COs must oversee physician contracts
COs must oversee physician contracts
So how can hospitals and other health care institutions avoid the anti-kickback charges faced by Kansas City’s Baptist Medical Center? "The lesson to be learned from the hospital’s point of view is that any consulting agreement with physicians who refer patients has to be looked at very, very carefully," says Houston-based criminal defense attorney Lee Hamel.
Step one, he says, is for hospitals to hire competent counsel and get that advice in writing. Step two is to have a committee at the hospital provide oversight to make sure the services outlined in the contract are actually being performed. "That is an absolute necessity," he says.
Hamel adds that compliance officers should have some oversight over these contracts. "You must make sure all consulting services called for under the contract are actually being provided so that the government can’t call it a sham," he cautions.
Tom Crane of the law firm Mintz Levin in Boston, MA, takes a similar view: "Failure to document likely had an important bearing on the outcome of the [Kansas City] case." But he also cautioned that this case still has a long way to go. "I would be stunned if it wasn’t appealed," he said.
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