The Department of Justice is doubling down on Stark law enforcement, with an uptick in complaints-in-intervention and Stark-related settlements, law firm Arnold & Porter wrote in an April blog post.
The moves suggest "a likely uptick in Stark Law-based enforcement going forward," the report said.
Here are five major Stark law moves to know from the last year:
1. In March, a Houston physician and his diagnostic facilities, operating under United Neurology, agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle allegations that included Stark law violations. He allegedly referred patients to an imaging center that he owned, but where he supposedly did not maintain a regular office, among other allegations.
2. In February, NewYork-Presbyterian/Brooklyn Medical Methodist Hospital agreed to pay $17.3 million to resolve allegations that it paid unlawful kickbacks to physicians. The hospital allegedly made payments to physicians at the hospital's chemotherapy infusion center, where physician compensation was linked to the number of referrals made for services at the center.
3. In October, a cardiac imaging company and its CEO agreed to pay more than $85 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations. Cardiac Imaging, based in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., and its founder and CEO, Sam Kancherlapalli, were accused of paying referring cardiologists excessive fees to supervise PET scans. The lawsuit alleged this violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark law.
4. In December, The U.S. Attorney's Office filed a complaint-in-intervention under the False Claims Act against Steward Health Care System and its subsidiaries, alleging violations of the physician self-referral law and submission of false claims to Medicare. The complaint claims that between January 2013 and March 2022, Steward Medical Group overpaid Arvind Agnihotri, MD, chief of cardiac surgery at Steward St. Elizabeth's, in relation to fair market value and linked the compensation to the volume or value of his referrals to the hospital.
5. Also in December, Indianapolis-based Community Health agreed to pay $345 million to resolve allegations it violated Stark law. The suit alleges the health system gave appraisers false information, doubled physicians' salaries based on what they earned in private practice and ignored warnings about disconnects between high compensation of physicians and productivity.