Questionable Business Arrangements
No special charge or payment constraints are imposed on tests performed by a physician or a technician under the physician’s supervision. There are two requirements for all diagnostic tests under §1861(s)(3) of the Act, as implemented by 42 CFR §410.32 . Namely, the test must be ordered by the treating practitioner, and the test must be supervised by a physician. However, attempts may be made by the medical diagnostic community to adjust or establish arrangements which continue to allow physicians to profit from other’s work or by creating the appearance that the physician has performed or supervised his/her technicians who are employed, contracted, or leased. Some of these arrangements may involve cardiac scanning services and mobile ultrasound companies leasing their equipment to physicians for the day the equipment is used, and hiring out their staff to the physicians to meet the supervision requirement.
The bona fides of such arrangements may be suspect and could be an attempt to circumvent the anti-markup payment limitation. If you have any doubt that a particular arrangement is a valid relationship where the physician is performing or supervising the services, this should be investigated. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has responsibility for investigating violations of §1842(n) of the Act.
Another arrangement to circumvent the anti-markup payment limitation is for the ordering physician to reassign his/her payment for the interpretation of the test to the supplier. The supplier, in turn, bills for both the test and the interpretation and pays the ordering physician a fee for the interpretation. This arrangement violates §1842(b)(6) of the Act, which prohibits Medicare from paying benefits due the person that furnished the service to any other person, subject to limited exceptions discussed in Pub. 100-04, chapter 1, §30.2.2. Also, this arrangement could constitute a violation of §1128 B (b) of the Act, which prohibits remuneration for referrals (i.e., kickbacks).
Violations of §1128B (b) of the Act may subject the physician or supplier to criminal penalties or exclusion from the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Illegal remuneration for referrals can be found even when the ordering physician performs some service for the remuneration.
