Most readers know that the federal Stark Law deals primarily with matters involving physician
self referral. The state equivalent, the Florida Patient Self Referral Act of 1992, has provisions that are even tougher than the Stark law. For instance, the Stark law allows some physicians to refer to renal dialysis centers in which they have an ownership interest, but the Florida law does not. Fresenius, a provider of renal dialysis services, filed suit seeking a declaration that the federal law (and not the state law) should control on the issue. Since there are several key areas where state law is more stringent than federal law (e.g. supervision requirements and ownership of entities that don’t provide “designated health services”), many eyes were on the court. Instead of giving Fresenius a pass and saying “Florida can’t make it tougher than what the federal law says,” the court stated that the federal laws do not preempt (supplant) the state ones.
Since the Stark Law does not preempt the state law and since the state law does not violate the U.S. Constitution, business people and professionals will have to make sure that both layers of compliance (state and federal) and solidly in place.
