On March 30, 2020, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar issued blanket waivers to permit certain financial relationships and referrals that would otherwise be sanctioned by the Physician Self-Referral Law (Stark Law). The blanket waivers protect those financial relationships and referrals (and the claims submitted as a result thereof) specifically enumerated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) as pertaining to at least one outlined 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) purpose. These blanket waivers were given a retroactive effective date of March 1, 2020, and thus protect those referrals and financial relationships since that date.
