Sources: 42 C.F.R. § 411.357(m)
9. Medical Staff Incidental Benefits
Incidental benefits (e.g., free parking, discounted cafeteria meals, etc.) provided by hospitals (or other facilities or health care clinics that have bona fide medical staffs) to their medical staff, if:
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The benefits are offered to all members of the medical staff practicing in the same specialty (but not necessarily accepted by every member to whom they are offered) without regard to the volume or value of referrals;
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Except with respect to identification of the medical staff on a hospital Web site or in hospital advertising, the benefits are provided only during periods when the medical staff members are engaged in other services or activities that benefit the hospital or its patients;
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The benefits are provided by the hospital and used only on the hospital’s campus;*
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The benefits are reasonably related to the provision of, or designed to facilitate directly or indirectly the delivery of, medical services at the hospital;
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The benefits are of low value (less than $33 as of January 1, 2016)** with respect to each occurrence of the benefit (e.g., each meal given to a physician while he is serving patients who are hospitalized);
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The benefits are not determined in a manner that takes into account the volume or value of referrals or other business generated between the parties; and
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The arrangement does not violate the anti-kickback statute or any laws or regulations governing billing or claims submission.
*Benefits including, but not limited to, Internet access, pagers, or two-way radios, used away from the campus only to access hospital medical records or information or to access patients or personnel who are on the hospital campus, as well as the identification of the medical staff on a Web site or in hospital advertising, will be deemed to meet this “on campus” requirement.
**This amount will be adjusted for inflation each January 1 using the CPI-U for the 12 month-period that ends the previous September 30, see https://www.cms.gov/medicare/fraud-and-abuse/physicianselfreferral/cpi-u_updates.html.