In this session, McDermott Will & Emery Partners Denise Burke, Tony Maida and Monica Wallace discussed top issues and enforcement trends that physician practice management companies (PPMs) and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) should watch to mitigate their fraud and abuse risk. The panel also discussed the potential impact of recent regulatory changes on future enforcement priorities.

Session panelists included:

• Denise Burke, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery
• Tony Maida, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery
• Monica Wallace, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery

Top takeaways included:

1. The federal government recently released False Claims Act recovery data for 2022. While the recovery amounts went down, the number of reported cases actually went up. We anticipate seeing more COVID-19-related enforcement actions. We are also seeing continued government focus on financial arrangements with physicians, including transactions involving physicians receiving preferential investment terms, such as below-fair-market-value purchase prices.
2. In the most recent revision to the Stark rules, there is a new ability to cure compensation errors. Specifically, if a designated health services (DHS) entity has a compliant written compensation arrangement with a physician and discovers a payment error during the term of the arrangement or within 90 days of termination, the entity can correct or reconcile the compensation error and there is no need to submit a self-disclosure. The US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently said that errors could even be fixed after 90 days from termination, but this requires a close analysis of the facts.
3. The federal government has started [...]
   
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