A physician has been indicted for his role in a compound pharmacy prescription scam that included disguised kickbacks. Lots of lessons here.
Category: Kickback
The AKS prohibits offering, paying, soliciting, or receiving remuneration to induce referrals of items or services covered by Medicare and other federally funded programs.
Sit back and relax while Mark warns you that kickback violations can arise from what are usually seen as common business practices.
Often lost on physicians is the fact that even though they might not be the moving party involved in the scam, liability falls on both sides of a kickback scheme.
With lots of money at play, it’s not hard to see why the government is motivated to investigate and prosecute in order to obtain huge fines and the benefit of the forfeiture millions of dollars.
Structuring a payment or a transaction such that the deal is at fair market value is not the be-all and end-all of AKS compliance.
If you’re selling medical services but collecting only peanuts (or even hot dogs) let me know. You need a better agent.
Even though the AKS has been in existence since the early 1970’s, many subject to it appear to be prone to violate it.
Structuring a payment or a transaction such that the deal is at fair market value is not the be-all and end-all of AKS compliance.
Another day, another $4.2 million…