Along with revisiting and revising many of the Stark Law’s foundational elements, definitions, and common exception requirements, the new rulemaking modifies several existing exceptions, including for the rental of office space, physician recruitment, fair market value arrangements, isolated transactions, and remuneration unrelated to the furnishing of DHS. This webinar highlights the key changes to these exceptions and provides practical examples of their application. 

Presentation materials

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White paper

In December 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized its long-awaited changes to the agency’s regulations governing the federal physician self-referral law, commonly known as the Stark Law (Final Rule). The Final Rule represents the most significant Stark Law rulemaking in more than a decade. The Health Care Group at Dentons US presented a series of seven webinars, each with a companion white paper, addressing the principal components of the Final Rule. This is the fifth of these white papers. It addresses changes made in the Final Rule to nine Stark Law exceptions. Eight of these exceptions focus on the exchange of remuneration in specific types of compensation arrangements. They include the exceptions for:

• Rental of office space (Space Rental Exception);
• Rental of equipment (Equipment Rental Exception);
• Fair market value compensation arrangements (FMV Exception);
• Physician recruitment (Recruitment Exception);
• Assistance to compensate a non-physician practitioner (NPP Exception);
• Remuneration unrelated to the furnishing of DHS (Unrelated to DHS Exception);
• Payments by a physician (Physician Payments Exception); and
• Isolated financial transactions (Isolated Transactions Exception).

The ninth exception—for in-office ancillary services (In-Office Ancillary Services Exception)—is a so-called “all purpose” exception,10 which means it protects certain designated health services (DHS) furnished in a physician’s office, provided a number of conditions are satisfied, regardless of the form of the parties’ underlying financial relationship.

Download the white paper