What can you say
Can rehab centers advertise free travel or scholarship beds?
A comped bed can look like charity and land like a kickback. Here is where the line actually sits.
Not as a public hook, and not without counsel. A free flight, transport, or scholarship bed dangled to steer someone into a facility is an inducement to refer, which EKRA (18 U.S.C. 220) makes a federal crime across every payer. The Anti-Kickback Statute reaches the same conduct in Medicare and Medicaid; Florida prosecutes it as patient brokering.
The statutes weigh function, not intent. When free travel, transport, or a scholarship bed is offered to move a specific person into a specific program, it is a thing of value to induce a referral to a treatment facility, which the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act makes a crime. EKRA reaches any health care benefit program, so cash-pay and commercially insured admissions are inside it, not just Medicare and Medicaid. The older federal Anti-Kickback Statute covers the same offer whenever a federal program pays, at 42 U.S.C. 1320a-7b(b). EKRA's only safe harbor protects a bona fide employee or contractor whose pay does not vary with the number of patients referred, which is why volume-tied marketing arrangements fall out fastest.
Whoever, with respect to services covered by a health care benefit program, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly and willfully pays or offers any remuneration (including any kickback, bribe, or rebate) directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, in cash or in kind, to induce a referral of an individual to a recovery home, clinical treatment facility, or laboratory shall be fined not more than $200,000, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both, for each occurrence.
One offer can be attacked from three directions at once, and regulators rarely limit themselves to a single theory. The same free-bed campaign can be charged criminally, unwound as a civil kickback where federal dollars are in the mix, and used to pull a license or a payer contract. The exposure below is cumulative, not either-or.
- CriminalEKRA carries up to $200,000 and 10 years per occurrence. The Anti-Kickback Statute adds felony exposure whenever a federal program pays for the care.
- CivilWhere federal money is involved, kickback-tainted claims can become False Claims Act cases and civil monetary penalties, with treble-damages exposure.
- License and contractsState boards and Medicaid programs can discipline or exclude a provider, and insurers can terminate a network contract over brokered admissions.
The Florida Patient Brokering Act makes it a felony to offer or pay any benefit, bonus, rebate, or kickback, or to run a split-fee arrangement, to induce a patient referral to or from a provider. A free flight or free bed offered as the reason to pick a facility fits that language whether or not a single dollar reaches the patient. Each violation is a third-degree felony carrying a $50,000 fine, and both the degree and the fine climb once ten or more patients are involved. Section 397.55 adds a tighter layer with no federal equivalent: it declares people seeking addiction treatment vulnerable to fraudulent marketing, bans false or misleading treatment marketing outright, folds every 817.505 brokering violation into its own first-degree misdemeanor, and forces any lead generator or call center to name the specific licensed providers paying it and point readers to the state list of licensed services. A single free-travel offer can therefore be brokering, deceptive substance-use marketing, and an undisclosed referral-fee violation at once.
It is unlawful for any person, including any health care provider or health care facility, to offer or pay a commission, benefit, bonus, rebate, kickback, or bribe, directly or indirectly, in cash or in kind, or engage in any split-fee arrangement, in any form whatsoever, to induce the referral of a patient or patronage to or from a health care provider or health care facility.
| State | How it differs | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| Florida | Free travel, beds, or scholarships used to induce an admission can be patient brokering, and s. 397.55 makes deceptive substance-use marketing its own first-degree misdemeanor on top. | Fla. Stat. 817.505; 397.55 |
| Federal (all states) | Offering anything of value to induce a referral to a treatment facility is an EKRA crime regardless of payer; the Anti-Kickback Statute adds exposure for federally funded care. | 18 U.S.C. 220; 42 U.S.C. 1320a-7b(b) |
| Most states | No standalone patient-brokering felony, but the federal floor still applies and state consumer-protection and insurance-fraud law can reach the same offer. | State UDAP law; 18 U.S.C. 220 |
Pre-Trip cannot see your charity-care files or your referral contracts. It reads the offer the way a regulator would, as words on a landing page that either dangle free value as the hook or do not.
Free flights and a free 30-day bed for anyone who calls today.
Free travel and free treatment dangled to induce admission to a specific facility can read as patient brokering and an unlawful inducement.
We can help you understand travel and scholarship options and whether you qualify.
Signals help without dangling free value as the hook to induce an admission.
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Pre-Trip is a rigorous screen, not legal advice. Counsel decides; we help you arrive prepared.