With the end of the public health emergency, clinicians won’t be able to prescribe controlled substance medications via telehealth without an in-person visit.
The Office of the Inspector General issued a special fraud alert in July concerning telehealth fraud, only the fourth special fraud alert in the last decade. The fraud alert cautioned against misleading marketing practices and emphasized how important transparency is. Jeremy Sherer, co-chair of Hooper, Lundy & Bookman’s digital health practice group describes what this means for telehealth companies. MedCity News: What do GCs need to know to advise clients who are healthcare companies in light of this fraud alert? Sherer: There’s a clear focus on how companies are marketing right now, and that’s not just from the OIG. We’ve seen attention from the FTC recently as well. The big takeaway is the importance of transparency about who is advertising and what their relationship is to a medical practice, or a management services organization (MSO) that provides services to a medical practice. And then, while it’s nothing new, physician compensation needs to b