Desnick Weighs in on Stark Advisory Opinions

The Florida Medical Business published Lori C. Desnick's article on the Stark Law advisory opinion process in the August focus issue on Anti-Kickback and Stark Laws. In the article, Ms. Desnick discussed the types of requests that will be considered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the type of information that must be submitted with a request, and the costs to be incurred by the requestor. In the article, Ms. Desnick recommended that health care providers seeking to establish a relationship or enter into a transaction that may implicate the Stark Law consider engaging legal counsel to guide them through the advisory opinion process. According to Ms. Desnick, "[i]t would be difficult to overstate the importance of obtaining clarity regarding the government's position in a highly regulated environment.