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Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Compliance:

Follow These 5 Strategies When Providing Freebies to Patients

Published on Sat Jun 12, 2010

Would offering free dietary counseling be okay in this scenario? Offering free services or items can be a boon for patient care, but you have to follow certain rules if you don't want the government to lower the boom on you. Consider these key approaches to stay on the right side of the compliance line. 1. Keep an eye on the value of the service or item and how you promote it. "Under the HIPAA beneficiary inducement provisions, you can provide $10 worth of free services/products per encounter with a total of $50 a year," says attorney Lisa Ohrin in Washington, D.C. Example: Suppose a cardiovascular practice offers Medicare patients 10 minutes each of free dietary counseling during a cardiovascular work-up. The patients can receive the free counseling on a one-time basis. The practice pays the dietitian providing the counseling $50 an hour, which is the going market rate in [...]
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