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
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Flower Mound Hospital Partners LLC, a partially physician-owned hospital in Flower Mound, Texas, agreed to pay $18.2 million to settle its alleged violations of the False...more
In United States ex rel. Roshan v. E. Tex. Med. Ctr., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 252092, 2020 WL 8918651 (E.D. Tex. (Nov. 24, 2020)), a Texas federal court partially dismissed a relator’s claim alleging the defendants engaged in...more
Most health care providers have at least a basic understanding of the Anti-Kickback Statute. This federal law prohibits providers from offering, paying, soliciting, or accepting any form of “remuneration” for patient...more
On September 9, 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a $50 million settlement with Wheeling Hospital, Inc. of West Virginia to resolve False Claims Act allegations that Wheeling Hospital violated the Anti-Kickback...more
Nonprofit Hospital System and Physician Practice Reach $10 Million Settlement for False Claims Act Allegations - Centra Health Inc., a nonprofit hospital system, and Blue Ridge Ear, Nose, Throat and Plastic Surgery, Inc.,...more
On December 20, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit granted in part a petition for rehearing filed by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in a False Claims Act (FCA) case that has generated...more
Boston Heart Diagnostics, a Massachusetts company, agree to pay $26.7 million to settle a False Claims Act case involving allegations of paying illegal kickbacks to physicians....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
The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit endorsed two controversial interpretations of the Stark Law’s “volume or value” standard, known as the correlation theory and the practice “loss” theory in U.S. ex rel. J. William...more
The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that Montana’s Kalispell Regional Healthcare System (KRH) and six subsidiaries and related entities agreed to pay $24 million to resolve allegations that they violated the...more
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced two significant False Claims Act (FCA) settlements in recent days that signal continued close government scrutiny of billing, coding and referral practices at hospitals....more
One of the reasons compliance officers and health care attorneys read fraud settlements is to identify issues the government is focused on. The cases the government decides to pursue are very indicative of the areas of fraud...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
The Department of Justice (DOJ) reports that, in fiscal year 2016 ending September 30, it obtained more than $4.7 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud and false claims. More than half of this...more
Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) entered into a $34 million settlement with Mercy Hospital Springfield (“Hospital”) of Springfield, Missouri, and its affiliate Mercy Clinic (“Clinic”). The settlement resolves an...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
I. Stark Law and False Claims Act - The FCA has become the primary enforcement vehicle for the Ethics in Patient Referrals Act, better known as the Stark Law. There are now more than 150 public cases citing to both the...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
Okay, there’s not really a Most-Illegal-Physician-Compensation Prize. But if there were, Florida’s North Broward Hospital District would have won in a walk. That’s why the district has agreed to pay the government $69.5...more
On July 2, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a jury verdict of more than $237 million against Tuomey Healthcare System, a nonprofit hospital in South Carolina, based on Stark Law and False Claims Act...more
On July 2, 2015, the Fourth Circuit affirmed a $237,454,195 judgment against Tuomey Health Care System (Tuomey) for violations of the Federal False Claims Act (FCA), which liability arose from violations of the Stark law....more