Stark III: Did It Cripple Non-Competition Agreements In An Effort To Save Them?

By Thomas A. Lerner | Related Practice: Health Care

This article originally appeared in the King County Medical Society Bulletin.

At the end of 2007, the Department of Health and Human Services issued its third and final regulations governing physicians and health care entities with whom they have financial relationships. These regulations implement the 1995 legislation named for its sponsoring congressman, Pete Stark of California. The statute could only have been more appropriately named had its sponsor been named Daunting or Burdensome.

Broadly put, the Stark statute and ensuing regulations were intended to police financial benefits flowing from referrals, where the payment for designated health services comes from Medicare or Medicaid. The economic relationships among physicians, suppliers or durable medical equipment, hospitals, and practice groups are complex, such that CMS (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) drafted regulations that reach into every aspect of physicians' working lives and their related finances. It is well beyond the scope of this article to address the full extent of these regulations. Indeed, the statute and regulations are of such complexity as to defy any effort to digest them in one fell swoop.

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