Under the new rules, which were established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Aug. 2008, the hospital inpatient prospective payment system will restrict “under arrangements,” in which hospitals contract with physician-owned entities to provide a wide range of ancillary services; per-use or “per-click” payments for equipment and space leases; and compensation deals based on a percentage of revenue generated by space or equipment use.
In order to fall under compliance, physicians and hospitals need to restructure the arrangements, and physicians will be considered having an ownership stake in the designated service they provide unless they can meet the new, stricter Stark law ownership exceptions, according to the report. This includes narrowing the scope of services physicians provide to hospitals and adjusting compensation structures to a flat fee when leasing equipment or space.
Officials in the report noted that physicians should look at older deals that they are complacent about to ensure there are no possible violations as physicians may have little legal recourse against them.
Physicians worry that the stricter rules will limit the access of care for services and are asking CMS to defer the Oct. 1 deadline to consider possible exemptions, according to the report.
Read the AMNews report about the stricter Stark law changes.
