Boston Program May Pay Patients to Stay Clean

A new legal opinion from the Biden administration appears to clear the way for wider use of an underutilized technique known as "contingency management": paying people addicted to drugs for staying clean. Until recently when the HHS inspector general’s office posted an advisory legal opinion, its use was sharply limited by concern that any such program would run afoul of a federal law that bars kickbacks to patients; however, the HHS OIG opinion stated that Boston-based DynamiCare Health would not face criminal or civil penalties for its payment plan. The opinion emphasized that the decision applies only to DynamiCare. Others who want to offer similar inducements would have to receive their own advisory from the OIG.