The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits anyone from offering or paying, directly or indirectly, money or anything else of value to induce referrals of patients or to provide recommendations of items or services covered by Medicare, Medicaid and other federally funded programs.
These employees now will be expected to be in the office five days a week "outside of extenuating circumstances" or unless they have been granted an exception by their organization's S-team leader.
Since publication, freelance workers and others have filed lawsuits challenging the rule. These legal challenges currently are in the early stages of litigation.
Sutter Health, a large hospital system in Northern California, allegedly charged 30% more than comparable hospitals after implementing anticompetitive contracting practices in the early 2000s.
Rebates granted by pharmaceutical manufacturers to insurers reduce the actual prices paid by insurers, causing the true prices of prescriptions to diverge from official statistics.
The draft rule would require providers to check all 50 states' prescription drug monitoring programs before prescribing a controlled substance to a patient whom they have not seen before in person.