OIG advisory on physician consultations
Contract Language. By Steven M. Harris, amednews contributor. Sept. 6, 2004.
If you are thinking about signing an agreement with a group practice for the provision of professional services, you should be aware of a recent advisory opinion of the Office of Inspector General. The opinion approves a geriatric group practice's proposal to employ certain primary care physicians as consultants for the group's nursing home patients. The OIG determined that such an arrangement would not generate prohibited remuneration under the Anti-Kickback Statute.
The OIG advisory opinion stated that because the Internal Revenue Service had deemed the consulting physicians bona fide employees of the geriatric group, the proposed arrangement fell within the statutory exception and regulatory safe harbor for employee compensation.
But the OIG cautioned that this opinion is contingent on the consulting physicians meeting the IRS definition of a bona fide employee. A similar arrangement with independent contractor physicians would raise additional fraud and abuse concerns, as would any similar payment arrangement with a nursing home.
The group practice is a professional service corporation comprised of physicians specializing in treating nursing home residents. It had difficulty obtaining complete and accurate patient histories and essential patient information, such as past treatments, tests, and responses or reactions to medications, for its nursing home patients. The group practice sought to employ the primary care physicians who treated the residents before admission to the nursing home.
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