As of October 3, 2019, the Office of Management and Budget completed its review of the proposed rules for “modernizing and clarifying” the Physician Self-Referral Regulations and revising the safe harbors under the Anti-Kickback Statute and rules regarding the Beneficiary Inducement Civil Monetary Penalties Law.

These regulations were the subject of two Requests for Information

In the latest episode of Payers, Providers, and Patients – Oh My!, Troy Barsky and Alice Hall-Partyka talk with Joe Records and Payal Nanavati about how recent litigation challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act may impact providers and payers. The discussion focuses on the authority for innovative health care models and

The Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services (OIG) last week replaced a 20-year old policy statement, and issued guidance on the criteria the agency will use to evaluate whether to exclude certain individuals and entities from billing or “participation in” Federal health programs under its permissive exclusion authority. The new guidelines supersede and replace the OIG’s December 24, 1997 policy statement and set forth “non-binding” criteria that the OIG may consider in exercising this authority under circumstances involving fraud, kickbacks and other prohibited conduct. The newly-memorialized policy is yet another effort by the agency to encourage healthcare providers to implement robust compliance mechanisms that can timely identify and voluntarily self-disclose to the government any unlawful conduct.

Under Sections 1128(b)(1)-(b)(15) of the Social Security Act (the “Act”), the Secretary, by delegation to the OIG, has discretion to exclude individuals and entities based on a number of grounds. This so-called “permissive exclusion” authority grants significant discretion to the OIG.  The new policy provides guidelines for permissive exclusions that are based on Section 1128(b)(7) of the Act, which permits the OIG to exclude persons from participation in any Federal health care program if the OIG determines that the individual or the entity has engages in fraud, kickbacks and other prohibited activities.Continue Reading OIG Updates Policy on Permissive Exclusions Based On Fraud and Kickbacks

On February 8, 2016, the United States District Court in the Southern District of Georgia approved the settlement agreement ending a whistleblower lawsuit initiated on March 9, 2011 against Memorial Health University Medical Center (“Memorial Medical Center”) and three affiliated entities in a case that highlights the Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) vigorous scrutiny of physician compensation arrangements. The non-profit hospital, based in Savannah, Georgia, agreed to pay $9.89 million with $2.29 million going to the relator, the hospital’s former president and CEO, who initiated the action under the qui tam provision of the False Claims Act (“FCA”).  The settlement is the largest civil healthcare fraud recovery recorded by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia.

The underlying lawsuit alleged that Memorial Medical Center acquired a physician practice for compensation in excess of fair market value (“FMV”), and that the acquisition resulted in a projected financial loss of approximately $670,000 per year over a five-year period.  According to the complaint, the defendant hospital engaged in a complex scheme to compensate its employed and contracted physicians at rates above FMV in return for the promise of patient referrals–thereby violating both the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”) and the physician self-referral law (“Stark Law”), and tainting Medicare and Medicaid payments.Continue Reading $9.9 Million Settlement To Resolve Allegations That Hospital System Overpaid Physicians Approved by Georgia Federal Court

On September 15, 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the settlement of a qui tam action in the amount of $69.5 million with North Broward Hospital District (NBHD). The amount is a small fraction of the $442 million in treble damages to the Medicare and Medicaid programs alleged in the Third Amended Complaint. The settlement resolves allegations that NBHD violated the False Claims Act and the Stark Law by engaging in improper financial relationships with referring physicians. This settlement is an example of a troubling trend in which the DOJ imposes its views of the fair market value (FMV) and commercial reasonableness of employment compensation arrangements upon hospitals and providers. As the DOJ continues to successfully challenge physician compensation by analyzing the monetary impact of such compensation on hospitals’ profits and losses, hospitals are increasingly hamstrung in their ability to rely on FMV opinions to set physician compensation.

NBHD is a special taxing district of the state of Florida that operates hospitals and other health care facilities in the Broward County, Florida region. NBHD was named in a whistleblower suit originally filed in 2010 by Dr. Reilly, an orthopedic surgeon who held staff privileges to practice medicine at Imperial Point Medical Center, a hospital within the NBHD system. The Third Amended Complaint alleged that nine employed cardiologists and orthopedic surgeons were provided compensation packages in excess of FMV, in a system that illegally compensates physicians for the volume or value of their referrals to NBHD. It alleged that from 2004 to present, the overcompensation of the orthopedic surgeons generated net operating losses of over $40 million – an amount offset by referral profits monitored by NBHD in purported “secretive Contribution Margin Reports.”Continue Reading South Florida Hospital System Settles Stark Allegations for $69.5 Million