DocGo Inc. (DCGO) Business
This page reproduces the company's own Item 1 Business text from the linked SEC filing. It is filer text, not grepcent analysis, scoring, or investment advice.
Informational only - not investment advice. See Disclaimer.
Item 1. Business.
Our Company
DocGo is leading the proactive healthcare revolution. We are democratizing access with our innovative care delivery platform that includes mobile health services, virtual care management and ambulance services. Our goal is to deliver healthcare at any address and help reshape the traditional healthcare system, driven by our mission to bring high quality, highly accessible care to all.
DocGo’s proprietary technology platform, dedicated network of certified health professionals, including virtual care clinicians, and robust fleet of medical response vehicles provide services in all 50 states and the United Kingdom. DocGo’s vertically integrated approach helps elevate the quality of patient care and drive business efficiencies for municipalities, hospital networks and health insurance providers. We often provide our services in collaboration with leading healthcare organizations via long-term relationships that are intended to provide efficient and strategic capital deployment opportunities that can drive meaningful revenue and create significant growth.
DocGo’s vertically integrated offering empowers the delivery of mobile healthcare and medical transportation outside of traditional “brick-and-mortar” facilities, with more accessible, affordable and efficient patient-centered care. In 2025, we expanded our capabilities in pursuit of our mission, acquiring a robust 50 state virtual care network that offers white-label telehealth services for top consumer, healthcare and digital wellness brands — including multiple Fortune 10 customers — and a mobile phlebotomy provider in the northeast. We continued to deliver care at scale, with our network of clinicians traveling over 11 million miles to facilitate care across more than 1.3 million patient interactions. Since 2015, we have created a care delivery model that has facilitated better care across over 10 million patient interactions beyond the traditional four-wall healthcare system.
We began by developing a state-of-the-art, intuitive platform designed to drive greater efficiency and improved access to patient care. Our innovative technology can change the way healthcare facilities manage patient transportation and mobile health services, streamlining the process and freeing medical professionals to focus more time and their valuable resources on what they do best — caring for their patients.
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Our mobile health model facilitates medical treatment directly to patients in the comfort of their homes, workplaces and other non-traditional locations. The power of our model is the modality of care, specifically its scalability and lowered cost basis. We combine the efficiency of telehealth by virtually pairing specialized Advanced Practice Providers (“APPs”) such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners with on-site clinicians in the patient’s home to be the APP’s eyes, ears, hands and feet. Such clinicians include, among others, licensed practical nurses (“LPNs”) and registered nurses (“RNs”) assisted by additional support staff. As of December 31, 2025, we deployed a network of more than 900 medical clinicians, providing virtual care or working under the guidance of prescribing clinicians to provide a wide range of care gap closures, tests, procedures and interventions that previously required a visit to a traditional healthcare setting.
In addition to our robust 50 state virtual care offering, our mobile health model combines virtual and in-person care — leveraging technology to enable connectivity, facilitate diagnostics and enhance the efficiency of our clinicians. Facilitating hands-on care to patients where they are, when they need it is a vital part of our offering, because vaccines can’t be provided over the telephone, and bone density screenings can’t be completed via videochat.
Proactive healthcare not only improves patient health outcomes but can also significantly reduce overall cost burdens to the system. Since inception, we estimate that our services have prevented over 91,000 unnecessary emergency department visits. Based on Accountable Care Organization data from the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (“CMS”), this has saved the U.S. healthcare system an estimated $285 million.
We are increasingly working with insurance payors who require care gap closure services for their hard-to-reach patient populations, and as of December 31, 2025, we have been assigned over 1.45 million patients from seven different payors whose patients need these services since program inception. Reports indicate that over 25% of U.S. patients lack a primary care provider (“PCP”), and we intend to enter partnerships with health plans that will enable us to facilitate PCP services for their patients, and then establish value-based reimbursement models that involve graduated risk-sharing arrangements. These payment models are specifically designed to improve patient health outcomes while reducing overall costs, as reimbursement is tied to quality of care and effectively managing total cost of care. We believe that sending clinicians into the home provides us with a more holistic view of a patient’s overall health, enabling us to approach risk-sharing arrangements with a more informed perspective.
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Our Segments
DocGo has three reporting segments: Mobile Health Services, Transportation Services and Corporate.
Mobile Health Services
The traditional healthcare model requires patients to interact with many levels of healthcare providers — including receptionists, nurses, lab technicians and physicians — for even the most routine tests, procedures and interventions. We recognized that a number of these services could easily be performed by LPNs, RNs and other clinicians under the guidance of higher licensed practitioners, but in the comfort of a patient’s home or workplace. Our patient-centered approach helps limit the need for individuals to seek routine treatment in more expensive and environmentally exposed, less comfortable settings such as emergency departments and urgent care clinics. In addition to providing greater convenience to patients, our Mobile Health Services help reduce unnecessary burdens on healthcare systems by freeing up their finite, in-person resources to address more urgent and critical patient needs. DocGo’s clinical Mobile Health Services, which we expanded into the home and workplace in 2020, facilitate medical care via a turnkey suite of integrated, technology-enabled solutions. Through DocGo’s Mobile Health Services, we facilitate care for a diverse group of customers, including municipalities, hospitals and health systems, insurers, physician practices, businesses and employers. Our population health offerings provide holistic health and social services to underserved communities.
