Feds Want to Extend Stark Law Exception

The Obama administration has proposed two rules to extend protections that allow hospitals to donate electronic health record technology to physicians who refer patients to their facility, The Hill's "RegWatch" reports (Goad, "RegWatch," The Hill, 4/8).

Background

The Stark Law bans payments that are aimed at encouraging referrals to hospitals. In addition, the federal anti-kickback law prohibits payments that are designed to influence care for Medicare beneficiaries.

However, in an effort to encourage physicians to adopt costly EHR systems:

• CMS established an exception to the Stark Law allowing hospitals to donate EHR software to physicians; and
• HHS' Office of Inspector General established a "safe harbor" provision to protect such EHR donations from anti-kickback enforcement, provided that the physicians cover 15% of the cost of the EHR technology.

The exceptions to the Stark and anti-kickback laws are scheduled to expire at the end of 2013 (iHealthBeat, 3/29).

Details of Proposed Rules

The Obama administration's proposal includes:

• A proposed rule from CMS that would extend the Stark Law exception for EHR donations to the end of 2016; and
• A proposed rule from OIG that would extend the safe harbor protections for EHR donations to the end of 2016 (Durben Hirsch, FierceEMR, 4/9).

 

In addition to extending the EHR donation protections, the new proposed rules would remove an electronic prescribing requirement from the original rules and adjust language regarding the types of EHR systems that qualify for exceptions (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 4/9).

OIG in its proposed rule said, "We expect these proposed changes to continue to facilitate the adoption of electronic health recor[d] technology" ("RegWatch," The Hill, 4/8).

CMS in its proposed rule said that it is considering extending protections for EHR donations to Dec. 31, 2021, to align with the end of the Medicaid portion of the meaningful use program.

Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR systems can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments.

Publication, Public Comments

The two proposed rules are scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday.

Federal officials will accept public comment on the proposed rules for 60 days after their publication (Murphy, EHR Intelligence, 4/9).

Read more: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2013/4/9/federal-officials-seek-to-extend-protections-for-ehr-donations.aspx#ixzz2PzgTjelu