Payment of $50 for Each Referred Customer Who Signed

Against the backdrop of its typically restrictive views of rewarding the referral of federal business, in an Advisory Opinion in 2023 the OGI approved a program where a physician consulting company would pay a $25 gift card to its physician customers for each potential additional physician customer the physician group referred, and further payment of $50 for each referred customer who signed with them. The consulting company advised on a range of issues some of which might increase a physician’s incentive payments under MIPS. Nonetheless the OIG took the position that these were not payments to refer federal business, they were not paid out of federal business payments and that the whole arrangement was outside the scope of their jurisdiction. We have many clients who seek to find ways to reward referrals to them. This Opinion offers some guidance on the restrictions that must be in place for such a program be compliant.