Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Jennifer Michael was interviewed on the American Health Law Association’s (AHLA) Speaking of Health Law podcast about the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) June 29 Advisory Opinion 22-14 regarding an ophthalmology practice’s request to offer continuing education (CE) programs for local optometrists. During the podcast, Jennifer outlined the four different CE programs proposed by the ophthalmology practice and OIG’s analysis of each proposal.
When speaking about OIG’s response, Jennifer stated, “it’s unclear whether the primary problem here was the fact that requester is an ophthalmology practice. It is not really in the business of putting on CE. And if this had been an independent entity providing CE whether this all would be fine. That would be helpful to know that if that’s the position that OIG would take … just to walk through that analysis and explain where the tipping point was from low risk to more than a minimal risk of fraud and abuse, would’ve been really helpful guidance for the industry.”
The full podcast, “Fraud and Abuse: Advisory Opinion 22-14 and the Impact on Continuing Education Programs,” was released on July 29 as part of the AHLA’s Speaking of Health Law podcast series and is available wherever you get your podcast content.
For more information on the topic, Jennifer recently co-authored the firm’s article “Sponsoring Continuing Education Programs—OIG Weighs in with Advisory Opinion 22-14” that is available online. In addition, she recently co-presented a webinar “How to Request an Advisory Opinion (and Why),” that is available to watch on demand.