Hospitals Eyeing Efficiency Get Wish List in Fraud Law Proposals

Hospitals won big in new Trump administration proposals to create exceptions for value-based care. Proposed exemptions under the Stark Law—which restricts physician self-referrals—would allow arrangements in which one health entity assumes the full financial risk of patient care or those in which physicians carry a meaningful downside risk if the care doesn’t work out as planned. Largely the same types of arrangements would enjoy safe harbors under a proposal for the anti-kickback statute that bars efforts to reward the referral of Medicare business.

Out in the Cold: The medical device and drug industries were left without any new protections under ...