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In a recent advisory opinion, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) opined that employment of an anesthesia provider may be low risk under the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) under certain circumstances. This opinion, Advisory Opinion 21-15, may represent a softening of OIG’s position on anesthesia providers.

OIG’s position on anesthesia providers is largely found in a 2012 advisory opinion, Advisory Opinion 12-06, concerning two proposals by an anesthesia provider (Requestor) for structuring its relationship with several ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). Under the first proposal, the Requestor would remain the ASCs’ sole provider of anesthesia services but would also pay the ASCs a per-patient fee, exclusive of federal healthcare beneficiaries, in exchange for management services (e.g., pre-operative nursing assessments, procuring office space, and transferring billing documentation). OIG rejected this proposal, finding that the carve-out for federal healthcare beneficiaries would not save the per-patient management fee from constituting improper remuneration under AKS. Specifically, by collecting both a management fee from the Requestor and a facility fee from payors, OIG concluded that the ASCs would be receiving double payments for the same services and therefore would be unduly influenced to keep the Requestor as their exclusive provider of anesthesia services to all patients.

Under the second proposal, the ASCs’ physician-owners would form wholly owned subsidiaries for the purpose of providing anesthesia services to ASC patients. The subsidiaries would bill for and furnish all anesthesia-related services (e.g., recruiting personnel and assisting in structuring employment or independent contractor relationships with anesthesia personnel, ordering supplies, quality assurance, and providing logistics). The subsidiaries would pay the Requestor a negotiated rate for its services and retain any profits, presumably for distribution to the non-anesthesiologist physician-owners. OIG rejected this proposal as well, concluding that no AKS safe harbor would protect the distribution of profits from the subsidiaries to their physician-owners because such profits would be a function of the Requestor’s anesthesia services revenue resulting from the physician-owners’ referrals. In particular, OIG found the ASC safe harbor inapplicable because it protects only returns on investments in Medicare-certified ASCs, or entities operated exclusively for the purpose of providing “surgical” services, and anesthesia services are nonsurgical in nature. Additionally, while noting that payments by the subsidiaries to the Requestor, employees, or independent contractors could be protected under the personal services, employee, and/or management contract safe harbors, OIG nevertheless indicated that none of these safe harbors would protect the distributions of profits from the subsidiaries to their physician-owners, since a likely purpose of such distributions would be to generate referrals for anesthesia services.

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This is the second installment in a two-part series regarding the No Surprises Act, which establishes new requirements that will apply to certain healthcare providers and facilities, and providers of air ambulance services. These requirements generally apply to items and services provided to individuals enrolled in group health plans, group or individual health insurance coverage, and Federal Employees Health Benefit plans. Please see our previous post for more information on these requirements.

Below is an overview of the remaining provider and facility requirements that will become effective on January 1, 2022:

  • No balance billing for air ambulance services by non-participating air ambulance providers: Providers of air ambulance services will generally be prohibited from billing or holding liable beneficiaries, enrollees, or participants in group health plans or group or individual health insurance coverage who received covered air ambulance services from a non-participating air ambulance provider for a payment amount greater than the in-network cost-sharing requirement for such services.
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Effective January 1, 2022 under the No Surprises Act, healthcare providers, facilities, and providers of air ambulance services will be subject to new requirements that generally apply to items and services provided to individuals enrolled in group health plans, group or individual health insurance coverage, and Federal Employees Health Benefit plans. The good faith estimate requirement and the requirements related to the patient-provider dispute resolution process also generally apply to the uninsured. These requirements generally do not apply to beneficiaries or enrollees in federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Indian Health Services, Veterans Affairs Health Care, or TRICARE.

Below is an overview of some of the provider and facility requirements that will become effective on January 1, 2022. Stay tuned next week for further information.

  • No balance billing for out-of-network emergency services: Non-participating providers and emergency facilities will generally be forbidden from billing or holding liable beneficiaries, enrollees, or participants in group health plans or group or individual health insurance coverage who receive emergency services at a hospital or an independent freestanding emergency department for a payment amount greater than the in-network cost-sharing requirement for such services. There are exceptions for certain post-stabilization services if the notice and consent requirements are satisfied. However, the exception is not available for services furnished as a result of unforeseen, urgent medical needs that arise at the time an item or service is furnished, regardless of whether the notice and consent criteria are satisfied and regardless of whether they are emergency or non-emergency services.
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The Biden Administration recently announced plans to require commercial insurers to cover over-the-counter and at-home COVID-19 tests. Commercial insurers are currently required to cover in vitro diagnostic (IVD) products that test for COVID-19. Most often, this has taken the form of clinical laboratory testing wherein the lab or other provider submits a claim to the insurer for reimbursement. However, many providers have encountered pushback from insurers, usually based on the unclear criteria of the current mandate. More guidance is due to be released on January 15, 2022.

