On July 20, 2022, HHS-OIG published a new Special Fraud Alert on arrangements with telemedicine companies, setting forth seven characteristics OIG believes could suggest a given arrangement poses a heighted risk of fraud and abuse. The Alert follows dozens of civil and criminal investigations into fraud schemes involving companies that claimed to provide telehealth, telemedicine, or telemarketing services, but allegedly engaged in kickbacks and substandard medical practices to generate medically unnecessary orders and prescriptions. Those purported telemedicine companies, OIG stated in the Alert, “exploited the growing acceptance and use of telehealth” and present “the potential for considerable harm to Federal health care programs and their beneficiaries.”
OIG was careful to state that not all telemedicine companies are suspect, and this Alert is not intended to discourage legitimate telemedicine arrangements. Indeed, in 2021, OIG previously noted, “[f]or most, telehealth expansion is viewed positively, offering opportunities to increase access to services, decrease burdens for both patients and providers, and enable better care, including enhanced mental health care.” OIG is aware that many practitioners have appropriately used telehealth services during the current Public Health Emergency (PHE) to provide medically necessary care to their patients.
To help practitioners distinguish between suspect...
ST. GEORGE, Utah (ABC4) — A Utah podiatrist and two nurses have been federally indicted on fraud charges after they allegedly submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare for skin substitute services, ...