Strategies for Avoiding Technical Stark Law Violations and Penalties
The Stark Law, in essence, prohibits doctors from referring patients to certain healthcare providers when there’s a financial connection between them. If doctors break this law, they can face big fines. Therefore, it’s crucial to steer clear of actions that violate these regulations.
Key Provisions of Stark Law
What the Stark Law Says:
Under Stark law, doctors can’t refer patients who use Medicare or Medicaid to healthcare providers they have a financial relationship with.
This financial connection can be in a few ways:
- If a doctor owns a healthcare provider, they can’t send patients there.
- Doctors can’t send their Medicare or Medicaid patients to healthcare providers they’ve invested money in.
- Doctors can’t refer patients to any healthcare provider in exchange for money.
There are some exceptions to these rules. These exceptions include:
- When doctors work for healthcare practice.
- Renting equipment or office space.
- Owning shares in public companies.
- Providing certain services within a doctor’s office.
Even with these exceptions, it’s crucial to establish things correctly, or you could unintentionally violate the regulations.
Types of Stark Law Violations
Breaking the Stark Law can fall into two main categories: substantive and technical.
- Substantive Violations: In such cases, doctors send their patients directly to places with which they have a financial connection, like monetary agreements.
- Technical Violations: These are trickier primarily because they’re about the paperwork and how you organize the exceptions correctly. It could be things like not filling out paperwork correctly or having contracts that are no longer valid.
Both types of violations have the same punishments.
How to Avoid Technical Violations and Punishments: The best way to stay out of trouble with the Stark Law is to get help from a healthcare lawyer. They can look at your agreements and help set them up the right way to follow the law. Reach out to one of our attorneys at Dike Law Group, and schedule a meeting to discuss further on dorismeet.com.
