Health Law Scan
In a March 19 letter to CMS and HHS-OIG, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) continued their oversight efforts regarding physician-owned distributorship (POD) relationships by raising questions about US Sunshine compliance by PODs. PODs involve the ownership of medical device distributorships by surgeons who use or recommend those products in their surgical procedures. The senators are critical of CMS and OIG efforts to expose and deter POD arrangements, citing long-held concerns that POD arrangements are, as the OIG has suggested in a prior Fraud Bulletin, "inherently suspect” and abusive arrangements that promote medically unnecessary services. The March letter raises an often debated question regarding POD compliance with Physician Sunshine Rules and whether CMS or the OIG have taken sufficient steps to assure transparency compliance with these particular arrangements.