Responses to: Giving trial O&P items to patients in rehab

Responses to: Giving trial O&P items to patients in rehab

Jeremy Sprouse

10/8/2014

Thanks to all who responded (almost 100 responses). One person said it was
unethical, about a 1/4 said it was fraud...the rest said it was in the best
interest of the patient to provide the items so that the patient can receive
therapy. Some admitted they did not know if it would be considered fraud,
but they have been providing items before the 2 day discharge for years. A
few had called Medicare about it and were told Medicare could not prevent a
provider from giving a patient anything. Some brought up a good point
about it maybe being considered a kickback since it would entice a facility
to use one company over another. I'm not sure, I know I have sat through
several seminars at our Academy meetings where the lecturer stated they did
this very thing. So it's another area where the answer is clear as mud. I
will try to call Medicare myself and try to get an answer, but my previous
calls to Medicare's fraud unit have been very uninformative.

Jeremy