Final Stark Rule Changes Adopt New Exceptions For Hospitals and Significant Clarifications -

In the Medicare Fee Schedule Final Rule with Comment Period for calendar year 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) adopted two new exceptions to the Stark physician selfreferral law affecting hospitals, effective January 1, 2016, and made certain other significant changes. 80 Fed. Reg. 70885, 71300 (Nov. 16, 2015). A proposed rule including many of these revisions was first published in the Federal Register on July 15, 2015, and was the subject of an article in our September 2015 issue of Corridors. This article will summarize the changes to the Stark law in the final rule and delineate some of CMS’s changes from the proposed rule. Most should be welcomed as lessening the risk for North Carolina hospitals and physicians of committing minor, technical violations of the Stark law.