Stark law news and information

After eight years of fierce legal confrontation with the federal government, board members at Tuomey Healthcare System in Sumter, S.C., lack a permanent CEO, owe on junk-status bonds and face the highest penalties levied against a community hospital in a...
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A clerical error means Tuomey Healthcare System in South Carolina owes $39 million less than a federal judge ordered Tuesday. But the system still is on the hook for $238 million in damages for violating the federal False Claims Act. A settlement to resolve the case, meanwhile, may still be in the...
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A judge ordered Tuomey Healthcare System to pay $277 million for violating laws that bar hospitals from paying doctors to refer Medicare patients, though a settlement could still be in the works.
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With his hospital facing at least $237 million in penalties from a huge legal fight with the federal government, Tuomey Healthcare System President and CEO Jay Cox is leaving.
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For 20 years, the CMS has not applied the federal ban on physician conflicts of interest known as the Stark law to Medicaid claims. It's focused on Medicare only. But private whistle-blowers have begun pressing for clarity on the issue because a 1993 law applying Stark to Medicaid remains on the...
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Several years ago, Leake Memorial Hospital, a critical-access facility in rural central Mississippi, was on the verge of closing and was looking for a buyer when its officials discovered that the publicly run hospital was sitting on a time bomb.
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The healthcare world is populated by scores of legal experts who strive to keep up with the sprawling compendium of statutes, regulations and legal advisories known collectively as the “Stark law.” But the law's father, Fortney “Pete” Stark, is not one of them.
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Physicians who prepare and examine tissue samples in their own practices rather than using labs report higher use of the services, suggesting that the financial incentives may drive the difference.
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Once again, a critic who says he was reprimanded for confidentially raising concerns about doctors' pay has turned into a whistle-blower for the federal government.
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Cardiologists and the Infirmary Health System in Mobile, Ala., are accused of needlessly exposing patients to radiation in a nine-year-running kickback scheme tainting an estimated $522 million in Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare reimbursements since 2004.
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