In early May 2024, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) agreed to pay $38 million to resolve a False Claims Act case based on alleged Stark Law violations. The size of the settlement in United States ex rel. J....more
On October 9, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) released proposed changes to the regulations interpreting the Physician Self-Referral Law (Stark Law), including a new proposed exception for limited...more
As part of the long-awaited proposed changes “to modernize and clarify” the regulations that interpret the Physician Self-Referral Law (the “Stark Law”) released on October 9, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid...more
In recent years, the healthcare industry has been turning greater attention to the need to engage or involve patients in developing new technologies and systems to improve healthcare delivery. These patient engagement...more
Payments to physicians, even for routine, necessary duties, may cause referrals to the entity making the payments to be "prohibited referrals" under the Stark Law. This means the hospital or other entity should not have...more
I frequently hear attorneys claim the Stark law applies equally to hospitals and physicians. This position is sometimes taken in the process of negotiating a transaction between a hospital and a physician or physician group....more
The Stark Law was originally enacted by Congress in 1989 as the Ethics in Patient Referrals Act. Initially, it prohibited a physician from referring Medicare beneficiaries to clinical labs in which the physician had an...more
After the federal government’s victory against Tuomey Hospital, we have seen an increasing number of large False Claims Act (FCA) settlements with hospitals involving Stark Law allegations. Relators are even citing, as...more
On July 2, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a $237 million judgment against Tuomey Healthcare System, Inc. (“Tuomey”), in a federal False Claims Act (“FCA”) case arising out of...more