The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General published a final rule, after considering various comments from stakeholders, about safe harbor provisions of the Anti-Kickback statute. This article goes into detail of what the changes were, and how they affect various health care providers.
On December 7, 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) published a final rule, revising safe harbors under the Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”). At the same time, the OIG revised the definition of “remuneration” under the Civil Monetary Penalty (“CMP”) rules regarding beneficiary inducements. As has always been the case, the safe harbor revisions will prevent certain initiatives of doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies from being treated as fraudulent kickbacks by Medicare and Medicaid. The final rule took effect January 6, 2017.
Read the full article in the February 2017 issue of Life Science Compliance Update.