This episode of Group Practice with Neal Goldstein provides an overview of the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS), a federal fraud and abuse law enacted in 1972 that applies to all federal healthcare programs. Unlike the Stark Law, AKS is an intent-based statute that prohibits knowingly giving or receiving remuneration to induce referrals for federally reimbursable healthcare items or services. The landmark United States v. Greber case established the “one purpose test”— if even one purpose of payment is to induce referrals, the statute is violated. Due to this broad interpretation, safe harbor regulations were created in 1991, protecting compliant arrangements from prosecution. The episode also discusses advisory opinions and the protection those afford. At the conclusion of the episode, Neal explains the “quid pro quo” concept which is at the core of AKS, and he uses a little league sponsorship analogy which was contained in the jury instructions of the TAP Pharmaceutical case.

In this episode of Group Practice, Neal Goldstein interviews Dr. Richard Harris, founding member and longtime CEO of Uropartners, about building one of the nation’s premier independent urology groups and the leadership principles behind its success. Dr. Harris recounts the challenging two-year process of merging 11 competing practices into a unified organization—overcoming distrust, strong personalities, and the independent nature of physicians. He discusses Uropartners’ strategic growth through high-quality ancillary services, including a centralized pathology lab, a dedicated urology surgery center, and a comprehensive Advanced Prostate Cancer Center. Each initiative was driven by improving patient care, operational efficiency, and clinical expertise. He also describes launching UroGPO to strengthen purchasing power and innovation across large urology groups, and his national leadership role with Large Urology Group Practice Association. The episode closes with Dr. Harris’s reflections on leadership: vision, integrity, humility, respect for all team members, and leading by example—principles that sustained Uropartners’ culture and long-term success in independent practice.

In this episode of Group Practice, host Neal Goldstein explains the federal Stark Law, the prohibition on physician self-referrals, one of the two major healthcare fraud and abuse laws governing physicians. He describes Stark as a complicated but important statute enacted in 1989 and expanded in 1993 to cover ten “designated health services” (DHS), including imaging, physical therapy, durable medical equipment, and hospital services. Neal emphasizes that Stark is technically a Medicare and Medicaid payment law, but it functions like a fraud and abuse statute because violations require repayment and may trigger liability under the False Claims Act. Neal breaks the law down into its core components as he did in the law school course he taught. He also discusses how Stark affects not just physicians, but also hospitals with the expansion of the law in 1993, making Stark a two-headed monster in the health care industry.