You know the drill - giving your patients gifts or other forms of inducement can influence their decisions to receive health care, which can in turn trigger civil money penalties against the provider who offered the goody. However there are a few safe harbors - for example, inducements to encourage patients to receive preventive services.
There's also an exception for gifts of a nominal amount and for years those amounts have been $10 per gift and a total of $50 per patient, per year.
In a policy statement released today, the HHS Office of Inspector General announced that it was raising the amounts to $15 per gift with a maximum of $75 a year. Something to keep in mind when you're buying gift cards for patients.