As the health care delivery landscape undergoes tremendous change, the pressure for physicians and hospitals to seek alignment is amplified. Physicians should be aware that the government has increased its scrutiny of physician-hospital financial arrangements and, depending upon how these arrangements are structured, these contracts could be viewed by regulators as a cover for buying physician referrals or stifling competition.
The California Medical Association (CMA) offers a new CMA ON-CALL document, #0661 "Physician-Hospital Compensation Arrangements and the Potential for Improper Referrals," which provides a general summary of applicable fraud and abuse laws used to challenge physician-hospital compensation arrangements, relevant opinions rendered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General, and recent court cases.
CMA ON-CALL #0661 "Physician-Hospital Compensation Arrangements and the Potential for Improper Referrals," as well as the rest of CMA's health law library, is available free to members in CMA's online resource library. Nonmembers can purchase CMA ON-CALL documents for $2 per page.
Contact: Samantha Pellon, (916) 551-2872 or spellon@cmanet.org.