The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) publishes short summaries of settlements with health care providers as a result of the Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol (SRDP). The SRDP permits health care providers to voluntarily disclose violations of the federal physician self-referral law, also called the Stark law. CMS published the SRDP in September 2010. Since that time, CMS has published thefollowing four settlements:
1. An acute care hospital located in Massachusetts settled potential violations in February 2011 involving the use of the Stark law's personal services arrangement exception (42 C.F.R. § 411.357(d)) for hospital department chiefs, medical staff leadership positions, and physician groups that provided overnight coverage at the hospital. The settlement amount was $579,000.
2. On November 9, 2011, a Mississippi critical access hospital settled self-reported violations involving the personal services arrangement exception and certain hospital and emergency room physicians. The hospital paid $130,000 to settle the violations.
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