Selling a Medical Practice: Business Broker Listing Agreement Basics

Business Broker Listing Agreement

Business Broker Listing AgreementBy: Amanda Bhikhari

Many physician groups and health care companies will enter the market at some point to sell their business. In the rare case, the selling group will already have a buyer who is ready and willing to pay and close on the business sale. More often than not however, most sellers will utilize the services of a business broker to help find a suitable buyer, and will compensate the broker on a commission basis upon closing.  Unlike real estate closings, whereby the main concern is the title of the property being conveyed, medical practice sales require much more detailed representation on all aspects of the business, including but not limited to, real property, existing contracts, existing patients, and medical equipment.

Before signing a business broker listing agreement, ensure that the following points are considered to avoid potential pitfalls:Continue reading

$1.2B Health Care Fraud Schemes Involving Telemedicine and Durable Medical Equipment Marketing Executives

Via justice.gov – One of the largest health care fraud schemes investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and prosecuted by the Department of Justice resulted in charges against 24 defendants, including the CEOs, COOs and others associated with five telemedicine companies, the owners of dozens of durable medical equipment (DME) companies and three licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in health care fraud schemes involving more than $1.2 billion in loss, as well as the execution of over 80 search warrants in 17 federal districts.  In addition, the Center for Medicare Services, Center for Program Integrity (CMS/CPI) announced today that it took adverse administrative action against 130 DME companies that had submitted over $1.7 billion in claims and were paid over $900 million. Read on…

Time out! Keeping Healthcare Lead Generation in Check

healthcare lead generation

healthcare lead generationBy: Michael Silverman

There are perfectly compliant ways to engage with healthcare marketers, and then there’s this; here are some of the latest real-life examples:

“DME BRACE CAMPAIGN – $40 to $150 PER LEAD PER BRACE”

“DME DIABETIC LEADS $40 PER LEAD, INSURANCE AND DOC INFO INCLUDED”

“PAIN CREAM/LIDOCANE LEADS FOR SALE, RX INCLUDED”

These marketers are seemingly holding auctions for the sale of federally protected patient health information out to the highest bidder! Couldn’t make this stuff up – if you’re in this industry, a quick gander at your (business) social media platforms will quickly confirm it.Continue reading

Marketing for DME & Pharmacy Providers: Know Your Subcontractor!

Florida estate tax planning

marketing for dmeBy: Michael Silverman

Regulatory compliance is a mandatory investment for any healthcare business owner looking to stay out of serious and personal legal peril, let alone one hoping to keep their company viable.

Yet there is seemingly an onslaught of providers that blatantly run afoul of many of these regulations, knowingly or not, or those that believe they may have found a loophole.

Concerning the latter, there is an important mantra that such DME and pharmacy providers should remember and live by: “[W]hat a provider cannot do directly, it cannot do indirectly through an intermediary.”

Marketing for DME – What exactly am I talking about?

DME providers enrolled with CMS (should) know they cannot solicit or ‘cold call’ Medicare Part B beneficiaries, per the Federal Anti-Solicitation Statute, and that they cannot offer anything of value to a potential patient that could induce them to utilize them as a provider, in accordance with the Beneficiary Inducement Statute.Continue reading

Pharmacy Billing Basics: Know Your Payor!

pharmacy billing

pharmacy billingBy: Michael Silverman

In giving consideration to whether healthcare regulations apply to a proposed course of conduct it’s absolutely vital for a pharmacy to know its payor! This is especially so in the context of patient marketing and the various regulatory prohibitions on paying for healthcare referrals. Unfortunately, some pharmacy owners remain a bit mixed up about who the ultimate payor is for the medications they dispense, and, depending on that pharmacy’s billing operations, such mistakes can have devastating consequences.

