Today the HHS OIG issued a Special Fraud Alert highlighting its concerns regarding two trends involving transfers of value from laboratories to physicians that the OIG believes “present a substantial risk of fraud and abuse under the anti-kickback statute.” Specifically, the OIG details risks involved with certain compensation paid by laboratories to referring physicians and physician group practices for (1) blood specimen collection, processing, and packaging, and (2) submitting patient data to a registry or database. The Special Fraud Alert reiterates the OIG’s “longstanding concerns” when payments from laboratories to physicians exceed the fair market value of the physicians’ services or reflect the volume or value of referrals of federal health care program business. Reed Smith is preparing an analysis of the Alert.