OIG changes position on HIE vendor relationship arrangement

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) is no longer supporting a 2011 advisory opinion that favored a data exchange arrangement allowing EHR data to be shared for the purpose of patient referral.

Under the original OIG advisory opinion, physicians who purchased the Coordination Service Package received a discount on their monthly EHR service subscription fees for each new referral. Trading partners paid a per-order fee, which were at fair market value, for each test order the vendor sent to the trading partner.

However, in its notice of termination, OIG wrote that the arrangement could potentially generate prohibited remuneration under the federal anti-kickback statute.

“Although the discount offered under the arrangement may not influence an ordering health professional to refer a patient to, for example, a trading partner specialist versus a non-trading partner specialist, it may influence an ordering health professional to choose a trading partner for services the ordering health professional orders with a high degree of frequency, because ordering those services from a non-trading partner effectively would require the ordering health professional to forfeit the amount of the discount," according to the notice.

Read the note of termination here.