A large part of this confusion might be attributed to the fact that in most instances, a pharmacy is not billing the ultimate payor directly (unlike a DMEPOS provider that may be directly submitting claims to Medicare Part B), but rather, the pharmacy is billing an intermediary entity called a Pharmacy Benefit Manager (“PBM”), which is usually a commercially run entity (non-government owned) that manages and adjudicates claims on behalf of health insurance plans that cover pharmacy benefits.Continue reading

State Court Ruling on Patient Brokering Act Threatens Healthcare Facilities and Providers

patient brokering actA recent ruling by a state trial court handling the Palm Beach County Sober Home Task Force prosecutions against providers of addiction treatment and sober home services is creating lots of confusion and alarm around the state and could have very far reaching consequences for the entire healthcare industry well beyond addiction treatment.

The issue presented by the prosecution focuses on whether a person charged with violating the state’s Patient Brokering Act (PBA) can be found guilty even if he/she didn’t know what he was doing was unlawful. The PBA broadly prohibits paying someone for patient referrals, very much like the federal Anti-Kickback statute.  If allowed, the client would have gotten legal advice, paid for it, followed it, and still not be able to show a judge or jury that, despite all their best efforts, they simply followed the law as instructed.

Can a healthcare facility or provider be guilty of violating a criminal law [the PBA] if they’d gotten legal advice and followed it?  Traditionally, the answer would be a clear “no.”  The argument against the State’s position would be something like “How can someone intend to violate a criminal law if they got legal advice regarding how to comply with it and then followed that advice?”  The argument of the state might look something like “We don’t even think the judge or jury ought to be able to hear that the person got legal advice and followed it.”  The court punted the issue to the appellate court.Continue reading

Healthcare Marketing Lesson: Compound Pharmacy Kickback Scheme

healthcare marketingBy: Jacqueline Bain

Monty Ray Grow was a defensive back on the Florida Gators’ football team from 1990 until 1993. He contracted to play for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1994 and then for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1995 and 1996. On February 5, 2018, he was convicted by a federal jury in Miami for his chief role in a massive healthcare marketing scheme designed to defraud Tricare.

Tricare is a health benefit program that provides civilian benefits for U.S Armed Forces military personnel, retirees, their dependents, and some military reservists. Tricare is a Department of Defense Program.

In September 2014, Grow entered into an agreement with a compounding pharmacy in Pompano Beach, Florida, wherein the pharmacy would pay Grow’s marketing company a commission equal to fifty percent (50%) of what the pharmacy netted in Tricare reimbursement from Grow’s referral of Tricare beneficiaries to the pharmacy. (Later on, Grow became an employee of the pharmacy.) Grow then used his commission to offer and pay recruiters to convince Tricare beneficiaries to use this pharmacy. Additionally, Grow offered and paid Tricare beneficiaries themselves to use this pharmacy.Continue reading

Is Your Substance Abuse Marketing Service Licensed? Check Here

healthcare fraud

addiction marketingBefore doing business in Florida, an entity providing substance abuse marketing services must be licensed by Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Protection. This includes includes either telephone solicitation from a location in Florida or solicitation from other states or nations for substance abuse and addiction treatment centers located in Florida.

As of November 27, 2017, only the following entities are licensed by the State of Florida to provide marketing services to substance abuse and addiction treatment centers:

  • A Way and a Means, LLC (Delray Beach, Florida)
  • Addiction International Holdings, LLC d/b/a The Addiction Advisor d/b/a The Recovery Miracle (Boca Raton, Florida)
  • Advanced Recovery Systems, LLC (Winter Park, Florida)
  • Bandwidth Interactive Company d/b/a Local Management (Boca Raton, Florida)
  • Delphi Behavioral Health Group, LLC (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)
  • Freedom From Addiction, LLC (Miami Beach, Florida)
  • Infoworx Direct, LLC d/b/a Addiction Hope and Help Line (Boca Raton, Florida)
  • Invigorate Solutions, LLC d/b/a Local Management (Boca Raton, Florida)
  • Meridian Treatment Solutions, LLC (Lauderdale by the Sea, Florida)
  • NPA Consulting Group, LLC (Pompano Beach, Florida)
  • Palm Partners, LLC (Palm Springs, Florida)
  • Parent Team, LLC (Santa Rosa, California)
  • Pryme Time Media, LLC (Sunrise, Florida)
  • R360, LLC (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)
  • Redwood Recovery Solutions, LLC d/b/a com (Riviera Beach, Florida)
  • Ring2Media, LLC (Westport, Connecticut)
  • Rybchinskiy Inc. (Boynton Beach, Florida)
  • Sober Network, Inc. (Delray Beach, Florida)
  • The Addiction Network, LLC (North Miami, Florida)
  • True Choice Health Group Limited Liability Company (Pompano Beach, Florida)
  • United Addiction Specialists, LLC (Hollywood, Florida)
  • USR Holdings, LLC (Coconut Creek, Florida)

