Healthcare Law and Ethics Starks Law
Marcedis Jackson
HCA322: Health Care Ethics & Medical Law
Instructor: Susan Vellek
April 12, 2017
In 1989 there was a law put in place called the Stark law which was named after Pete Stark who was the Congressional Sponsor. This law was put into place due to a research study which the results showed that physicians were performing more activities within the hospital. The original law was to put in place to monitor to the over use of some healthcare systems and services that may have been owned by physicians or that they may have had financial interest. In this particular case with the two physicians Dr.S and Dr.V were in violation of the stark law, due to the physicians leasing the nuclear
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The Second element is to prove that the physicians are requesting for payment under Medicare or Medicaid, the services don’t necessarily have to be performed by the physician at hand, you need to prove they are receiving payment for services from the insurance company. The third is the Stark Law prohibits physicians from self- referral of designated health services, which in this particular case they violated two which are radiology services (nuclear camera) and inpatient and outpatient services. The forth element is the Stark Law requires either the physician him/herself or immediate family member have a financial interest, which is defined as an investment or ownership or a particular item. This can be indirect or direct compensation arrangements. In this particular case the hospital has already agreed to sublease the nuclear camera from the two physicians. The Fifth element allows three exemptions, investment arrangements, compensation and ownership of a particular piece of equipment for payment arrangements, and payment arrangements.
The four other physicians had every right to put together a claim in reference to the Anti-kickback law, although the patients may be receiving faster services due to the prior arrangement between the hospital and the two physicians but this can cause issues because the physicians and the hospitals were only thinking about their financial interest and not the patients particular health. This also created a back lash at the patients who were already being seen under their physicians care and now are told they have to make the change because of the