False Claims Act Insights - Physician, Refer Thyself: How Stark Law and FCA Intersect
2022 Resolutions: What Healthcare Practices Need To Tackle In the New Year
Goran Musinovic on Healthcare Real Estate Compliance
Podcast: CMS and OIG Final Rules for Innovating Your Value-Based Payment Program - Diagnosing Health Care
Compliance Perspectives: Changes to the Physician Self-Referral and Anti-Kickback Rules
Anti Kickback and Stark Law Enforcement and Compliance Issues
As a general rule, healthcare employers are required to pay employed physicians and other contracted providers fair market value (FMV) for their services, but many employers do not understand relevant regulatory standards. ...more
Engaging in management and investor conversations about maintaining and growing a business is critical, no matter the industry. Whether you’re discussing normal business sustainability, organic growth, or contemplating a...more
Although most health care lawyers and compliance officers who review and analyze physician compensation understand that fair market value (FMV) is important, the nuances around FMV are sometimes missed....more
Welcome to the Summer 2024 issue of “FCA Enforcement & Compliance Digest,” our quarterly newsletter in which we compile essential updates on False Claims Act (FCA) enforcement trends, litigation, agency guidance, and...more
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
We often work with valuation experts to ensure compensation payments between healthcare organizations and physicians are fair market value and commercially reasonable for purposes of compliance with the Stark Law and the...more
November 28, 2023 | Legal Update On November 10, 2023, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released its widely anticipated General Compliance Program Guidance (GCPG). The OIG had previously announced that it would...more
Fair market value (FMV) is a pinnacle issue with respect to healthcare regulatory compliance and compensation agreements. This article will analyze the issues related to an FMV defensibility analysis of compensation...more
Fair market value is a pinnacle issue for compliance under the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute. Compensation arrangements that are required to be representative of fair market value under Stark/AKS include employment,...more
Learning Objectives: - Impact 2021 Physician Fee Schedule has had/will have on Physician Compensation and Benchmark Data - Impact COVID has had/will have on Physician Compensation - Evolution of Use of Benchmark Data,...more
Each year, the Department of Justice (DOJ) recovers millions of dollars through False Claims Act (FCA) settlements, and 2021 was no exception. Some of the most sizeable or otherwise noteworthy settlements from 2021 were with...more
This is the third in a five-part series discussing the new Value-Based Regulations adopted last year by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Office of Inspector General. The Stark Value-Based Arrangement...more
The ACCC 47th Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit (AMCCBS) took place virtually, March 1-5. Through a combination of five-star panels and interactive drop-in sessions, attendees learned about key themes and trends...more
Click the link below for our complete analysis of recent updates to the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute and their impact on health care providers. ...more
The Situation: Under the federal Physician Self-Referral Law ("Stark Law"), many physician arrangements must meet one or more of the so-called "big three" requirements: that the arrangement be "commercially reasonable," that...more
Learning Objectives: - Explain changes to existing concepts including fair market value, commercial reasonableness, and volume or value - Examine the new definitions, exceptions, and safe harbors and their impact on...more
The Situation: The isolated transactions exception under the Stark Law has been used by some providers and entities to retroactively protect services arrangements that do not qualify for personal services or fair market value...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) completed its “Regulatory Sprint” by finalizing changes to regulations pertaining to two federal fraud and abuse laws. On December 2, 2020, the Centers for Medicare &...more
The Final Rule of the Stark Law revises the definitions of Fair Market Value and includes a definition of General Market Value to better align with actual practices without unduly restricting innovative relationships between...more
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), on November 20, 2020, released final rules for the federal physician self-referral law (Stark) and the anti-kickback statute (AKS). The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid...more
With the benefit of more than three decades of rulemaking and hundreds of submissions under the Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol, CMS has seized the opportunity in the final Sprint Regulations to adopt a number of...more
CMS and OIG released highly anticipated final changes to the rules implementing the Stark Law, the safe harbors issued under the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and the beneficiary inducements provision in the civil monetary...more
Acute Care Hospital Agrees to Pay $50 Million to Settle Alleged Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute Violations - On September 9, 2020, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that Wheeling Hospital Inc. (“Wheeling...more
On April 3, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) issued a policy statement of enforcement discretion (the “Policy Statement”) regarding sanctions under the Federal...more
While we are waiting for final disposition of the AKS Safe Harbors and Stark Exceptions proposed in October of 2019, since the comment period expired December 31, 2019 and final rules have not been issued, I thought we should...more