The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services has concluded that a per diem payment structure between a not-for-profit hospital and specialist physicians would not result in administrative sanctions under OIG’s civil monetary penalties law that relates to prohibited remuneration by the anti-kickback statute. According to an OIG Advisory Opinion that was posted this week:
Each year, [the hospital] allocates an aggregate annual payment amount per specialty for on-call coverage payments to participating physicians based on: (1) the likely number of days per month the specialty would be called; (2) the likely number of patients a participating physician would see per call day; and (3) the likely number of patients requiring inpatient care and post-discharge follow-up care in a participating physician’s office (OIG Advisory Opinion 12-15)
Once the aggregate amount per specialty is determined, the hospital divides this amount by 365 days to create the on-call coverage per diem fee to be paid to the specialty physicians. Notably, these physicians receive the per diem fee for each day of coverage under the arrangement even if they are not contacted by the emergency department to treat a patient.
Numerous elements of the particular arrangement at issue were highlighted by OIG as minimizing the risk of fraud and abuse. First, the per diem payment was certified by an independent consultant as commercially reasonable and within the range of fair market value for actual and necessary services. It was also calculated without regard to referrals or other business generated by the participating physicians. The OIG highlighted that the per diem amount was calculated annually in advance and was uniformly administered without regard to the individual physician’s referrals.