At The Podium

	Michael E. Joseph

When originally enacted by Congress in 1989 as the Ethics in Patient Referrals Act, the Stark Law prohibited physicians from referring Medicare patients to clinical labs in which they had an ownership or other financial relationship. Since then, the law has been expanded to include ever-increasing prohibitions of physician referrals and a series of ever-expanding, often complicated and convoluted, regulations.

In his presentation before the Health Law Section of the Oklahoma Bar Association titled “Stark Law Reform,” McAfee & Taft attorney Michael E. Joseph explains why the Stark Law has not kept pace with the evolving healthcare industry and makes the argument that the stagnant law should either be repealed or substantially revised.