On October 17, 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published proposed rules to update the regulatory Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) safe-harbors and exceptions to the Physician Self-Referral (PSR) Law, known commonly as the Stark Law (AKS proposed rule available here; PSR proposed rule available here). In an earlier blog post, we described each of the proposed rules. Among the proposed changes are a new safe harbor/exception that would generally permit entities to donate certain cybersecurity technology and related services to physicians, subject to compliance with …
Tag Archives: safe harbor
OIG Issues Favorable Advisory Opinion Regarding Health Plan’s Incentive Payment Program
On October 18, 2018, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services published a favorable Advisory Opinion regarding a Medicaid managed care organization’s (Requestor) proposal to pay incentives to its network providers who meet benchmarks for increasing the amount of early and periodic screening, diagnostic, and treatment (EPSDT) services provided to Medicaid beneficiaries (Proposed Arrangement).…
Federal Court Holds Online Medical Products Auction Contract Violates the AKS
The U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut granted a motion for summary judgment in favor of Becton, Dickinson & Co. (BDC), a medical products provider, on the grounds that its contracts with MedPricer.com, Inc. (MedPricer), a company operating an online auction platform, violated the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS), and were therefore unenforceable under Connecticut state law. MedPricer.com, Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson & Co., 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30854 (Memorandum opinion).
As described in the opinion, MedPricer enters into service agreements with hospitals and other health care providers to …
New Anti-Kickback Safe Harbors and Exceptions to CMP Law
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 …