Currently, commercial insurers are required by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and the CARES Act to cover, without cost-sharing requirements, IVD products for the detection of SARS–CoV–2 or the diagnosis of the virus that causes COVID–19 that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration or otherwise authorized. The implementation of this coverage mandate is governed by guidance jointly released by the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor (DOL), and Transportation (DOT).

In general, this guidance requires that the test be covered where it is medically appropriate for the individual, as determined by the individual’s attending healthcare provider in an “individualized clinical assessment,” consulting CDC guidelines as appropriate and in accordance with accepted standards of current medical practice. The provider need not be the patient’s attending provider as long as they are authorized and acting within the scope of their license. The insurer is then required to cover the test without prior authorization, the presence of symptoms, or other medical management criteria. Where the patient seeks a test from a licensed or authorized provider, insurers are generally required to assume that the test reflects an “individualized clinical assessment” and cover the test. On the other hand, under the mandate, insurers are not required to cover testing for back to work/school purposes or for general screening. Testing for travel-relating purposes may be covered under the mandate, depending on the circumstances, but is often a matter of contentious debate that thus far has not been resolved by federal guidance.

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On November 15, 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a press release explaining the agency’s intent to withdraw a policy established during the Trump Administration that limited the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) ability to regulate COVID-19 laboratory-developed tests (LDTs). The new policy allows the FDA to require clinical labs to submit emergency use authorization (EUA) requests for such tests. On the same day, FDA published a revised Policy for Coronavirus Disease-2019 Tests During the Public Health Emergency and an Umbrella EUA for serial testing using certain LDTs, as well as updated the majority of its FAQs on Testing for COVID-19.

In an FDA press release also published on November 15, the agency outlined its current areas of focus for EUA reviews:

  • At-home and point-of-care (POC) diagnostic tests for use with or without a prescription and that can be manufactured in high volumes;
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After a hiatus during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Medicare audits have resumed in full force. Providers and suppliers should be prepared to respond to audits that were paused during the pandemic, the initiation of new audits, and audits relating to the various pandemic relief programs.

In early 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) directed its contractors to pause audit activities as auditors were unable to work in the office and healthcare providers were reeling from the multiple impacts of the pandemic. CMS both paused in-progress audits and temporarily halted the initiation of new audits.

In late 2020, CMS authorized Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) to resume post-payment audits. Over the last year, CMS has authorized the resumption of nearly every type of audit and the initiation of new audits. As Medicare contractors process these directives and restart their audit activities, Medicare provides are seeing a wave of documentation requests, audit determinations, overpayment demands, and appeal decisions. Audits and claims appeals that have been dormant for a year or longer are suddenly active. New audits are being initiated for the first time in over year. And, in addition to audits by Medicare and other payors, providers must face compliance challenges and potential audits from pandemic relief programs, such as the Provider Relief Fund.

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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued the CY 2022 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payment System Final Rule, which finalized Medicare payment rates for hospital outpatient and ASC services. In addition to updating the payment rates, the 2022 Final Rule includes updates to the Inpatient Only and ASC code list, as well as policies aimed at addressing the healthy equity gap, fighting the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE), encouraging transparency in the health system, and promoting safe, effective, and patient-centered care. The provisions of the final rule take effect January 1, 2022.

When setting the OPPS and ASC rates, CMS typically uses recent available claims data so that the payment rates can accurately reflect estimates of the costs associated with furnishing outpatient services. The recent claims data CMS uses usually reflects the two years prior to the calendar year that is the subject of rulemaking. However, due to the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 PHE-related factors on CY 2020 claims data, CMS has concluded that CY 2019 data is the most recent complete calendar year of data that will generally provide a better approximation of expected costs for CY 2022 hospital outpatient services for rate-setting purposes. As a result, CMS is generally using CY 2019 claims data to set the CY 2022 OPPS and ASC payment system rates.