Our solutions encompass on-site evaluation, diagnostics, triage and treatment, including the services detailed in the following table:
We place an emphasis on early intervention, preventive care and chronic disease management. DocGo can address over 50 gaps in care for health plans, especially Medicare Advantage, Managed Medicaid and Marketplace plans focused on quality measures. Our work with health plans on patient engagement and gap closure programs is growing, with programs in several states. As of the date of this Annual Report, we have active programs with Elevance Health, HealthFirst, EmblemHealth, Molina, LA Care, Inland Empire Health Plan and others. These programs allow us to address gaps in care for Medicare and Medicaid populations and help manage multiple chronic diseases. Our priority and strategic focus is to grow and launch new programs and new geographies with our existing health plan partners who collectively cover over 60 million lives. Additionally, we plan to facilitate PCP services for these health plan patients, and migrate to a value-based care model with insurance partners that includes graduated risk-sharing arrangements to reward us for improving patient outcomes while reducing the overall cost of care.
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Our virtual care management programs monitor patients remotely and intervene before minor issues become major health crises. Our remote monitoring team currently works with approximately 55,000 patients living with chronic conditions.
As patients seek more efficient, more convenient healthcare options, we believe our care-enabling solutions are poised for significant growth by facilitating a combination of in-person and virtual patient care via our mobile health solutions. We deliver a better patient experience, and a level of care previously inaccessible outside of the more traditional healthcare settings.
We partner with leading national health systems, insurance carriers, private organizations and employers, state and local governments and managed care organizations to provide our Mobile Health Services, including NYC Health + Hospitals, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Indian Health Service (IHS), Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles, CA and the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom. In recent years, our government contract work has represented a substantial portion of our overall revenue, representing approximately 48%, 72% and 73% of revenues for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively, with the decline in 2025 due to the wind-down of migrant-related programs in New York during 2024 and 2025. The migrant-related programs were initiated in the second quarter of 2023 and consisted of medical and non-medical services, such as shelter and security, that the Company provided to the recently arrived migrant population in New York City and upstate New York. While no longer core to our growth strategy, we anticipate some level of revenue from government contract work in 2026. However, government work is expected to account for a much smaller portion of overall revenue in 2026. For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, we generated approximately 38% of our revenues from the solutions provided by our Mobile Health Services segment.
The success of our care delivery model is reflected in our Net Promoter Score (“NPS”), which is one of the most widely accepted standards of customer experience metrics. Scores are measured from a range of -100 to +100 with scores over 30 commonly viewed as good and over 50 considered excellent. Our Mobile Health Services NPS score for the year ended December 31, 2025 was 92, which is a testament to the value of our services.
Transportation Services
DocGo’s digitally-enabled medical transportation solutions are offered under our Ambulnz brand. We help provide reliable, efficient transfers between clinical settings and access to clinical services, including primary and specialty care and dialysis treatments for chronic care management. Every vehicle in our fleet is equipped with our proprietary technology platform, which is integrated with some of the nation’s largest electronic medical record (“EMR”) systems.
This integration with EMR systems is designed to provide seamless transfer of electronic patient information and discharge data to our healthcare provider customers, which helps improve order speed and accuracy and eliminate a myriad of manual processes. In addition, our ShareLinkTM technology is designed to provide our healthcare partners and patients with real-time vehicle locations and accurate estimated time of arrivals, helping deliver valuable peace of mind. Consequently, our healthcare facility customers are better able to order, track and manage transportation requests and patient movement, employ more effective bed management, and thereby enhance utilization of resources and cost. As of December 31, 2025, we had 582 vehicles in service throughout the United States and another 288 in the United Kingdom. For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, we generated approximately 62% of our revenues from our Transportation Services segment.
Corporate
Our Corporate segment primarily represents shared services and personnel that support both the Transportation Services and Mobile Health Services segments. It contains operating expenses such as information technology costs, certain insurance costs, the compensation costs of senior and executive leadership, and software development costs for our proprietary technology platform. None of the Company’s revenues or costs of goods sold are reported within the Corporate segment.
Human Capital Resources
We strive to hire the best talent across our industry, with a focus on inspiring performance. As of December 31, 2025, we had nearly 3,600 employees, including healthcare professionals, field management personnel and corporate support staff, as represented in the table below. Healthcare professionals consist of emergency medical technicians
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(“EMTs”), paramedics, LPNs, RNs, APPs, clinicians and related support staff; field management personnel includes supervisors and managers; and corporate support staff includes software development, billing, finance, human resources, legal and compliance, sales, marketing and executives.
| Full-time | Part-time | Total | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Healthcare Professionals | 1,911 | 994 | 2,905 | ||
| Field Management Personnel | 126 | 3 | 129 | ||
| Corporate Support Staff | 500 | 34 | 534 | ||
| Total | 2,537 | 1,031 | 3,568 |
None of our employees are represented by a labor union or subject to any collective bargaining agreement. In addition to the employees above, as of December 31, 2025, the Company engaged the services of approximately 844 people, primarily in the healthcare professional area, some through a variety of subcontracted labor agencies and some as independent contractors.
