The Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued a request for information from health care stakeholders on how the federal government might modify current safe-harbor and anti-kickback laws and regulations in ways that might promote the provision of better health care at lower costs.
The RFI explains that
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) seeks to identify ways in which it might modify or add new safe harbors to the anti-kickback statute and exceptions to the beneficiary inducements civil monetary penalty (CMP) definition of “remuneration” in order to foster arrangements that would promote care coordination and advance the delivery of value-based care, while also protecting against harms caused by fraud and abuse. Through internal discussion and with the benefit of facts and information received from external stakeholders, OIG has identified the broad reach of the anti-kickback statute and beneficiary inducements CMP as a potential impediment to beneficial arrangements that would advance coordinated care. To inform our efforts, we welcome public comment on the safe harbors to the anti-kickback statute and the exceptions to the beneficiary inducements CMP definition of “remuneration” as they relate to the goals of the Regulatory Sprint outlined above. In particular, we welcome comments in response to the questions presented in this Request for Information (RFI).
This RFI complements a similar RFI issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in June. Learn more about that CMS RFI here.
Go here to see the OIG RFI.