CMS Urged to Create Stark Law Exception for Value-Based Arrangements

AHA today urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to create or adapt compensation exceptions to the Stark Law to enable hospitals and physicians to coordinate care and improve patient outcomes. “To reach the full potential of a value-based health system, the Stark compensation regulations must be reframed to meet the objectives of the new system, through the creation of a new exception designed specifically for value-based payment methodologies,” AHA wrote, responding to a CMS request for information on reducing the law’s regulatory burdens. The letter highlights the obstacles hospitals and physicians face navigating compensation regulations built for a fee-for-service model and also recommends additional specific changes to achieve a patient-centered and value-based health system. “We urge that no changes be made to the regulations implementing the Stark Law’s ownership ban,” AHA said. “That ban is a carefully developed policy that is working as Congress intended.”