The Boston Bar Association held its annual White Collar Crime Conference on May 7, 2026, featuring lawyers from the defense and plaintiffs’ bar and current and former prosecutors from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts (the Office) and the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General.
Health Law Scan
Legal Insights and Perspectives for the Healthcare Industry
The US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently issued Advisory Opinion No. 26-02, concluding that a proposed arrangement under which an urgent care management entity would operate an affiliated clinical laboratory would not generate prohibited remuneration under the federal Anti-Kickback Statute.
In a relatively rare move, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently issued an unfavorable Advisory Opinion (No. 25-08) (Opinion) reinforcing the agency’s expansive view of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS).
On May 8, 2025, the Boston Bar Association hosted its annual White Collar Crime Conference, a reoccurring theme of which was the recognition of changing times, while also maintaining that the core principles of criminal and civil fraud enforcement remain the same. An anticipated highlight from the conference came from the panel addressing federal and state False Claims Act (FCA) and Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) enforcement priorities.
The US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) published favorable Advisory Opinion No. 23-15 on January 3, which concluded that a consultant’s proposal to provide gift cards to existing physician practice customers in exchange for referring other physician practices to the vendor would not implicate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS).
The US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) posted on October 25, 2023 Advisory Opinion No. 23-08, in which OIG rejected a proposed arrangement from a cochlear implant device manufacturer (the requestor) that would provide a free hearing aid to certain qualified patients who received a cochlear implant.
Last month, we had an engaging Fast Break session covering compliance topics regarding healthcare professionals’ relationships with pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers. We were joined by Terrence Burek, senior counsel, neurology & immunology at EMD Serono, and Morgan Lewis partner Scott Memmott, who highlighted specific compliance risk areas for healthcare professionals (HCPs), as well as permissible interactions with pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers and contracting/risk mitigation best practices.