Does your agreement indemnify the supplement company?

Integrative, holistic and functional medicine providers often use supplements as part of their patient treatment plans. Providers who retail supplements often are required to sign an agreement with each supplement company. Several years ago, one of the most popular supplement manufacturers inserted an indemnification clause into their provider agreement. The company maintained that the indemnification clause was fair, but the clause could force providers to pay out of pocket to defend the supplement company in litigation. Read more here. 

One of the major impacts of the COVID pandemic has been the widening acceptance of telemedicine paid on par with in-person visits. Now, as the COVID-19 public health emergency is expected to end, providers may wonder what which changes will be made permanent–and what the future of telemedicine will look like. First, providers should know that a 151-day transition period will proceed any changes for Medicare. Second, providers should recognize that even if telemedicine gains greater acceptance among insurance carriers, reimbursement rates may still make it problematic. Read more here.

Contracts can be a single page or Biblical in size. The can be simple or very complicated, but there are some points to remember about every contract. First, who are the parties involved? Are you contracting with a person, a company or a combination of both, (including people and companies)? Second, what are the obligations of the contract? What is “owed” to you–and what do you “owe” the party? Finally, what constitutes breach, or the failure to perform the contract, by all of the parties? These three factors–parties, obligations and breach–are a good starting point to understanding any contract. Read more here.

Have you heard that you can opt out of Medicare at one while location, while still participating with Medicare at a second location? Or that you can opt out under one tax ID but still participate under a different tax ID? Or that you can participate with Medicare as an employee at your job while charging cash in your start-up practice? You may have also heard other ways providers can play Medicare Hokey-Pokey, (“You put first job in, you take your next job out…”), but in most cases, a provider enrolls with Medicare under the NPI and either is participating or opts out. Read more here.