Since the OPPS was originally established, CMS has maintained the Inpatient Only (IPO) list, which is a list of services that Medicare will only pay for when performed in the inpatient setting, in large part due to their medical complexity. In the CY 2021 OPPS/ASC final rule, CMS finalized a policy to eliminate the IPO list over a three-year period and removed 298 services from the IPO list in the first elimination phase. Following the issuance of the 2021 final rule, CMS reported that it received significant public comments against the IPO elimination policy primarily due to patient safety concerns. In response, CMS is halting the elimination of the IPO list and adding back to the IPO list the 298 services removed in 2021, except for CPT codes 22630 (Lumbar spine fusion), 23472 (Reconstruct shoulder joint), 27702 (Reconstruct ankle joint), and their corresponding anesthesia codes.

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On November 5, 2021, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released an interim final rule with comment period to require COVID-19 vaccination for staff of certain healthcare providers. The rule applies only to certain providers, but is expansive in scope where it is applicable. Under the rule, affected staff must receive their first vaccine dose by December 6, 2021 and be fully vaccinated by January 4, 2022.

The CMS vaccine requirement does not apply to all Medicare-enrolled providers and suppliers. CMS issued the mandate under its authority to set Conditions of Participation for certain providers. Therefore, only these specific, Medicare-certified provider types are directly subject to the requirement:

  • Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs)
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On November 8, 2021, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a revised and renamed Provider Self-Disclosure Protocol. The OIG “Health Care Fraud Self-Disclosure Protocol” (SDP) is the first revision to the SDP since 2013. The Self-Disclosure Protocol is available only for matters that involve potential violations of federal criminal, civil, or administrative law for which civil monetary penalties (CMPs) are authorized. The OIG’s updated website provides that “Self-disclosure gives persons the opportunity to avoid the costs and disruptions associated with a Government-directed investigation and civil or administrative litigation.” The SDP expects that “the disclosing party should ensure that the conduct has ended or, at least, in the case of an improper kickback arrangement, that corrective action will be taken and the improper arrangement will be terminated within 90 days of submission to the SDP.” The Protocol also expects providers to complete all other necessary corrective action by the time of disclosure.

The following are several key takeaways from the revised SDP and highlight information that providers should be aware of before beginning the self-disclosure process:

  • Minimum Settlement Amounts Doubled. The revised SDP doubles the minimum settlement amounts required to resolve matters accepted into the SDP. When the matter is related to kickbacks, the minimum settlement amount has been increased from $50,000 to $100,000. For all other matters, the minimum settlement amount has been increased from $10,000 to $20,000. These increases follow the increased CMP maximum imposed by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018.
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Recent allegations by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Kaiser Permanente (Kaiser) highlight some of the tensions in proper medical coding and in internal documentation review. DOJ recently intervened in a series of whistleblower lawsuits that alleged that internal chart reviews and amendment of medical records by Kaiser constituted improper upcoding of claims for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries. DOJ accused Kaiser of coercing its employees to retroactively change or add codes in order to increase reimbursement rates. Ultimately, DOJ claimed that the alleged upcoding resulted in an estimated 75% error rate.

DOJ alleged that Kaiser physicians changed medical records often months after care was provided in order to increase Medicare Advantage reimbursement. A whistleblower claimed that more than 50% of Kaiser physicians said that they were coerced to add diagnoses that they never considered, let alone evaluated or treated. Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that Kaiser targeted codes for atherosclerosis of the aorta as having a “high rate of reimbursement.” The whistleblower claimed that Kaiser told its facilities that 40% of their bonuses would be based on how often they coded atherosclerosis of the aorta, pointing to an email between executives that identified this upcoding as a “$40M opportunity.”

The lawsuit focuses on retroactive additions and changes to patients’ medical records. These retroactive changes are usually done during retrospective chart reviews, which are typically used promote proper coding and reimbursement for services performed. Although the practice of internally reviewing charts to identify and address documentation or coding issues is common and generally permissible, the changes should be supported by proper documentation and some documentation elements must be documented at the time of service. In this case, DOJ alleged that Kaiser’s changes were not supported by documentation and that Kaiser only performed retroactive chart reviews on patients that could receive risk-adjustment payments.

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