Federal Lobbying Restrictions
Provider Type
- Physicians
- Participating Physician Groups (PPG)
- Hospitals
- Ancillary
United States Code Title 31, Section 1352, prohibits the use of federal funds for lobbying purposes in connection with any federal contract, grant, loan, cooperative agreement, or extension, or continuation of any of them. Participating providers are required to develop and comply with filing procedures as follows:
- File a declaration with the plan Net certifying that no inappropriate use of federal funds has occurred or will occur (use Certification for Contracts, Grants, Loans, and Cooperative Agreements Form (PDF)). This extends to any subcontract a participating provider may have that exceeds $100,000 in value. In these cases, the participating provider is required to collect and retain these declarations
- File a specific disclosure form if non-federal funds have been used for lobbying purposes in connection with any line of business (use Disclosure of Lobbying Activities Form and Disclosure Form Instructions (PDF))
- File quarterly updates, such as a disclosure form at the end of any calendar quarter in which disclosure is required or in which an event occurs that materially affects the previously filed disclosure form
While the statute and related regulations do not specify that the $100,000 limit mentioned in the first bullet is to be calculated annually, the plan believes it reasonable to apply the $100,000 threshold to the term of the Provider Participation Agreement (PPA). If the PPA term is for one year, renewable automatically if not terminated, the threshold would renew at the beginning of each new one-year term. If it is a multiyear term, the calculation of the threshold would be based on the payments received throughout the multiyear term.
Participating providers who complete the Certification for Contracts, Grants, Loans, and Cooperative Agreements Form should send it directly to their assigned provider relations and contracting specialist.
Participating providers are required to comply with applicable state laws and regulations and plan policies and procedures. The contents of the operations manuals are supplemental to the PPA and its addendums. When the contents of the operations manuals conflict with the PPA, the PPA takes precedence.