Becker's Healthcare August 27, 2025
Stark law, originally enacted in 1989 to curb physician self-referrals, has become one of the most contentious regulations in American medicine. While designed to protect patients from conflicts of interest, physicians argue that the law has morphed into a tool that protects corporate consolidation rather than patients.
“It was written by senators and lawyers who don’t follow the same rules,” Niazy Selim, MD, a private practice GI surgeon in Lake Charles, La., told Becker’s. “Lawyers can accept referrals — why not physicians? Someone’s life is on the line. If a physician sends a patient to a more qualified physician, Stark law says, ‘no.’ That’s nonsense.”
Dr. Selim described firsthand how Stark law, combined with hospital consolidation, created barriers to timely,...
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