Healthcare Compliance Stark/Anti-kickback Health, Medicine Coursework

Healthcare Compliance Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Healthcare Compliance Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute
The Stark law and Anti-Kickback State are regulatory laws designed to prohibit health providers from receiving or making payments, kickbacks, or other reward forms. Such inducements are purposely made to facilitate an exchange for patient referrals expected to receive treatment paid for by government programs. These laws function in discouraging relationships regarding referrals that are based on financial interest. Kickbacks and unlawful payments raise healthcare costs and can be harmful to patients. The legal frameworks or policies were enacted to free medical decisions from the potential influence of monetary gains. The interest of financial gains and unlawful payments often makes healthcare providers refer patients for health services that they might not even need, thereby leading to unnecessary overutilization of medical services, unfair competition, increase cost of programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, and impaired decision making.
While both laws discourage financial interests that supersede patients are, these laws demonstrate some variations. The Anti-Kickback Statute is wider than   Stark law. Anti-Kickback covers more unlawful activities that entail pursuits of financial gains at the expense of medical care. Simultaneously, Stark Law focuses more on physical relationships within healthcare systems marked by a conflict of interest and financial interest than overriding patient care.
The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits parties from knowingly and willfully offering an inducement to facilitate referrals for items and services covered by government programs. The criminality or liability may be waived when the action fits within the regulatory safe harbor. All organizations and persons are held liable when receiving or facilitating any kickbacks, inducement, or remuneration, such as...