On February 14, 2022, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued Advisory Opinion No. 22-03 (Advisory Opinion) regarding a home health agency’s (Requestor) proposal to pay nurse aide certification tuition costs on behalf of new employees hired to work as certified nurse aides (Proposed Arrangement). The OIG concluded that the Proposed Arrangement would not generate prohibited remuneration under the federal anti-kickback statute (AKS) or the beneficiary inducements civil monetary penalties (CMP).
The Requestor owns and operates home health agencies that employ certified nurse aides (CNAs). Many (over 90%) of Requestor’s patients are “medically fragile children” who require long-term services at a level similar to services that might be provided in a skilled nursing facility or hospital. Under the applicable Medicaid plan, services that are provided by parents or relatives to medically fragile children are reimbursable if the parent or relative is certified as a CNA in the state and employed by a home health agency.
Under the Proposed Arrangement, the Requestor would offer to pay the tuition costs of nurse aide certification programs for new employees who have been hired to work as CNAs but who have not yet passed the CNA certification exam. In addition to tuition costs, Requestor would pay salaries to the employees for Requestor-required training and services provided by the employees prior to CNA certification. (The state Medicaid plan provides...
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