CMS seeks comments on burdens of Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) has requested comments on the burdens of collecting information under the Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol (“SRDP”).

The SRDP, released by CMS in September 2010 and revised in May 2011, gives providers a way to resolve actual or potential violations of the physician self-referral statute (known as the Stark Law), and permits reduced liability for any Stark Law violations.

According to CMS’s notice, the SRDP requires an annual time commitment of approximately 5,000 hours.  Although CMS stated that 100 respondents use the SRDP each year, CMS has reported settling only 41 self-disclosures since the protocol’s release in 2010.

Settlements have ranged from as little as $60 to more than $580,000. Read the notice in the February 24 Federal Register (79 Fed. Reg. 10161).

Comments are due by April 25.