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A provision to California's workers' comp reform law that would add outpatient surgery to the list of baby Stark services may have far-reaching implications on physician ownership of surgical facilities. As you know, the legislation's major thrust was to cap worker's comp facility fees at 120 percent of what Medicare pays for the same procedures performed in a hospital outpatient department. A much less discussed but perhaps more worrisome part of the overhaul is a provision that would prohibit physicians from doing workers' comp cases at ASCs in which they have an ownership interest. If other states take notice, this could set a bad precedent.
