Q: Dr. M., Can you give incentives to existing patients for referring their friends? For example: a.. patient contest with a prize for patients who referred the most b.. free visits for each referral c.. free massage for a friend d.. 1 entry in a drawing for a large gift for each referral e.. waive "co-pay" f.. etc. g: What about for medicare patients? Is it considered a kickback? Thanks...any help would be truly appreciated A: Thanks for the e-mail. Incentives are the mainstay of marketing .. ethics is the mainstay of healthcare. Therefore .. check your state Board ethics ruling on advertising and promotions as each state differ. I am not sure of the recent ruling of the board. You can probably do a web search for the Ga. Board of Chiropractic and read their opinion. Okay .. now what would I do. If there is an internal promotional program with free visits or nominal gifts for patient participation the I think it is okay (again what I think and what the board thinks are two different things so check with them). With the list you provided this would be my take: a.. patient contest with a prize for patients who refer the most (okay) b.. free visits for each referral (okay) c.. free massage for a friend (okay) d.. 1 entry in a drawing for a large gift for each referral (okay) e.. waive "co-pay" (questionable) f.. etc. (depends what the etc's are) g: What about for Medicare patients? Is it considered a kickback? Medicare is a Federal program and harbors bad news if you are caught doing things improper. I would think that a Medicare patient is the same as anyone else and considering what you asked above the same goes for them. Remember that HIPPA regulations are not just for privacy but to reduce fraud and this means unnecessary visits or procedures offered through questionable means such as free care or free therapy or free anything. Kind of makes it difficult if you wish to help people. So .. walk softly and do what you have to do. Have a Great Day Dr. M ------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------- ----------------------- Headers -------------------------------- Return-Path: Received: from rly-yb04.mx.aol.com (rly-yb04.mail.aol.com [172.18.146.4]) by air-yb04.mail.aol.com (v94.27) with ESMTP id MAILINYB42-38c63ede2764261; Wed, 04 Jun 2003 13:07:48 -0400 Received: from agamemnon.xo.com (agamemnon.xo.com [207.155.252.38]) by rly-yb04.mx.aol.com (v94.27) with ESMTP id MAILRELAYINYB42- 1923ede2752133; Wed, 04 Jun 2003 13:07:40 -0400 Received: from LAPTOP1 (w012.z064002164.atl-ga.dsl.cnc.net [64.2.164.12]) by agamemnon.xo.com id NAA09977; Wed, 4 Jun 2003 13:07:29 -0400 (EDT) [ConcentricHost SMTP Relay 1.15] Errors-To: Message-ID: <006401c32aba$8e6408b0$050a0a0a@Perimeter.local> From: "Edward Schneider" To: Subject: marketing question Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2003 12:58:41 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/related; type="multipart/alternative"; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0060_01C32A99.05AFB530" X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 X-AOL-IP: 172.18.146.4