Recruiting
We consider our employees to be our most valuable assets. Our employee experience begins with identifying and attracting people who embody our core values and share our vision to provide high-quality patient care. We are focused on building a company that our employees are proud to be a part of and fostering an environment in which our employees can grow, evolve and discover their existing and untapped potential. We believe our focused approach to recruiting and developing talent allows us to attract strong candidates to continue growing and scaling our business.
Compensation and Benefits
Ongoing evolution in the healthcare system and an aging population mean EMTs, paramedics and nurses are more critical to medical care than ever before, yet EMTs and paramedics remain the lowest paid professionals in the chain of care. Most companies in the industry pay an hourly wage only and offer no benefits, often resulting in low employee morale, high turnover and ultimately a less efficient business. We take pride in our high-quality medical professionals and have created an attractive compensation model that demonstrates their vital importance to our business and motivates them to deliver exceptional care.
We offer a pay package that we believe is innovative within our industry. In addition to base hourly wages, DocGo also offers employees bonuses based on certain performance metrics, medical insurance, paid time off and an equity incentive plan for our frontline clinicians with broad-based participation — a program that provides the opportunity to acquire an ownership stake in the Company. This is in line with our belief that all of our employees are partners in the business, and we want everyone to “think like an owner,” with the best long-term interests of the Company and its stockholders as a driver of decision making. We believe that this approach makes us a more attractive employer and supports a strong pipeline of top-tier talent across all levels of the Company.
Employee Engagement
We routinely monitor employee satisfaction and work to maintain an environment where employees can contribute and thrive. DocGo has been recognized for its excellent workplace culture and employee satisfaction. One measure of this are the hundreds of positive reviews our employees have given DocGo on leading recruitment websites. As of the date of this Annual Report, DocGo’s employee rating is 4.3 out of 5.0 on Indeed and 4.4 out of 5.0 on Glassdoor - ratings that are significantly higher than many of our competitors in the healthcare industry. Additionally, DocGo was named by U.S. News & World Report as one of the Best Companies to Work For - Northeast for two consecutive years (2024-2025 and 2025-2026). DocGo has also earned a Great Place to WorkTM certification, which is based entirely on feedback from employees, three consecutive times, and intends to seek recertification in 2026.
Training
We have created a number of programs to foster the professional development of our employees and help attract top-tier talent. Our staff of Training and Education Coordinators runs a robust, in-person orientation program to help train employees and keep them up to date in relevant procedures and protocols. We also offer in-house Basic Life Support,
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Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support and Pediatric Advanced Life Support training and certification to our clinicians who require such training. We are also a:
•Private Authorized Training Center of the Airway Management Education Center and Public Authorized Training Center of the Airway Management Education Center in the State of Delaware offering The Difficult Airway Course: EMS and other courses;
•Training Center of the American Heart Association offering Advanced Stroke Life Support;
•National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians Training Center offering Advanced Medical Life Support, Prehospital Trauma Life Support and other courses;
•National Safety Council Training Center offering the Defensive Driving Course;
•Licensed Training Provider of the American Red Cross offering Neonatal Advanced Life Support, Emergency Medical Responder Course and other courses; and
•Educational Licensee for the Stop The Bleed program.
In addition, we are able to grant EMS continuing education units in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Delaware, and Texas and through partnerships with Flight Bridge ED via the Commission on Accreditation for Prehospital Continuing Education and the Kentucky Board of Nursing.
We have also implemented a self-paced online training program for Company policy and procedures training, mandated Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) training courses, clinical skills, customer service, HIPAA regulations, safety and compliance and annual documentation training. In addition, our drivers are trained in the Coaching the Emergency Vehicle Operator Ambulance course.
We also use a management system for credential tracking and Continuous Quality Improvement to help ensure that our staff maintains all required credentials relevant to their positions with the Company. Through this system, employees and their supervisors are automatically notified at designated times of recertification deadlines. Course completion, assignments, and other compliance requirements are tracked in this system as well. Verification monitoring enables us to confirm that all employees meet current state requirements. This tool verifies Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) exclusions at the state and federal levels and performs sanction screening for licensed personnel and 24/7 monitoring of state licenses.
Our comprehensive training programs utilize a full range of resources, including print materials, training modules, webinars, seminars and videos provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and federal, state and local entities, medical institutions and public health agencies.
The Business Combination
On November 5, 2021, the Company (then known as Motion Acquisition Corp.) consummated a business combination pursuant to that certain Agreement and Plan of Merger dated March 8, 2021 (the “Merger Agreement”), by and among the Company, Motion Merger Sub Corp., a Delaware corporation and a direct wholly owned subsidiary of the Company (“Merger Sub”), and Ambulnz. The transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement are referred to herein as the “Business Combination.” In connection with the closing of the Business Combination, the Company changed its name from Motion Acquisition Corp. to DocGo Inc.
