CMS and OIG Announce Long-Awaited Changes to the Federal Stark Regulations and Anti-Kickback Laws

Earlier today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced their new, long-awaited rule changes to the federal Stark and Anti-Kickback laws, respectively. These new rules, which collectively amount to well over a thousand pages in length, are available for review here and here.

This announcement signals a major development in the health care industry, which has been patiently waiting for the final publication of these rules for several administrations now. Previous alerts on this subject are available here and here.

We are still in the process of digesting these mammoth new rules, and will provide additional substantive analysis shortly. For now, suffice it to say that these rule changes have the potential to dramatically alter the health care industry’s methods of reimbursement.