On July 11, 2023, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) posted Advisory Opinion 23-04 (AO 23-04), which addresses an arrangement involving an online healthcare directory for patient-users to book medical appointments, as well as proposes functionality changes to the arrangement.
In it, OIG concluded that, although the technology company requestor’s payment model and scheme would generate prohibited remuneration under the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and the Beneficiary Inducement Civil Monetary Penalty Law (Beneficiary Inducement CMP), OIG would not impose administrative sanctions on the requestor.
Notably, AO 23-04 is an update to an arrangement previously discussed in Advisory Opinion 19-04 (AO 19-04), analyzing how the requestor’s platform evolved over the preceding four years, with regard to both payments and functionality.
As healthcare continues to go digital, consumer-driven companies — including Israeli companies — that seek to operate healthcare marketplaces and booking systems are encouraged to review AO 23-04 with a careful lens in order to structure arrangements with appropriate safeguards, as to not violate applicable laws.
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