Pursuant to the Merger Agreement and as described in the Company’s definitive proxy statement/consent solicitation/prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on October 14, 2021, Merger Sub merged with and into Ambulnz, with Ambulnz continuing as the surviving corporation and becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company.
Competition
The U.S. healthcare industry is highly competitive, and we compete with a broad and diverse set of companies spanning both of our business segments. The competitive landscape is highly fragmented for both technology-enabled mobile healthcare solutions and medical transportation services, ranging in each case from small, locally owned and operated providers to large national organizations. While we do not believe that any single competitor offers our vertically
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integrated suite of Mobile Health Services and Transportation Services, numerous “point solution” companies offer components of mobile health and/or transportation services that compete with our solutions.
Competition in the mobile health industry is primarily based on scale; ease of use, convenience and accessibility; brand recognition; breadth, depth and efficacy of telehealth and mobile health services; technology; clinical quality; customer support; cost; reputation; and customer satisfaction and value. Major competitors (in each case relative to only some of our products or services) include much larger, national or regional telehealth or in-home healthcare service providers such as DispatchHealth, Modivcare, Option Care Health, Teladoc, Amwell, Signify Health (acquired by CVS in March 2023), MedArrive, Biofourmis and One Medical (acquired by Amazon in February 2023). We also believe there are several smaller, private organizations providing in-home or on-site care utilizing different, higher cost healthcare providers. Non-traditional providers and others such as payors may enter the space and/or develop innovative technologies or business activities that could disrupt the industry. Competition could also increase from large technology companies, such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Verizon or Microsoft, who may develop their own telehealth or mobile health solutions or acquire existing industry participants, such as Amazon’s acquisition of One Medical in February 2023, as well as from large retailers like Walmart, CVS and others. Despite the significant growth of telehealth services in recent years, we believe the market is still in its infancy and new competitors with similar and novel models will enter the market as it matures.
Success in the medical transportation industry is based primarily on the ability to improve customer service, such as on-time performance and efficient call intake; provide comprehensive clinical care; and recruit, train and motivate employees, particularly ambulance crews who have direct contact with patients and healthcare personnel. Pricing, billing and reimbursement expertise are also critical. Competitors within the industry vary considerably in type and identity by market, with our primary competitors being small, locally owned operators as well as local fire departments and other local government providers. Larger private provider competitors include Modivcare, Falck, Global Medical Response (including its subsidiary American Medical Response, or AMR), Southwest Ambulance, Paramedics Plus and Acadian Ambulance.
Intellectual Property
We own and use trademarks and service marks on or in connection with our services, including both unregistered common law marks and registered trademarks. We have registered “Ambulnz” and our corporate logo in the United States and the United Kingdom. We have registered the “DocGo” word mark and design in the United States, United Kingdom and EU, as well as the “ShareLink” word mark in the United States. We are also the registered holder of a variety of domain names that include “Ambulnz,” “DocGo” and similar variations.
Our proprietary platform, mobile application and associated software code and firmware are protected as trade secrets and our confidential information, as appropriate. We also license the use of certain technology and other intellectual property rights owned and controlled by others. We believe that our intellectual property is a valuable asset to our business that affords us a competitive advantage in the markets in which we operate. We maintain our intellectual property and confidential business information in a number of ways. For instance, we have a policy requiring companies we work with to execute confidentiality agreements upon commencement of a business relationship with us where appropriate. Our agreements with customers who are privy to confidential or proprietary information also include confidentiality and non-disclosure provisions.
In addition, we require our employees, independent contractors and consultants to execute confidentiality and proprietary agreements in connection with their employment or engagement with us and to assign to us inventions conceived during the term of their employment or engagement while using our property or which relate to our business.
Upon discovery of potential infringement of our intellectual property, we assess and, when necessary, take action to protect our rights as appropriate.
Regulation
Our operations are subject to comprehensive United States federal, state and local rules and regulations and comparable multiple levels of international regulation in the jurisdictions in which we do business. The laws and regulations governing our business and interpretations of those laws and regulations continue to expand, are subject to frequent change and may become more restrictive. Our ability to operate profitably will depend in part upon our ability, and that of our healthcare provider partners, to maintain all necessary licenses and to operate in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. In certain jurisdictions, the scope of licensure, certification, or registration required for the provision
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of in-home, mobile, or community-based healthcare services may be subject to evolving or differing interpretations by regulators. We therefore devote significant resources to monitoring developments in healthcare regulation. As the applicable laws and regulations change, we may be required to make conforming modifications in our business processes from time to time. In many jurisdictions where we operate, neither our current nor our anticipated business model, in particular with respect to our Mobile Health Services, has been the subject of judicial or administrative interpretation. We cannot be assured that a review of our business by courts or regulatory authorities will not result in determinations that could limit or otherwise adversely affect our operations or that the healthcare regulatory environment will not change in a way that restricts our operations.
