Video: Antifraud Compliance Getting More Complex for...( Regulatory enforcement agencies int...),Health

Regulatory enforcement agencies intensifying focus on hospital-physician

contractual arrangements

NEW YORK, April 21 /PRNewswire/ - The Deloitte Forensic Center reports that complying with federal statutes and regulations continues to get more complex for hospitals. Almost all physicians have ethical, mutually beneficial relationships with their hospitals, health systems, and suppliers. That doesn't mean, however, that hospitals or the physicians they enter into contractual arrangements with can ignore required documentation that helps support that the arrangement is valid and meets the appropriate regulatory requirements.

To view the Multimedia News Release, go to: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/deloitte/32648/

Intended to address perceived abuse of Medicare and Medicaid spending, these statutes and their regulations keep growing in scope and in disclosure requirements as public officials strive to address different varieties of healthcare fraud. Regulatory agencies estimate that fraud and self-dealing could be costing Medicare and Medicaid as much as $200 billion per year.

Additionally, last September regulators announced a new information-collection program requiring about 500 hospitals to file comprehensive reports on their contractual relationships with physicians. The timing of this requirement is still unknown.

To help clarify the issue, the Deloitte Forensic Center released an outline of the federal anti-kickback and physician self-referral statutes that have generated a number of government investigations. Gary Keilty, a principal in Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP, explained, "Even though most physicians maintain careful, arm's-length relationships with hospitals, they are still the main 'gatekeepers' into the U.S. health system, so they remain the focus of regulators' attention. This latest round of ru
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