Healthcare covers a host of legislations like the Anti-kickback Act, False Claims Act, and the Stark Law. Attorneys for doctors advise that knowledge of these statutes will enable healthcare professionals to be aware of their rights and duties under the law. Let us look into these Acts in detail.
The Anti-Kickback Act
A kick-back is a perk that a healthcare professional receives for exercising preferential treatment towards the products and services of the payer. It was to prevent such referrals motivated by perks as opposed to the welfare of the patient that the Anti-kickback Act was enacted in the year 1986. Every offence under this Act is a felony and attracts a penalty of $25,000 per violation and imprisonment for a term of not more than 5 years, or both.
The False Claims Act
This is another statute that lawyers for doctors advise healthcare professionals to educate themselves on. The Act is popularly known as the Lincoln Law and seeks to prevent healthcare professionals from defrauding the government. Liability under this Act accrues when a false claim for payment is made when false records are submitted to further a false claim, when people conspire to make a false claim and when records are falsified to escape liability or obligation under the law. The penalties under this Act include a fine starting at $5000, up to $10,000, and damages worth 3 times the amount defrauded from the government.
The Stark Law
This law is also called the Physician Self-Referral Law and specifically bars doctors from referring patients to products and services from companies in which the professional has a financial interest. Upon conviction, a healthcare professional will be liable to pay up to $15,000 in civil penalties for every act of violation.
