Free, Discounted, and Value-Added Items and Services Offered by Manufacturers and Providers to Referral Sources: Problematic Inducement or Permissible Assistance?

In an effort to limit challenges for patient access, patient adherence to recommended treatment, or adoption of innovative products and services, providers, suppliers, and product manufacturers seek ways to address such roadblocks. Yet, solutions may convey meaningful value to a recipient referral source raising questions of improper influence and inducements under the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute and the Patient Inducement Prohibition. While the analysis of any arrangement is a fact-specific inquiry, OIG guidance, advisory opinions, and government investigations provide helpful insight into those arrangements, which may attract government scrutiny. In this webinar, Arnold & Porter attorneys Allison Shuren and Mike Wood highlight key compliance considerations and offer a framework for analyzing compliance risk for those offering value-added items and services and those who may benefit — particularly for those offerings that are new and different and without a parallel addressed in existing advisory opinions or represented in a government investigation.