False Claims Act
The civil False Claims Act (the “FCA”) protects the federal government from being overcharged or sold shoddy quality goods and services. It is also a means of policing false bills or false requests for payment to or from the federal healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Among other things, the FCA authorizes the imposition of up to three times the government’s damages and significant per claim civil penalties on any “person” (including an individual, organization or company) who, among other acts:
•knowingly presents or causes to be presented to the federal government a false or fraudulent claim for payment or approval;
•knowingly makes, uses or causes to be made or used a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim;
•knowingly makes, uses or causes to be made or used a false record or statement material to an obligation to pay the government;
•knowingly conceals or knowingly and improperly avoids or decreases an obligation to pay or transmit money or property to the federal government; or
•conspires to commit the above acts.
Since each item or service billed to Medicare or Medicaid is a “claim,” fines can be significant. The fact that a claim results from a kickback or violates the Physician Self-Referral Law (i.e., the “Stark Law”) also may render it false or fraudulent, creating liability under the civil FCA, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”) or the Stark Law.
No specific intent to defraud is required under the civil FCA. The civil FCA defines “knowing” to include not only actual knowledge but also instances in which a person (including an individual, organization or company) acts in deliberate ignorance or reckless disregard of the truth or falsity of the information. Further, the civil FCA contains a whistleblower provision that allows private citizens (typically current or former business partners, hospital or office staff, patients or competitors) to file a lawsuit on behalf of the United States (called “qui tam” suits) against those who have defrauded the government. Private citizens who successfully bring qui tam actions may receive a portion of the government’s monetary recovery.
In addition, amendments to the FCA and Social Security Act impose severe penalties for the knowing and improper retention of overpayments collected from government payors. Under these provisions, within 60 days of identifying and quantifying an overpayment, a provider is required to notify the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”), the appropriate Medicare Administrative Contractor, or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (“HHS-OIG”) of any overpayment. A provider must explain how the overpayment occurred and what steps it intends to take to reduce the likelihood of future overpayments and return the overpayment. An overpayment impermissibly retained could subject a party to liability under the FCA, exclusion from government healthcare programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, and penalties under the federal Civil Monetary Penalties Law (“CMPL”) discussed below.
The FCA provides for penalties that range from $5,500 to $11,000 (adjusted for inflation) for each false claim, plus up to three times the amount of damages caused by each false claim, which can be as much as the amounts received directly or indirectly from the government for each such false claim. On February 12, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) issued a final rule adjusting FCA penalties for inflation. Under subsequent inflationary adjustments implemented effective July 3, 2025, for violations occurring after November 2, 2015, the per-claim penalty now ranges from
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approximately $14,308 to $28,619 per claim, and these ranges are subject to further annual inflation adjustments under applicable law.
The federal government uses the FCA to prosecute a wide variety of alleged false claims and fraud allegedly perpetrated against Medicare and state healthcare programs, including but not limited to improper coding, billing for services not rendered, the submission of false cost or other reports, billing for services at a higher payment rate than appropriate, billing under a comprehensive code as well as under one or more component codes included in the comprehensive code (i.e., unbundling), billing for care that is not considered medically reasonable and necessary and false reporting of risk-adjusted diagnostic codes to Medicare Advantage (“MA”) (or Part C) plans. Filing claims or failing to refund amounts collected in violation of the Stark Law can also form the basis for liability under the FCA. In addition to the provisions of the FCA, which provide for civil enforcement through “qui tam” whistleblower lawsuits, the federal government can also use several criminal statutes to prosecute persons who are alleged to have submitted false or fraudulent claims for payment to the federal government.
Federal Fraud and Abuse Laws
The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, and their implementing regulations and related rules (collectively, “HIPAA”), is primarily known for its focus on the privacy and security of patient protected health information. However, when promulgated, HIPAA also established several criminal penalties for making false or fraudulent claims to any healthcare benefit program, which includes all healthcare payors (i.e., both government healthcare programs and private health insurance companies) (the “Healthcare Fraud” and “False Statements Relating to Healthcare Matters” statutes). The Healthcare Fraud statute prohibits knowingly and willfully executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme or artifice to defraud any healthcare benefit program. The False Statements Relating to Healthcare Matters statute prohibits knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up a material fact by any trick, scheme or device. Additionally, the False Statements Relating to Healthcare Matters statute prohibits knowingly or willfully making any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation, or making or using any materially false documentation, known to be materially false, fictitious or fraudulent in connection with the delivery of or payment for healthcare benefits, items or services. A violation of either statute is a felony and may result in fines or imprisonment or lead to exclusion from government sponsored healthcare programs. These provisions are intended to punish some of the same conduct in the submission of claims to private payors as the FCA covers in connection with governmental health programs.
In addition, the HHS-OIG can impose administrative sanctions under the CMPL for, among other violations:
•employing or contracting with individuals or entities who are excluded from participating in the federal healthcare programs;
•presenting a claim that the person knows or should know is for an item or service that was not provided as claimed or is false or fraudulent;
•presenting a claim that the person knows or should know is for an item or service for which payment may not be made;
•violating the AKS;
•violating Medicare assignment provisions;
•violating the Medicare physician agreement;
•providing false or misleading information expected to influence a decision to discharge;
•failing to provide an adequate medical screening examination for patients who present to a hospital emergency department with an emergency medical condition or in labor; and
•making false statements or misrepresentations on applications or contracts to participate in the federal healthcare programs.
