We're hearing more and more cases of third-party vendors approaching surgery centers with a new, creative and potentially dangerous type of offer. Here's how it works. A vendor marketing a new technology or piece of equipment proposes an arrangement whereby the vendor owns the equipment and bills the third-party payer for the technical component of procedures performed with the equipment. The vendor then pays the ASC a fee for its lease of ASC space to house the equipment. Such a lease arrangement, which sharply contrasts the traditional situation in which an ASC leases equipment from the vendor, then bills the third-party payer for services, raises four legal-compliance questions.