The Affordable Care Act made important changes to the law of

The Affordable Care Act made important changes to the law of government programs and to the law of fraud and abuse. Please explain what changes were made and what programs this involved specifically.

Solution

Changes made by The Affordable Care Act (ACA) to the law of government programs and to the law of fraud and abuse are:

ACA has revised the evidentiary standard under the anti-kickback law. This has removed the requirement of actual knowledge of the violation of law. This is as per section 6402(f) of the ACA.

The Stark law prohibits doctors from doing self-referrals with regards to certain health services that are paid for by the Medicare. ACA has put a limit to some of the exceptions of Stark law.

The FCA or the Federal False Claims Act puts a civil liability on those who submit a fraudulent claim or a false claim. ACA has made it easier for some type of regulators to bring qui tam actions - i.e civil actions under FCA by the Attorney General or by a whistleblower. This will allow some FCA actions to go ahead which would otherwise would have been dismissed earlier.