Tuesday, December 22, 2020
OVERVIEW
On November 20, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Office of Inspector General released final rules amending the regulations to the Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute and Beneficiary Inducement Civil Monetary Penalty Law. As part of these final rules, the agencies liberalized the requirements under the existing exception and safe harbor for donations of electronic health record items and services, and created a new exception and safe harbor to allow donations of cybersecurity technology and related services.
IN DEPTH
On November 20, 2020, the US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) released final rules amending the regulations to the physician self-referral law (Stark Law) (Stark Rule) and the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and Beneficiary Inducement Civil Monetary Penalty Law (collectively, AKS Rule) in connection with HHS’s Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care. As part of the Stark Rule and the AKS Rule, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) liberalized the requirements under the existing exception and safe harbor for donations of electronic health record (EHR) items and services (EHR Exception and Safe Harbor), and created a new exception and safe harbor for donations of cybersecurity technology and related services (Cybersecurity Exception and Safe Harbor). This