Recent developments suggest that in the years to come, health care lawyers will continue to grapple with the difficulties of the broad and complex federal physician self-referral law, commonly called the Stark Law. Although originally enacted in 1989 to create a “bright line” to demark improper physician self-referred laboratory services, and expanded in 1993 to cover a wide range of “designated health services” reimbursable under Medicare, even now the contours of the Stark Law continue to evolve and new uncertainties emerge.
The significant damages that can result from a Stark Law violation — most particularly the prospect under the False Claims Act for recovery of three times the Medicare reimbursement paid as a result of a prohibited referral — has caused the Stark Law to attract increasing attention from U.S. Attorneys offices and the private qui tam relator bar. For these reasons, despite the many years since enactment, counseling health care clients on the Stark Law will become increasingly difficult.
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