A coalition of 31 provider associations March 18 called on Congress to keep the Stark law’s in-office ancillary services exception (IOASE), which would be limited under the Obama administration’s fiscal year 2015 budget proposal, according to a letter sent to the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce committees. “Limiting the IOASE would force patients to receive ancillary services in a new and unfamiliar setting, increase inefficiencies, present significant barriers to appropriate screenings and treatments, and make health care both less accessible and less affordable,” said the letter, which was signed by the American Medical Association, the American College of Surgeons, and the American College of Cardiology, among other groups. The Stark law, also known as the physician self-referral law, prevents Medicare self-referrals, which occur when a provider refers Medicare patients to entities with which the provider or his or her immediate family members have a financial relationship. The IOASE allows physicians to provide certain services in their offices that normally would be prohibited under the Stark law, including imaging and physical therapy. The administration’s FY 2015 budget proposal carried over a provision from the FY 2014 budget proposal that would exclude certain services from the…
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