Fraud - Stark

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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have jointly announced the launch of a reinvigorated DOJ-HHS False Claims Act Working Group aimed at enhancing interagency coordination around key fraud enforcement priorities in the healthcare space. This initiative underscores the federal government’s ongoing reliance on the False Claims…

Under the Federal Ethics in Patient Referrals Act (more commonly known as “Stark”), if a physician[1] has a financial relationship with an entity, the physician may not refer patients to the entity for medical services payable by Medicare unless the financial relationship complies with the Stark safe harbors.  Thus, entities that lease or sublease…

Although the Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”)  has previously announced that it would exercise discretion with respect to financial arrangements entered into to facilitate and enhance the availability of COVID-19 testing, the attached Memorandum from the Office of Attorney General also indicates enhanced enforcement scrutiny with respect to fraudulent testing.

On October 22, 2019, CMS and OIG (Office of Inspector General) released new proposed rules regarding Stark Law Exceptions and Anti-Kickback Safe Harbors in response to what has universally been christened as the “Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care”, first announced by HHS in June of 2018.

As background, please remember that, although the Anti-Kickback Safe…

Emanuele v. Medicor Associates, was presented to the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania as cross motions for summary judgment, and provides some guidance regarding the Stark requirements for bona fide personal service contracting arrangements.

The case originated as a whistleblower allegation that Hamot Hospital had not complied with all…

On October 21, 2015 the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General posted Advisory Opinion No. 15-13.  This Opinion relates to a request for Advisory Opinion about a plan to offer free van shuttle services to certain medical facilities in an integrated health system.  The Office of Inspector General (the “OIG”) …

In United States ex rel. Martin et al. v. Life Care Centers of American, Inc., the Court held that the government could extrapolate from a random sample in order to impose False Claims Act (FCA) liability against Life Care Centers of American Inc. (Life Care) for a substantially larger universe of claims.

In order…

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