OIG Issues New Advisory Opinion on Free Introductory Visits Offered to Patients by Home Health Providers

On August 6, 2015, the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) issued Advisory Opinion No. 15-12 (available here) regarding a home health provider (the “Requester”) offering free introductory visits to patients who have chosen it for home health care. The OIG concluded that this arrangement does not violate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”).
Under the proposed arrangement, the Requester does not have any involvement in the patient’s home health selection process. Instead, a physician, another health care professional, or discharge planner/case manager presents the patient with a list of home health providers from which to choose. If the patient selects the Requester as its home health provider, then the Requester contacts the patient to schedule a free introductory visit with one of its liaisons. The purpose of the introductory visit is to provide the patient with: (1) an overview of the home health experience; (2) contact lists for the Requester’s administrative and clinical staff; and (3) pictures of the patient’s care team.
In reaching the conclusion that the arrangement does not generate prohibited remuneration under the AKS, the OIG considered the following facts:
• The Requester does not pay or offer any remuneration to the physicians or other individuals involved in the patient’s provider selection process;
• The introductory visit does not involve any diagnostic or therapeutic services reimbursed by federal health care programs or by third-party payors, and the services provided by the liaison during the introductory visit do not require clinical training;
• The liaison does not contact the patient until after receiving notice that the patient has chosen the Requester as his or her home health provider; and • The Requestor does not submit claims for or claim costs associated with the introductory visit.
The OIG reasoned that any benefits received by the patient during the introductory visit were for the primary purpose of facilitating the patient’s transition to home health care, and the intangible worth to patients does not implicate the AKS. The OIG emphasized that when analyzing whether a service has economic value to patients, “the absence of a paying market for such service is not dispositive.” According to the OIG, such an absence may be the result of factors other than the service having little or no value, including because: (1) the service is still new and emerging in the marketplace; or (2) the market has been distorted by the availability of free services. The key takeaway here is that AKS liability is not avoided simply because the service is not reimbursable.

For more information, please contact Adrienne Dresevic, Esq., at adresevic@thehlp.com or (248) 996-8510.