OIG Approves Industry Stakeholders’ Contributions to a Patient Assistance Program under the Anti-Kickback Statute

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently released an advisory opinion that highlights long-standing OIG guidance as to how industry stakeholders can contribute to independent, bona fide charitable assistance programs. In this case, the patient assistance program (“Requestor”) provides grants to patients suffering from a specific disease for insurance premiums and other expenses not covered by insurance. The Requestor is a supporting organization of a nonprofit charitable foundation (“Foundation”) that exists solely to support the disease.

The Requestor’s main source of funding is the Foundation. However, all funds received from the Foundation are ultimately donations by pharmaceutical manufactures of the drugs used to treat the disease. The Requestor thus sought an advisory opinion to determine if such an arrangement would be grounds for civil monetary penalties under section 1128A(a)(5) of the Social Security Act (“Act”), covering improper beneficiary inducements, or other provisions of the Act as those sections relate to the Federal anti-kickback statute.

In the advisory opinion, AO No. 13-19, the OIG reiterates long-standing OIG guidance that industry stakeholders may contribute to the health care safety net for financially needy patients, including beneficiaries of Federal health care programs, by contributing to independent, bona fide charitable assistance programs. The OIG also states that such programs should not exert influence over donors, and donors should not have links to the charity that could directly or indirectly influence the charity’s operations or subsidy programs. Further, such programs cannot function as a conduit for payments from donors to patients, impermissibly influence beneficiary choices, or engage in practices that effectively subsidize a donor’s particular product.

In this arrangement, the OIG acknowledges that earmarking donations for a rare disease with a low number of treatment options increases the risk that the charity could serve as an improper inducement to patients that use the donor’s products. However, in approving the arrangement, the OIG highlighted several factors that sufficiently decrease the risk of improper beneficiary inducement.

The OIG’s decision was based on the following facts:

1. The Requestor does not refer patients to any donor or to any provider, supplier, product, or plan and multiple products from more than one manufacturer are available to treat the disease;
2. The Requestor does not provide assistance for copayments or deductibles, but instead pays insurance premiums and certain expenses not covered by insurance, and therefore not influencing how patients ultimately choose a provider or services;
3. No donor or affiliate exerts direct or indirect control over the Requestor, and thus the Requestor has absolute and independent discretion over the use of donor contributions;
4. Awards of assistance are truly independent from donors due to objective, verifiable, and uniform measure of financial need that is applied in a consistent manner and used to determine eligibility for the program;
5. Awards of assistance are made without regard to any donor’s interest or the patient’s choice of providers, suppliers, products, and insurance plans, or whether to receive any services at all; and
6. Donors do not receive any data that would allow them to correlate their donations with the amount or frequency of the use of their products or services.

Based on these factors, the OIG concluded that the arrangement does not constitute grounds for civil monetary penalties under section 1128A(a)(5)’s prohibition on beneficiary inducement. The OIG also found that, although prohibited remunerations could exist if the intent to induce or reward referrals of Federal health care business were present, the OIG will not impose sanctions under the Federal anti-kickback statute.

This advisory opinion demonstrates that proper safeguards that may be used to allow donors to contribute to healthcare charitable assistance programs that may ultimately result in increased utilization of their products or services.

Wachler & Associates has over 30 years of experience structuring healthcare arrangements to fit within federal and state regulations. If you or your healthcare entity have any questions regarding beneficiary inducements or the Federal anti-kickback statute, or wish to have your arrangement reviewed by our anti-kickback lawyers, please contact our health law attorneys at 248-544-0888.