Coronavirus (COVID-19) Blanket Waivers of the Federal Physician Self-Referral (Stark) Law

Summary

This practice note discusses the blanket waivers of the federal physician self-referral law (Stark Law) issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to promote continuity of and access to healthcare. On January 30, 2023, HHS announced the expiration of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), effective May 11, 2023. As of that date, the Stark Law blanket waivers, along with many other regulatory flexibilities that were available to healthcare providers during the PHE, terminated. Stark Law prohibits a physician from making referrals for specified designated health services (DHS) to entities that the physician or an immediate family member has a financial relationship with unless an exception applies. Stark Law's blanket waivers overrode certain of those prohibitions. Post-PHE, healthcare providers must review their physician-referral arrangements to ensure they no longer take advantage of these blanket waivers.