On September 23, 2010, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the process for the new Stark Act self-referral disclosure protocol (SRDP) mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The SRDP details are available on the CMS website.

The SRDP is intended to assist health care providers in resolving actual or potential violations of the physician self-referral law, known as the Stark Act. According to the CMS website, health care providers submitting violations under the SRDP “should be prepared to resolve their overpayment liability exposure for the submitted violations.” The SRDP cannot be used to obtain a CMS determination as to whether an actual or potential violation of the Stark Act occurred. Thus, a “health care provider may not disclose an actual or potential Stark Act violation through the SRDP and concurrently request an advisory opinion for conduct underlying the same arrangements.” Consequently, health care providers questioning whether a Stark violation might exist at their facility should contact their…
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