From The van Halem Group: Bid Winners in the Off-The-Shelf Bracing Category Should be Wary of Lead-Generation Services

Published in Orthotics & Prosthetics on November 23, 2020

In a recent blog from The van Halem Group, information about the latest competitive bidding updates and off-the-shelf bracing is provided.

Direct-to-consumer marketing and lead-generation are perfectly legal manners in which to court potential customers. However, with Medicare patients, there are a number of laws that HME suppliers must abide by. One of the reasons that CMS put off-the-shelf (OTS) braces into competitive bidding was the fraudulent and abusive practices that were occurring in this category. In fact, much of the fraudulent activity that occurred involved lead-generation services and questionable marketing practices. It is important to remember that you cannot contract with a third-party to perform activities that you cannot legally do on your own, to include cold-calling Medicare patients or paying physicians to perform evaluations, both of which are activities we have seen in the OTS bracing market – which resulted in a number of criminal indictments.

If you are a competitive bid winner in the OTS category, you will likely be inundated with calls from lead-generation services that will promise to make you a lot of money and drive a lot of business to you. You need to know the laws and do your due diligence.

Click here to read the full article.

TAGS