Stark Law is a legislation that is named after Pete Stark, a United States Congressman who sponsored the initial bill on three different provisions. Generally, this legislation is also known as the physician self-referral law as it emanates from Section 1877 of the Social Security Act (the Act). The law is an amendment to the Social Security Act that forbids physicians involved in a self-referral when referring patients to seek for certain services elsewhere. Self-referral by physicians can be described as the practice of these health professionals to refer patients to a medical facility where they have investments, financial interest, structured compensation plans, and ownership.
Description and Purpose of the Law:

As an important legislation, the Stark Law is a piece of regulations that basically governs three separate provisions. The three separate provisions basically entail self-referrals, Medicare claims, and regulatory exceptions for financial relationships. Under self-referrals, the Stark Law forbids a physician….

Stark Laws Case Study
The Stark Laws are three separate provisions that govern physician self-referral for Medicare and Medicaid patients, named after U.S. Congressman Pete Stark who first sponsored the legislation in the early 1990s. The idea for the laws came into place because of the practice of physician self-referral, or the practice of a doctor referring a patient to a medical organization in which they had some sort of financial interest. Critics of this practice believed that there was an inherent conflict of interest, not to mention a fiscal benefit to the physician, which might encourage over testing, use of procedures that might be more expensive than the market could bear, and/or because of the captive audience (the patient) provide undue pressure to use only those physician recommended providers and services (Law 2011).

Definition of the Issue- A group of physicians and medical professionals formed a new medical group called K.….

State v. Stark (1992)
Mr. Stark was the defendant in this case which concerned her action of infecting three women with HIV sexually. He tested positive for HIV, which was then confirmed twice by doing two other independent tests. As an ordinary procedure, Stark was taken through counseling sessions to make him aware of the risk involved in handling HIV. He was informed about the risk of the disease spreading and the importance of making his partner aware before having any sexual escapades with her. However, he disregarded this advice and this came to the knowledge of the county health officer who sought a cease and desist order as allowed by the state statute. Stark did not comply. The officer then asked for judicial enforcement and later filed a police report about the matter.

The police obtained evidence in form of testimony from the three victims who confirmed that they had sex….

Sociological Theories
Do laws serve to help the masses or do they serve the "propertied and privileged few?" (Heywood 152) This question is thrown into stark relief, given the recent Kobe Bryant Scandal regarding the accuser's allegations that the NBA superstar raped her. (CNN.com, 2003)

Theorists and Sociological concepts

On one hand, it could be argued that the privileges of the wealth and fame offered by Bryant's status gave him added media protection. However, it could also be alleged that in a rape trial, given the seriousness of the offense, one cannot presume a defendant's guilt. Although societal prejudices may condemn the women's sexual behavior or mental instability, in the past American history of justice, Black African-American males have frequently and falsely been accused of violating white women as means of "keeping them in their place." Thus, the "bifurcated consciousness," or a polarized identity kept in place by the absolutism and order of….

ules of Law
It was January 23, 1973 and before the world knew, oe v. Wade would change the laws surrounding the issue of abortion eternally. The decision and choice to terminate a pregnancy was illegal in Texas at the time, which was then challenged by the pregnant Jane oe. She wanted to end her gestation in a safe and licit manner, and coincidentally the Supreme Court agreed in her favor. The ruling was the first time the court recognized the right to privacy incorporated a female's right, should she choose, an option to end her pregnancy or not. This landmark case not only validated and legalized the right to an abortion, but it interdicted prior laws regarding the act. Previously, abortion was only permissible when a woman's life was in danger and was necessary to save her life. Furthermore, the act of termination was acceptable if the female was….

International Energy Law
International Energy Arbitration

This paper will examine the role of arbitration in the international energy sector over the past 50 years. Discussion is organized around the five decades leading up to the current state of affairs in the international energy sector. In each section, major arbitrations are identified and tied to the categorical intention of arbitrations of that period. For instance, arbitration awards that occurred during a period of substantive concession agreements -- termed the first generation of concession agreements by Kosheri (n.d.) -- include the Abu Dhabi award of 1951, the Qatar award of 1953, and the Aramco award of 1958.

The next period, which occurred roughly in the 1960s and 1970s, was characterized by arbitration awards that evidenced a climate of confrontation, during which host nations took the position of abstaining from participation in arbitration proceedings. These nations were unilaterally interested in bringing the earlier concession relationships to….

population of California underwent dramatic changes in the last 60 years. In the 1940s, the Latinos were a minority of only 6% of the state or roughly 374,000 (autista 1991). ut by 1980, the Latino population grew to 4 million, almost doubling the figure and increased to more than 7 million in the 90s. In the 2000s, Latinos accounted for a third of California's total population, creating huge political, economic and social impact upon its entire society (autista). esides sheer volume, the continuously increasing Latino population has developed the distinct feature. efore the 60s, immigrants were rare and less than 20% of these Latinos were foreign born, most of them from Northern Mexico. Immigration, however began to fill the ranks since the 80s so that, today, the majority of adult Latinos in California are immigrants. These developments are among the most important criteria to social and demographic policy makers….

Militarization of Police
The 21st century has provided in a very short time, major changes to the way society interacts and operates. Governmental structures and institutional principles have also greatly swayed in recent decades. It is apparent that the world is drastically changing and evolving into a new form of culture and society that presents many problems and issues, especially in cases of the law and law enforcement.