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Moreover, the CMPL prohibits, among other things, offering or providing remuneration to a Medicare or Medicaid beneficiary that is likely to influence the beneficiary to order or receive items or services payable by federal healthcare programs from a particular provider, practitioner or supplier. “Remuneration” includes the transfers of items or services for free or for other than fair market value. Penalties for violating the CMPL range from $10,000 to $50,000 per violation, adjusted annually for inflation.
For example, providers who routinely waive co-payments, co-insurance or deductible amounts (or any part thereof) can also be liable under the AKS and FCA, either of which can result in additional penalties. While routine waivers of such cost sharing obligations are not allowed, a statutory exception to the AKS permits waivers of co-payments, co-insurance or deductible amounts based on individualized determinations of financial need or following the exhaustion of reasonable collection efforts. The HHS-OIG emphasizes, however, that such waivers should only be used occasionally to address special financial needs of a particular patient. Although this prohibition applies only to waivers of cost sharing amounts for federal healthcare program beneficiaries, the routine waivers of co-payments, co-insurance or deductibles offered to patients may violate the terms of commercial contracts as well as may implicate applicable state laws related to, among other things, unlawful schemes to defraud, excessive fees for services, tortious interference with patient contracts and statutory or common law fraud.
State Fraud and Abuse Laws
Various states in which we operate have also adopted similar fraud and abuse laws as the federal laws and statutes described above. The scope of these laws and the interpretations thereof vary from state to state and are enforced by state courts and regulatory authorities, each with broad discretion. Some state fraud and abuse laws apply to items or services reimbursed by any payor, including patients and commercial insurers, and not just those reimbursed by a federally funded healthcare program. A determination of liability under such state fraud and abuse laws could result in fines and penalties and restrictions on our ability to operate in these jurisdictions.
Health Information Privacy and Security Laws
There are numerous U.S. federal and state laws and regulations related to the privacy and security of personally identifiable information (“PII”), including health information. In particular, HIPAA establishes privacy and security standards that limit the use and disclosure of protected health information (“PHI”) and require the implementation of administrative, physical and technical safeguards to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of individually identifiable health information in electronic form. HIPAA’s requirements apply to “covered entities” and their independent contractors, agents and other “business associates” that create, receive, maintain or transmit PHI in connection with providing services to covered entities. Certain of our affiliate entities provide healthcare services and, therefore, are considered covered entities under HIPAA. Additionally, other affiliate entities provide services on behalf of our healthcare provider partners, which creates a business associate relationship between the parties.
Violations of HIPAA may result in civil and criminal penalties. For the lowest penalty tier, the civil penalties range from $137 to $68,928 per violation, with a cap of approximately $2.1 million per year for violations of the same standard during the same calendar year. However, a single breach incident can result in violations of multiple standards. We must also comply with HIPAA’s Breach Notification Rule. Under the Breach Notification Rule, covered entities must notify affected individuals without unreasonable delay in the case of a breach of unsecured PHI, which may compromise the privacy, security or integrity of the PHI. In addition, notification must be provided to HHS and the local media in cases where a breach affects more than 500 individuals. Breaches affecting fewer than 500 individuals must be reported to HHS on an annual basis. The regulations also require business associates of covered entities to notify the covered entity of breaches by the business associate.
State attorneys general also have the right to prosecute HIPAA violations committed against residents of their states. While HIPAA does not create a private right of action that would allow individuals to sue in civil court for a HIPAA violation, its standards have been used as the basis for the duty of care in state civil suits, such as those for negligence or recklessness in misusing personal information. In addition, HIPAA mandates that HHS conduct periodic compliance audits of HIPAA-covered entities and their business associates for compliance. It also tasks HHS with establishing a methodology whereby harmed individuals who were the victims of breaches of unsecured PHI may receive a percentage of the fine paid by the violator under the CMPL. In light of recent enforcement activity and statements from HHS, we expect increased federal and state HIPAA privacy and security enforcement efforts.
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HIPAA also requires that covered entities and business associates adhere to HHS-adopted national standards establishing electronic transaction standards when transmitting certain healthcare data electronically.
Many states in which we operate and in which our customers reside also have laws that protect the privacy and security of sensitive and personal information, including health information. These laws may be similar to or even more protective than HIPAA and other federal privacy laws. For example, the laws of the State of California, in which we operate, are more restrictive than HIPAA. Where state laws are more protective than HIPAA, we must comply with the state laws we are subject to, in addition to HIPAA. In certain cases, it may be necessary to modify our systems or planned operations to comply with these more stringent state laws. Not only may some of these state laws impose fines and penalties upon violators, but also some, unlike HIPAA, may afford private rights of action to individuals who believe their personal information has been misused. Additionally, both federal and state laws and rules governing data security and privacy are constantly evolving and may require additional modification to our systems or planned operations to comply with such changes.
