Does the sale of these non-prescription wellness products violate anti-kickback statutes?

Nope! Patient purchases on the shiftMD platform are self-pay, out of pocket transactions for non-prescription, healthcare products. shiftMD does not file with insurance and the patients making purchases must likewise certify that they will not seek reimbursement for the products. 

All shiftMD patient transactions are “outside of” insurance and no claim is ever filed with a government healthcare program for products purchased through shiftMD.

As HCPs, you also agree that you will not submit a claim for reimbursement with any third party payor (commercial or governmental) for the products and/or services provided to consumers through shiftMD and, as such, the use of shiftMD should not implicate the federal anti-kickback statute or the federal physician self-referral law (commonly known as the “Stark” law). Further, your use of shiftMD should not require any report to be made to the “Open Payments” database which implements the federal physician Sunshine Law.  

Patients always have the option to purchase products elsewhere where a dispensing pharmacy or merchant (or the patient) may file for insurance. Patients should be informed of this and should be given freedom to choose how they get their products.

HCPs who utilize shiftMD will always have the option of forgoing the profit element of the program. Under that model, the shiftMD platform is used simply for patient convenience and cost savings but is not a potential revenue stream.