If your physician has been thinking about getting into "physician-owned distributorships" you might want to take heed to the new advisory opinion from the OIG.

In this special alert it states: "The Office of Inspector General (OIG) has issued a number of guidance documents on the general subject of physician investments in entities to which they refer, including the 1989 Special Fraud Alert on Joint Venture Arrangements and various other publications. OIG also provided guidance specifically addressing physician investments in medical device manufacturers and distributors in an October 6, 2006 letter. In that letter, we noted "the strong potential for improper inducements between and among the physician investors, the entities, device vendors, and device purchasers" and stated that such ventures "should be closely scrutinized under the fraud and abuse laws." This Special Fraud Alert focuses on the specific attributes and practices of PODs that we believe produce substantial fraud and abuse risk and pose dangers to patient safety."

https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/docs/alertsandbulletins/2013/POD_Special_Fraud_Alert.pdf