New Legislation Offers Major Reforms to the Physician Self-Referral Prohibition (the 'Stark Law')

Last week, bipartisan legislation was introduced in the House and Senate to make significant reforms to the Stark Law, which bars a physician from referring patients to an entity with which the physician has a financial relationship, subject to certain limited exceptions. These bills (H.R. 4206 and S. 2051) recognize that some aspects of the Stark Law interfere with the more recent federal policy that the development and widespread use of innovative alternative payment models (APMs) should be fostered.