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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

  1. competitive bidding
  2. orthotics and prosthetics
  3. the van halem group

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