Home Health & Hospice Week
Just In Time For The Holidays, OIG Bumps Up Nominal Gift Cap Amount
It may be too late for this year’s holiday gifts, but you’ve got a bit more room under the “nominal value” cap for gift spending to Medicare beneficiaries.
In a policy statement released Dec. 7, the HHS Office of Inspector General notes that “Congress expressed its intent that inexpensive gifts of nominal value be permitted” to Medicare beneficiaries.
In 2002, the OIG “expressed its interpretation of ‘inexpensive’ or ‘nominal value’ to mean a retail value of no more than $10 per item or $50 in the aggregate per patient on an annual basis,” the agency notes in the statement at http://go.usa.gov/x8m7R.
Update: Now, the OIG is updating that amount to $15 or $75 annually, it says.
But remember: “The items may not be cash or cash equivalents,” the OIG warns in the policy statement. That means no gift cards.
You may want to play it safe and avoid holiday gift-giving altogether. If not, adhere to some basic rules like keeping track of your gift-giving amount throughout the year (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XVIII, No. 41).
Home Health & Hospice Week
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