In addition to HIPAA, state health information privacy and state health information privacy laws, we may be subject to other state and federal privacy laws, including, but not limited to, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) Act, which prohibit unfair privacy and security practices and deceptive statements about privacy and security and laws that place specific requirements on certain types of activities, such as data security and texting.
Anti-Kickback Statute
The AKS makes it a criminal offense to knowingly and willfully offer, pay, solicit or receive any remuneration to induce, or in return for the referral of an individual to a person for the furnishing of, or arranging for the furnishing of, any item or service reimbursable under a federal healthcare program. The statute’s prohibition also extends to remuneration to induce, or in return for, the purchasing, leasing or ordering of, or arranging for or recommending the purchasing, leasing or ordering of, any good, facility, service or item reimbursable by a federal healthcare program. “Remuneration” under the AKS includes the transfer of anything of value, directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, in cash or in kind. Remuneration can take many forms besides cash, such as free rent, expensive hotel stays and meals and excessive compensation for medical directorships or consultancies. The AKS covers the payers of kickbacks (i.e., those who offer or pay remuneration) as well as the recipients of kickbacks (i.e., those who solicit or receive remuneration). The kickback prohibition applies to all sources of referrals, even patients, and each party's intent is a key element of their liability under the AKS.
The AKS can be violated if “one purpose” of the remuneration is to induce referrals for items or services reimbursable by a federal healthcare program. Moreover, the government may assert that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the AKS constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the FCA. Violations of the AKS constitute a felony punishable by a maximum inflation-adjusted fine of $124,732 per violation, imprisonment up to 10 years, or both. Administrative sanctions for violating the AKS may include exclusion from participating in Medicare, Medicaid or other federal healthcare programs. Under the CMPL, physicians who pay or accept kickbacks also face penalties of up to $50,000 per kickback plus three times the amount of the kickback at issue. Kickback violations can also lead to FCA liability. In addition to a few statutory exceptions, the OIG has published safe harbor regulations that outline categories of activities that are deemed protected from prosecution under the AKS provided all applicable criteria are met. Compliance with a safe harbor is voluntary. The failure of a financial relationship or conduct to meet all criteria of an applicable safe harbor does not necessarily mean that the particular arrangement or conduct violates the AKS. Rather, if an arrangement or conduct does not satisfy all of the requirements to fit within a particular safe harbor, government regulators engage in a fact-specific, case-by-case inquiry to assess whether an arrangement or conduct violates the AKS or not. However, conduct and business arrangements that do not fully satisfy each applicable safe harbor may result in increased scrutiny by government enforcement authorities, such as the HHS-OIG or DOJ.
Kickbacks in healthcare are problematic because they may lead to overutilization, increased program costs, corruption of medical decision-making, patient steering and unfair competition. Besides the AKS, the beneficiary inducement statute also imposes civil money penalties on providers who offer remuneration to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries to influence them to use their services. The government does not need to prove patient harm or financial loss to the federal healthcare programs to show a violation of the AKS. In fact, a provider can be guilty of violating the AKS even if the provider rendered medically necessary items or services to a Medicare or Medicaid beneficiary.
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Federal Stark Law
Section 1877 of the Social Security Act, also known as the Physician Self-Referral Law and commonly referred to as the Stark Law, prohibits a physician from making referrals for “designated health services” payable by Medicare to an entity with which he or she (or an immediate family member) has a financial relationship, unless the requirements of an applicable exception are satisfied. The Stark Law also prohibits an entity from filing claims with Medicare (or billing another individual, entity, or third-party payor) for any improperly referred designated health services. A financial relationship may be an ownership or investment interest in the entity or a compensation arrangement with the entity.
Although uncertainty exists, federal agencies and at least one court have taken the position that the Stark Law also applies to Medicaid. Designated health services are defined to include, among others, clinical laboratory services, physical therapy services, occupational therapy services, radiology and certain other imaging services, durable medical equipment and supplies, parenteral and enteral nutrients, equipment and supplies, home health services, outpatient prescription drugs, inpatient and outpatient hospital services and outpatient speech-language pathology services.
The types of financial arrangements between a physician and an entity providing designated health services that trigger the self-referral prohibitions of the Stark Law are broad and include direct and indirect ownership and investment interests and compensation arrangements. The Stark Law is a strict liability statute, which means proof of specific intent to violate the law is not required. The Stark Law prohibits the submission, or causing the submission, of claims in violation of the law’s restrictions on referrals. The Stark Law, however, establishes a number of specific exceptions and grants the HHS Secretary the authority to create regulatory exceptions for financial relationships that do not pose a risk of program or patient abuse. The failure to meet an exception may result in significant consequences.
If the Stark Law is implicated, the financial relationship must fully satisfy a Stark Law exception. If an exception is not satisfied, then the parties to the arrangement could be subject to sanctions, including denial of payment for claims for services provided in violation of the statute, mandatory refunds of amounts collected for such services, imposition of civil money penalties of up to $31,670 (adjusted annually for inflation) for each violation and three times the dollar value of each such service as well as possible exclusion from participation in the federally funded healthcare programs, including Medicare and Medicaid. A person who engages in a scheme to circumvent the Stark Law’s prohibitions may be fined up to $211,146 for each applicable arrangement or scheme.
