The deadline is fast approaching for comments on two highly consequential proposals that are poised to change how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) approaches fraud and abuse enforcement in federal healthcare programs.
As we wrote in October, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) released comprehensive reform proposals regarding the federal physician self-referral or "Stark Law" and the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, respectively. In addition to modifying interpretations to these fraud and abuse authorities to reflect the industry's shift toward value-based care, the proposals have the potential to introduce significant flexibility in some areas of healthcare coordination and constrain others.
The CMS proposed rule is available here, and OIG's proposal is available here. Comments may be submitted electronically here and here, and must be in by 5pm on New Year's Eve, Tuesday, December 31, 2019. As of this alert, the proposals have already generated over 500 public comments.
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