Special Fraud Alert on November 16, 2020 (the Alert) regarding a common practice within the pharmaceutical and medical device...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
In the midst of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, healthcare providers and suppliers will need to make decisions on how to ensure compliance with existing federal fraud and abuse laws while taking swift action to avoid...more
On October 9, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) released proposed changes to the regulations interpreting the Physician Self-Referral Law (Stark Law), including a new proposed exception for limited...more
As part of the long-awaited proposed changes “to modernize and clarify” the regulations that interpret the Physician Self-Referral Law (the “Stark Law”) released on October 9, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid...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
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 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
A recent Office of Inspector General (OIG) advisory opinion approved a proposal under which a hospital has established a caregiver center that provides or arranges for free or reduced-cost support services to caregivers in...more
In what is becoming a steady trend, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) published another favorable opinion for an arrangement seeking to implement programs that support and engage family members who are increasingly...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (OIG), issued a favorable advisory opinion, No. 17-02, regarding a proposed arrangement under which the cost-sharing amounts owed by...more
On December 7, 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a long-awaited final rule (Final Rule) that expands the safe harbor regulations under the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS)...more
On December 7, 2016, HHS OIG issued a “General Policy Statement Regarding Gifts of Nominal Value to Medicare and Medicaid Beneficiaries” (Policy Statement). In the Policy Statement, OIG announced that it is changing its...more
On December 7, 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Inspector General (OIG), issued a final rule that will have a widespread impact on health care service providers, medical transport providers,...more
In an uncertain health care environment following the presidential election, the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) finalized a new rule expanding existing safe harbors to the federal...more
In a development that is limited in scope but still welcomed by hospitals, the proposed 2016 Physician Fee Schedule proposes a number of new exceptions to the physician self-referral or Stark law and other refinements that...more
Ameritox won the latest volley of an ongoing legal battle with Millennium when a federal jury in Florida awarded it $14.75 million on June 16, 2014. Ameritox persuaded the jury that Millennium’s free point of care test (POCT)...more