What is the space and equipment rental Anti-Kickback law safe harbor exception?
The purpose of this safe harbor is to allow physicians and other healthcare providers to lease space and equipment to healthcare providers without being subject to either criminal or civil penalties as long as the physicians or other healthcare providers satisfy certain criteria. The space rental and equipment rental safe harbors were revised to preclude schemes involving the use of multiple overlapping contracts to circumvent the safe harbor requirement that space rental and equipment rental contracts be for terms of at least one year. Next, such safe harbors were revised to preclude safe harbor protection for healthcare providers that either rent more space or equipment than they actually need as a means of paying for referrals (16).
