decisionhealth Newsletters, Answer Books - 2009 Issue 3 (March)
Anti-Kickback Advisory Opinion Summaries / 2006 OIG Advisory Opinions / Opinion 06-20 - Free Oxygen to Medicare Patients - Do Not Hold Your Breath
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Article Overview
This advisory opinion summary reviews an OIG assessment of a durable medical equipment supplier’s free service arrangements for Medicare patients and the fraud-and-abuse concerns those arrangements raised. It is relevant to compliance staff, DME suppliers, physicians who refer patients, and anyone monitoring anti-kickback risk in Medicare-facing business practices. The article discusses the general reasons OIG viewed the arrangements as problematic, including remuneration concerns, patient-choice influence, referral relationships, and the need to consider safe harbor issues.
Why This Topic Matters
It highlights how free goods or services connected to Medicare patients can create fraud-and-abuse exposure for suppliers and referring providers, even when the supplier does not bill Medicare for the specific free items or services.
What You Will Learn
- What the OIG advisory opinion addressed in a DME supplier context
- Why free patient services can raise anti-kickback and civil money penalty concerns
- How referral relationships can be implicated by non-covered giveaways
- Why safe harbor analysis may matter for provider arrangements
Who Should Read This
- Compliance officers
- Durable medical equipment suppliers
- Physicians and referring providers
- Healthcare attorneys
- Medical billing and coding professionals
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