Hospital-Physician relationships – the Feds want to know more about them

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has confirmed that it plans to proceed with plans to distribute the Disclosure of Financial Relationships Report (DFRR) to 400 private sector, for-profit and not-for-profit, general acute care and specialty hospitals throughout the Untied States. CMS' purpose for distributing the DFRR is to identify arrangements that potentially do not comply with federal self-referral laws, such as Stark, and to identify areas of non-compliance that will assist CMS in further rulemaking. To accurately complete the report, detailed information and support documentation will be required for disclosure including, physician investments in the hospital; physician joint ventures; and physician compensation arrangements with the hospital (i.e. medical directorships, service agreements and on-call arrangements).