CMS’s Voluntary Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol sets forth a process to enable providers of services and suppliers to self-disclose actual or potential violations of the physician self-referral law. Additionally, pursuant to the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (the “Affordable Care Act”), the HHS Secretary has the authority to reduce the amount due and owing for Stark Law violations. Amounts collected on claims related to prohibited referrals must be reported and refunded generally within 60 days after the date on which the overpayment was identified and quantified. In addition, the government and some courts have taken the position that claims presented in violation of the various statutes, including the Stark Law, and failure to return overpayments in a timely manner can form the basis for liability under the FCA.
U.S. Corporate Practice of Medicine; Fee Splitting
The laws and regulations relating to our operations vary from state to state and many states prohibit general business corporations, such as us, from practicing medicine, controlling physicians’ or other clinicians’ medical decisions or engaging in some practices such as splitting professional fees with clinicians. Among other assistance, we provide administrative services, billing services, marketing services, information technology services and make our intellectual property available to healthcare providers, physicians or physician-owned professional associations and professional corporations as part of our business. An important aspect of our strategy is to form contractual relationships with different providers pursuant to which we assist them with providing their patients with medical transportation and/or mobile health services and they pay us for those services out of the fees they collect from patients and third-party payors. The contractual relationships we enter into are subject to various state laws that prohibit fee splitting or the practice of medicine by lay entities or persons and are intended to prevent unlicensed persons from interfering with or influencing the physician’s professional judgment. In addition, various state laws also generally prohibit the sharing of professional services income with nonprofessional or business interests. Some activities may be considered an element of the practice of medicine in many states, even though they are not directly related to the delivery of healthcare services.
Accordingly, we must monitor our compliance with laws in every jurisdiction in which we operate on an ongoing basis, and we cannot provide assurance that our activities and arrangements, if challenged, will be found compliant. Additionally, it is possible that the laws and rules governing the practice of medicine and fee splitting in one or more
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jurisdictions may change, or be interpreted differently, in a manner adverse to our business. While our contractual arrangements state that we cannot control, influence, or otherwise interfere with the practice of medicine, and provide that licensed physicians retain exclusive control and responsibility for all aspects of the practice of medicine and the delivery of medical services, we cannot assure you that our contractual arrangements and activities are free from scrutiny from governmental authorities. In addition, we take steps to confirm the fees for the services we provide are commercially reasonable and fair market value.
State corporate practice of medicine and fee-splitting laws vary from state to state and are not always consistent. In addition, these requirements are subject to broad powers of interpretation and enforcement by state regulators. Notwithstanding the protections and limitations that are in place, the possibility of a determination that our contractual arrangements create an impermissible delegation of clinical control and/or impermissible fee-splitting by a physician practice to an unlicensed person remains. Such a determination could lead to adverse judicial or administrative action against us and/or the healthcare providers we contract with; civil or criminal penalties; the inability to contract with managed care companies or governmental payors; receipt of cease-and-desist orders from state regulators; loss of licenses; and the need to make changes to the terms of engagement with the providers that we contract with, which could substantially interfere with our business.
International Regulation
We expect to continue to expand our operations internationally through both organic growth and acquisitions. Our international operations are subject to different, and sometimes more stringent, legal and regulatory requirements, which vary widely by jurisdiction, including anti-corruption laws such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, and corresponding foreign laws, including the U.K. Bribery Act 2010; regulation by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and economic sanctions laws; various privacy, insurance, tax, tariff and trade laws and regulations; corporate governance, privacy, data protection, data mining, data transfer, labor and employment, intellectual property, consumer protection and investment laws and regulations; discriminatory licensing procedures; required localization of records and funds; and limitations on dividends and repatriation of capital.
Other Regulations
Our operations are subject to various state hazardous waste and non-hazardous medical waste disposal laws. These laws do not classify as hazardous most of the waste produced from healthcare services. OSHA regulations require employers to provide workers who are occupationally subject to blood or other potentially infectious materials with prescribed protections. These regulatory requirements apply to all healthcare facilities, including primary care centers, and require employers to make a determination as to which employees may be exposed to blood or other potentially infectious materials and to have in effect a written exposure control plan. In addition, employers are required to provide or deploy hepatitis B vaccinations, personal protective equipment and other safety devices, infection control training, post-exposure evaluation and follow-up, waste disposal techniques and procedures and work practice controls. Employers are also required to comply with various record-keeping requirements.
Some of our operations may be subject to compliance with certain provisions of the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and comparable statutes in many states. Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, a third-party collection company is restricted in the methods it uses to contact consumer debtors and elicit payments with respect to placed accounts. Requirements under state collection agency statutes vary, with most requiring compliance similar to that required under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Many of the states in which we operate have comparable state statutes as well.
See the section of this Annual Report titled “Risk Factors — Risks Related to DocGo’s Legal and Regulatory Environment.”
Available Information
We file or furnish electronically with the SEC our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports. We make copies of these reports and amendments thereto available on our website at www.DocGo.com, under “Investors,” free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable after filing or furnishing these reports with the SEC.