Senate Committee Hearing Contemplates Changes for Stark Law to Make Compliance Easier

In mid-July, the Senate Finance Committee heard testimony from stakeholders arguing for changes to the Stark Law that could make compliance easier and facilitate new business models that promote value-based, coordinated healthcare services. In December 2015, the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Committee on Ways and Means convened a group of experts to discuss the Stark Law, which prohibits physicians from referring Medicare patients for “designated health services (DHS)” to entities with which the physician has a financial relationship. The group considered changes that might be needed to facilitate implementation of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) and keep up to date with an industry shifting to alternative payment models. At the end of June 2016, the Senate Finance Committee released a white paper, “Why Stark, Why Now? Suggestions to Improve the Stark Law to Encourage Innovative Payment Models,” addressing potential revisions to the law that could make it easier for healthcare providers to collaborate and pursue alternative payment models that promote the government’s Triple Aim. Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), explained in a statement: “This paper reflects critical feedback from the stakeholder community on the law’s ambiguities, its unintended consequences and the need for reform, and I am hopeful it jumpstarts the discussion on how Congress can modernize the law to make it work for patients, providers, and taxpayers.”