By the Kean Miller Health Law Team

On March 27, 2017, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) posted revisions to the Voluntary Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol (SRDP), which provides a process for the disclosure of potential or actual violations of the federal physician self-referral law (commonly known as the Stark Law).  In an attempt to streamline the self-disclosure process, CMS issued new required forms and a financial worksheet for use by an entity when making a disclosure.  Under the revised SRPD, the disclosing party must submit the following items:

(a) the SRPD Disclosure Form, which includes information about the disclosing party, the history of the noncompliance conduct, and steps taken to prevent future noncompliance;

(b) the Physician Information Form, which collects information regarding the noncompliant financial relationship between the physician and the disclosing party (Note that a separate form is submitted for each physician in a noncompliant relationship.  Therefore, if a physician practice fails to meet the Stark Law definition of group practice, a separate form would be required for each physician whose compensation arrangement with the group was noncompliant.);

(c) a Financial Analysis Worksheet (submitted in Excel-compatible format), which quantifies the overpayment associated with each physician referral and describes the methodology used to calculate the overpayment amount; and

(d) a certification of the truthfulness of the information contained in the disclosure.

The disclosing party may also submit an optional cover letter that includes information it believes may be relevant to CMS’ evaluation of the disclosure.

Although the new forms are only required to be used starting on June 1, 2017, the CMS website encourages providers to begin using the revised forms at this time.  The new forms are available here.