On June 6, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a favorable advisory opinion concerning a proposed telehealth staffing and services arrangement involving a management services organization (MSO), a physician-owned practice and third-party telehealth platforms. The proposed arrangement involved a situation in which the platforms would not have access to all commercial insurers, therefore the parties would bill the platforms’ patients through the requestor PC’s commercial contracts. The OIG concluded that the proposed arrangement would not generate prohibited remuneration under the federal anti-kickback statute (AKS), and the OIG would not impose administrative sanctions, as the proposed arrangement could meet the personal services and management contracts safe harbor.
The proposed arrangement is one of many ways national parties have sought to innovate with entity structures and relationships to expand telehealth offerings. When new providers seek to offer telehealth services, they can struggle to add commercial insurer plans. Third parties have offered to assist by managing those providers and offering commercial contracting relationships. The OIG’s advisory opinion suggests that such novel relationships can still meet a safe harbor for the AKS and provides an avenue for two or more MSOs to work together in offering telehealth or other healthcare services while still meeting a safe harbor.
Read on to learn more about the OIG’s opinion and what it means for providers that want to expand telehealth.