Articles and Blogs

Health care providers subject to the Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute can face significant penalties for non-compliant arrangements. In the event that a provider discovers a potentially non-compliant arrangement, it may elect to disclose the arrangement to government officials in an effort to limit its liability. Potential Stark Law violations are often disclosed... READ MORE

Earlier this year, we reported on several benefits associated with the new Stark exception for timeshare arrangements. While we believe that, under many circumstances, the new timeshare exception is an improvement over the space lease exception, it does have several limitations. Before a health care provider enters into a timeshare license that is designed... READ MORE

Overview On October 30, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced the final rule (“Final Rule”)1 in follow up to the proposed rule published in July 2015 pertaining to payment policies under the Physician Fee Schedule for CY 2016 (“Proposed Rule”). In addition to changes to the Physician Fee Schedule and other... READ MORE

Last week, CMS promulgated a final rule that creates a new “timeshare license” exception to the Stark Law. A few days ago, we reported on this and other changes here but believe that the timeshare topic merits additional discussion. The new exception was created due to the difficulty hospitals and physicians experience when trying... READ MORE

A trend in real estate-related False Claims Act litigation should put hospitals and other health care providers on notice that relators are looking for big paydays for non-compliant real estate arrangements. The relators described in this article are real estate professionals who are bringing technically complex claims with little to no institutional knowledge of... READ MORE

Overview On July 8, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published a proposed rule pertaining to payment policies under the Physician Fee Schedule for CY 2016 (“Proposed Rule”).1 In addition to changes to the Physician Fee Schedule and other Medicare Part B payment policies, the Proposed Rule addresses modifications to the Stark... READ MORE

Under both the Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute, space lease arrangements between referring physicians and hospitals are coming under growing scrutiny as the government’s concentration on eliminating Medicare and Medicaid fraud and overpayments increases. Safe harbors and exceptions with respect to lease arrangements exist under both statutes with one of the requirements being... READ MORE

Over the past decade, hospitals have become increasingly regulated. In response, most hospitals have elected to implement corporate compliance programs. While these programs serve an important purpose, most fail to specifically address an area that is highly regulated – the leasing of hospital real estate. Managing hospital leasing arrangements can be extremely tedious work... READ MORE