It is often necessary for healthcare professionals, pharmacies, home health care agencies, and DME businesses to advertise. In doing so, these businesses need to proceed carefully with how they compensate their marketers-especially when dealing with clients who are covered by federal or state-provided healthcare (like Medicaid, Medicare, etc.). Toxicology labs, for example, where the medical work, supplies, and other transactions is easily quantifiable and documented, require vigilance on this front to ensure that you and your business do not violate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute.
Risks Involved with Physician Ownership of Toxicology Labs
The laboratory industry is undergoing heightened medical scrutiny, both for independent clinical laboratories and physician office laboratories. Expansion into this industry is filled with regulatory risk for violation of state or federal laws. Some of the issues being scrutinized are as follows:
Medicare & Medicaid to Pay Hospices $160 Million More in 2016
Last week, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a final rule that will change the way hospices are paid in 2016. In the final rule announced in Federal Register, 80 Fed. Reg. 47142, hospices will receive approximate $160 million more in payment over the 2016 fiscal year.