It is a third degree felony for: any person to work for an entity that does not have a current and valid license; or for any entity to invite telephone calls or other communications with a substance abuse marketer who is soliciting clients without a current and valid substance abuse marketing license; or for any person or entity to solicit without a license; or for any person who otherwise violates the law requiring licensure either directly or indirectly. Any person who is convicted of a second or subsequent violation commits a felony of the second degree.

Recovery Business Marketing 2.0

By: Jeff Cohen

Concepts that drive sober home relationships like Anti-Kickback Statute, Patient Brokering Act and Safe Harbor have become ingrained in the minds of nearly every addiction treatment provider’s thought process, especially in Florida with the development of the Sober Home Task Force.  Providers now seem to fully embrace ideas like–

  • There’s a federal law (the Anti-Kickback Statute, the “AKS”) that can bring criminal liability for marketing done incorrectly;
  • There’s a state law, the Florida Patient Brokering Act (“PBA”), that can do the same;
  • Complying with the federal safe harbors and the bona fide employee exception is important, even when there are no state or federal healthcare program dollars involved;
  • Paying anyone for marketing, not just on a commission based sales model, without fully appreciate the applicable laws is dangerous, costly and invites criminal inquiries and liability; and
  • Achieving compliance with applicable federal law should be part of any recovery business’ overall compliance plan.

Recovery providers must become familiar with not only the AKS and state restrictions like the PBA, but also the law’s permitted examples, so called “Safe Harbors,” which specify specifically permitted arrangements (42 CFR 1001.952).  The “personal services arrangement and management contract” Safe Harbor, for instance, has particular application in the area of marketing, as does the AKS exception for “bona fide employment arrangements,” which apply to “bona fide” W-2 employees (entailing direction, supervision and control), but not independent contractor relationships.Continue reading

Managing Medical Device Anti Kickback Risks for Physicians

By: Shobha Lizaso

Less than a year ago that medical device developer, Olympus Corp, agreed to pay a $646 million settlement to resolve claims of illegal kickbacks to physicians and hospitals. This is considered to be the largest settlement amount in the history of violations to the Anti-kickback Statute. The federal Anti-Kickback Statute (“Anti-Kickback Statute”) is a criminal statute that prohibits the exchange (or offer to exchange), of anything of value, in an effort to induce or reward the referral of federal health care program business.  Conviction for a single violation under the Anti-Kickback Statute may result in a fine of up to $25,000 and imprisonment for up to five (5) years.  In addition, a conviction will result in mandatory exclusion from participation in federal health care programs. The government may also assess civil money penalties, which could result in treble damages plus $50,000 for each violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute.

Between 2006 and 2011, Olympus offered consulting deals among many other bribes to influence physicians to order and prescribe Olympus medical devices. These consulting agreements provided for large up-front payments to physicians under the guise of medical device development. Olympus failed to focus on compliance and didn’t have policies and procedures in place to prevent illegal arrangements such as these. These physicians were retained as consultants, but most provided very little consulting services; they were utilized as device promoters. Physicians have a duty to order medical devices solely on the traditional standards of quality, price, and appropriateness for the medical conditions treated. Moreover, the ordering of medical devices by a physician must never be influenced by personal financial gain.Continue reading