Stark Laws Case Study

The Stark Laws are three separate provisions that govern physician self-referral for Medicare and Medicaid patients, named after U.S. Congressman Pete Stark who first sponsored the legislation in the early 1990s. The idea for the laws came into place because of the practice of physician self-referral, or the practice of a doctor referring a patient to a medical organization in which they had some sort of financial interest. Critics of this practice believed that there was an inherent conflict of interest, not to mention a fiscal benefit to the physician, which might encourage over testing, use of procedures that might be more expensive than the market could bear, and/or because of the captive audience (the patient) provide undue pressure to use only those physician recommended providers and services (Law 2011).

Definition of the Issue- A group of physicians and medical professionals formed a new medical group...
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