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 involving the loaning of smartphones to patients to allow those patients to receive telehealth services from the Requestor. The OIG concluded that although the arrangement would constitute prohibited remuneration under the Federal anti-kickback statute (AKS) and the beneficiary inducement prohibitions of the Civil Monetary Penalties Law (CMP), the limited scope of the arrangement and the safeguards in place did not warrant the imposition of sanctions.
Continue Reading Advisory Opinion 22-08: OIG Declines to Impose Sanctions for Loaning of Smartphones for Receipt of Telehealth Services

On December 7, 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a long-awaited final rule establishing new Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) safe harbor protections and codifying regulatory exceptions to the Civil Monetary Penalties Law (CMP).

Local Transportation Safe Harbor

This safe harbor protects local transportation made available by an “Eligible Entity” as long as the following conditions are met.  An “Eligible Entity” is any individual or entity, except for individuals or entities (or family members or others acting on their behalf) that primarily supply health care items (for example, durable medical equipment suppliers or pharmaceutical manufacturers).
Continue Reading New Anti-Kickback Safe Harbors and Exceptions to CMP Law