Advisories

CMS Issues Phase II Stark II Regulations

March 2004

On March 26, 2004, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published the long-awaited Phase II, Stark II physician self-referral regulations (the "Regulations"). The Regulations were published as an interim final rule with a ninety-day public comment period and an effective date of July 26, 2004. The Regulations offer slightly more flexibility through the addition of certain limited exceptions and more liberal interpretations of certain requirements, while establishing certain bright line rules that may make it more difficult to qualify certain arrangements for exceptions to the Stark self-referral ban.