The law is changing rapidly and the requirements that are placed on law enforcement professionals in this extremely turbulent time in history have grown and expanded to many different areas of responsibility. Terrorisms and the threat of massive societal upheaval are potential threats to the current and accepted way of life and the burden to protect society from these threats often falls I the hands of law enforcement professionals.

The purpose of this essay is to explain the gradual and sustained militarization of the police,….

Lifeline Management
Principles and Theories

Stark (2004) discussed the transformational elements present in the state of leadership in his article. This article attempted to strike a balance by understanding leadership as more of a state of mind than a state of action. Five major conclusions were highlighted in this reading. The first suggests that strong and positive organizations are direct reflections of the collective state of the workers of that organization. The next suggests that leadership is not related to power and is a state of being. The third conclusion the author discussed that the fundamental state of leadership is results driven. The fourth conclusion mandated that leaders need to experience deep and serious change to enter a state of fundamental leadership. The fifth conclusion suggested that change is contingent upon the leadership's ability to accept and engage in change.

Lawler & n Golden's (2003) article embraced the idea of organizational change by….

civilized societies develop rules and laws that its members are expected to follow. The rules are in place for the purpose of cohesive living among the community and for the most part they have a positive impact on the society that they govern. In this scenario the rules and laws are not followed and in fact are completely disobeyed, yet the person who violates the societal norm not only gets away with it, but he is rewarded for his actions by being elected as a leader and ruling in power for the remainder of his life. Two well-known philosophers bring to light some understanding about how this could have happened.
In the scenario a man named John murders a mean and ruthless person who has lied and cheated his way to the top. The victim is so rich that others in the community are forced to go hungry while he….

Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), previously the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), that by the time 2011, health care expenditure will arrive at $2.8 trillion, as well as it will bill for 17% of the Gross Domestic Product. As a result, it is no revelation that white-collar offenders observe health care deception as a rewarding effort. Certainly, the General Accounting Office ("GAO") quotes that such deception accounts for up to 10% of entire health care expense (3).
As health care deception outlays taxpayers almost $100 billion a year, federal, as well as state agencies have given health care fraud tribunal a key center of attention. All through her term, Attorney General Janet Reno made impeaching health care fraud a top precedence at the Department of Justice ("DOJ"), subsequent only to brutal offenses (3).

The government focuses its pains to perceive, as well as take legal action against health care fraud in….

Feldstein from Arizona. When the hospital was purchased by another company, they canceled the contract with Feldstein claiming that the actions that were taken were illegal. In the case, the court sided with Feldstein saying that a host of hospitals will use a variety of incentives to attract doctors. Under the Stark Law (which prohibits doctors and hospitals from making self referrals) they found that the health care facility did not violate any provision. (Stark Law 2010) However, the transaction was considered to be questionable, because of the unique arrangement that Feldstein and the hospital had about the referrals of patients. As a result, the decision would outline a number of different principals including: illegal activity arguments can be made by either party, recruiting arrangements based on referrals are in violation of federal law, hospitals need to carefully scrutinize recruiting agreements and they should develop strategies to protect themselves….

Healthcare: Clinical Integration
Item Page

What is clinical integration

History of clinical integration

Goals of clinical integration

Importance of clinical integration

Health reform

New payment models

IT advancement

Barriers to clinical integration

Legal barriers

Lack of practitioner alignment

Lack of interoperability

How to achieve success in clinical integration

Incentive alignment

Knowledge alignment

Behavioral alignment

The future of health care systems

Physician acquisitions vs. clinical integration

HIEs -- solution to clinical integration?

Policy makers are beginning to appreciate the fact that only systemic change can effectively change, for the better, the manner of health care delivery in the U.S.; and that anything less would only alter the system's edges - with little or no substantial effect on cost-control, innovation-promotion, effectiveness of reward incentive schemes, coordination and coverage (AHA, 2010). Clinical integration has been found to be crucial to the change needed for the achievement of the aforementioned goals (AHA, 2010). Despite the challenges (legal and otherwise) clinical integration faces, it still is key to health sector reforms.

What is Clinical Integration?

Clinical integration….

Technology Integration Poses New Ethical Dilemmas for Healthcare
Imagine studying the effects of globalization on healthcare. What would one find from his or her research? Is there a possibility that policies need changed? How does this affect one's licensure? One will study in depth this trend and find ways to solve the issues that arise before it is too late.

Within the United States, "globalization of healthcare encompasses both exporting patients (medical tourism) and importing medical services (outsourcing)" (Herrick, 2007). This makes competition increase, which means that what happens in the U.S. could rival that of Japan; consequently, healthcare would have to improve their quality and provide patients with more choices (Herrick, 2007). Whatever the case, many tasks are getting outsourced to those in foreign countries (Herrick, 2007). This includes "long-distance collaboration-incorporating the services of foreign medical staff into the practice of American medical provides" (Herrick, 2007). One has to note that….

Healthcare Law -- Ethics & Policy
Memo to ABC Hospital Board of Directors: How to develop strategies to help mitigate abuse and fraud within our organization by understanding fraud and abuse issues.

The Department of Health and Human Services has provided a great deal of good information for healthcare professionals and the public in terms of ways to avoid and/or deal with fraud and abuse. This document reflects the ways in which this hospital can be on the lookout for fraud and abuse when it comes to Medicare. This document will also explain the difference between fraud and abuse in the Medicare system.

Medicare Fraud

Typically Medicare fraud means a person in this hospital -- or a doctor affiliated with this hospital contractually -- would knowingly submit false statements or somehow misrepresent what his or her services actually were, in an attempt to cheat the federal government. Also a healthcare person could solicit, pay….