Marketing to Medicare or Medicaid Beneficiaries - What You Can and Cannot Do

Because the Anti-Kickback Statute is so broad in what it proscribes, healthcare organizations, conducting what would be normal marketing activities in other industries, have run afoul of the Statute on numerous occasions.  The Statute and the regulations only tell part of the story.  This program will review not only the Statute and its safe harbors but will provide an in-depth overview of OIG guidance and advisory opinions dealing with marketing activities, as well as a review of case law regarding marketing behavior.

This program will discuss the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute, what it prohibits, its penalties, its scope, and its exceptions. It will also discuss how the Medicare and Medicaid Patient and Program Protection Act of 1987 changed the Act and how it is administered. It will also discuss how the 1987 Act added protections for entities covered by the AKS.
 
The program will also review guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General as well as case law interpreting the AKS. In addition, we will also provide recommendations regarding how organizations should conduct marketing activities.

• Federal Anti-Kickback Statute
• Anti-Kickback Statute
• OIG guidance and advisory opinions
• Medicare and Medicaid Patient and Program Protection Act of 1987
• Case law interpreting the AKS
• Recommendations regarding how organizations should conduct marketing activities. 

• An understanding of the Federal False Claims Act.
• An understanding of the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute.
• How the OIG deals with potential violations.
• Understand how the Medicare and Medicaid Patient and Program Protection Act of 1987 affects marketing activities.
• Understand how the courts deal with potential violations.
• Learn how you can conduct compliant marketing activities.

If your organization, be it a hospital, physician practice, DME provider, or any other provider offering healthcare services or supplies, engages in marketing its product or services, care must be taken to ensure that the organization does not run afoul of the Anti-Kickback Statute.  This program will review not only the Statute itself, and the safe harbors, but will also critique the case law, OIG advisory opinions, and OIG compliance guidance to help you understand what you can and cannot do with engaging in healthcare marketing.

When you finish this program, you should have a good understanding of what you can and cannot do about marketing activities.  The penalties for not conducting a marketing program correctly can be severe, including exclusion, civil monetary penalties, and even criminal prosecution.

• Hospital executives
• Physicians, including dentists, podiatrists and chiropractors
• Physician practice executives
• DME provider executives
• Ancillary service providers
• Ancillary service provider executives. And 
• Attorneys representing any of the above.

William Mack Copeland, MS, JD, PhD, LFACHE, practices health care law in Cincinnati at the firm of Copeland Law, LLC, where he is president and CEO. He is also president of Executive & Managerial Development Group, a consulting entity providing compliance and other fraud and abuse related services. A graduate of Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College of Law, Bill is a frequent author and speaker on health law topics. He is a member of the American Health Lawyers Association, American, Ohio and Cincinnati Bar Associations. A former hospital chief executive officer, he is a life fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives. He was awarded the American College of Health Care Executives Senior-Level Healthcare Executive Regent’s Award in 2007.