Stark III Regulations: Compensation Surveys Eliminated
STARK III REGULATIONS TEXT
CMS issued the revised Stark III Regulations to be effective as of December 4, 2007. The text of the regulations is accessible at the link below, and the Med Law Blog will publish a number of short posts over the next two months highlighting certain changes prior to that effective date.
The subject of today’s post is the fair market value exception for compensation. CMS has eliminated the compensation survey provision for fair market value compensation. The use of national studies and attempts to define the fair market value compensation for relevant local market proved to be overly burdensome.
Future posts will deal with the changes for the definition of a physician group for the ancillary services exception, warnings regarding the use of shared facilities, and the allowable physician practice restrictions for recruiting arrangements.
Do the provisions of Stark III apply to hospital-employed emergency physicians? We are not "referring physicians", and we have a bona fide employee relationship with the hospital. As such does the concept of "fair market value" compensation apply to us since the benchmark is the hourly amount paid to emergency physicians in the local market ? I am asking because I have been told that our incomes must be capped in order to comply with Stark. As a hospital-employed emergency physician, there is no situation in which I could be financially enticed for referring patients to the hospital. EMTALA mandates that I see everybody who arrives in the ED and I have no choice in who provides the other designated health services (lab, radiology, inpatient services) for the patient.