False Claims Act Insights - Physician, Refer Thyself: How Stark Law and FCA Intersect
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Compliance Perspectives: Changes to the Physician Self-Referral and Anti-Kickback Rules
Anti Kickback and Stark Law Enforcement and Compliance Issues
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
New Florida legislation, Senate Bill 768 (2023), amending the Patient Self-Referral Act of 1992 (the Act), also known as the Florida "mini-Stark law," has been signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and is set to take effect on July 1,...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
For many health care systems, patient leakage – when patients leave a health care system’s network in favor of out-of-network providers – is a rampant problem that results in substantial lost revenue. While sometimes patient...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
In its recent Final Rule significantly revising the federal Physician Self-Referral Law (Stark Law), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) implements several important changes to the special rules on...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
Along with proposed Stark Law exceptions designed to accommodate value-based care models, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS or the agency) adopted additional revisions to the Stark Law regulations (the final...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
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
The CMS proposed regulation issued on October 17, 20191 provides much needed clarity on the question of when compensation is deemed to vary with the volume or value of referrals or other business generated between the...more
On October 17, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) formally published its proposed rule (the PSR Rule) to update exceptions to the Physician Self-Referral Law (PSR Law, also known as the Stark Law). For...more
On October 9, 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid ("CMS") and Office of Inspector General ("OIG"), respectively, published proposed rules updating the long-standing physician...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
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
On September 17, 2019, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision with potentially far-reaching implications for healthcare companies and providers facing allegations of violations of the Stark Law. In United States...more
The Justice Department’s commitment – resources and public statements – has continued at a steady pace in the Trump Administration. Some might diminish the effort by recognizing that fraud is so pervasive that it is like...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
CMS is seeking input on ways to reduce the regulatory burdens of the physician self-referral law (commonly known as the Stark Law), particularly as it relates to the ongoing effort to transition from a fee-for-service to a...more
The Ethics in Patient Referrals Act (“Stark”) prevents hospitals from paying employed or contracted physicians in the same way that physicians are or were paid by independent physician groups. Specifically, physician groups...more
After a prolonged period of stagnant growth primarily due to a glut of capacity coupled with flat or declining revenue growth, we’re beginning to see a resurgence of Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs). In fact, experts are...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