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Many of the top health system and provider groups lauded the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’) proposed regulations aimed at updating the decades-old Stark Law saying they believe it is the start to removing major regulatory headaches stymying the shift to value-based care models.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and HHS’ Office of Inspector General proposed rules Wednesday introducing new safe harbors to the anti-kickback statute and reforms to the 1989 Stark Law that bans physician self-referrals. The proposed rules would create new exceptions to Stark and safe harbors to shield value-based care arrangements between doctors and healthcare facilities.
For instance, the proposed rule would require healthcare entities to provide a written document to the government that spells out the arrangements between them and indicate what patient population they are going to target and what outcomes they are going to measure. Those outcomes will be monitored to ensure the value-based arrangement doesn’t violate the law, officials said.