Law360, New York ( July 27, 2015, 11:58 AM EDT) -- In an unexpected development, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently proposed several changes that will generally add greater flexibility to Stark Law regulations in the proposed physician fee schedule for calendar year 2016, which was published on July 15, 2015.[1] Many of these changes appear to respond to concerns the provider community has raised over the years regarding the difficulty of complying with the Stark Law's complex requirements. The proposed rule also contains many specific requests for comment. If the proposed rule is finalized, hundreds, if not thousands, of contracts could be affected, and the revised regulations could make a tremendous difference to most hospitals and other providers' efforts to ensure Stark Law compliance. Below, we summarize many of the key provisions in the proposed rule related to the Stark Law....