Home Health & Hospice Week

If you handed out gift cards to patients this holiday season, you may want to make it the last time. Gift cards have come under HHS Office of Inspector General scrutiny in a new advisory opinion and may not be compliant with the Nominal Value Exception.

“Big-box” store gift cards are especially problematic. The OIG defines “big-box” as stores that sell a “wide variety of items,” saying “such gift cards are not ‘items or services’ and are considered cash equivalents that are not protected by the exception,” according to the opinion.

The OIG “has taken the position that incentives that are only nominal in value (other than cash or cash equivalents) are not prohibited by the statute and currently interprets ‘nominal value’ to mean no more than $15 per item or $75 in the aggregate per patient on an annual basis,” the agency says.

Incentives are tempting, but consider staying away from gift cards to “big-box” stores, say attorneys at Hall Render in recent online analysis.

Consider implementing an audit of patient assistance or incentive measures in your annual compliance work plans, the attorneys advise. Noncompliance could be problematic, in terms of these gift cards, because “interpreting and applying the Nominal Value Exception can be tricky. Its status as an ‘exception’ created through guidance means that a facts-and-circumstances analysis, conducted with a clear understanding of existing regulations and guidance, is usually called for,” the attorneys note.

However, the OIG lists some safeguards your agency can adopt to make sure you remain compliant, if you feel strongly about this kind of patient incentive. You can find more information at https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/docs/advisoryopinions/2020/AdvOpn20-08.pdf.