A federal district court in the District of Columbia recently upheld the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) ban on per-click and under arrangements. Council for Urological Interests (CUI) v. Sebelius, D.D.C. No. 1:09-cv-00546-HHK (5-24-2013).

In CUI v. Sebelius, the court ruled that CMS’s 2008 rulemaking barring per-click and under arrangements was within the legal bounds of the Stark Law. More specifically, the court upheld CMS regulation 42 C.F.R. §411.351 that redefined “furnishing” designated health services (DHS) to include an entity that billed Medicare for DHS and an entity that actually performed DHS. The court also upheld 40 C.F.R. §411.357(b)(4)(ii)(B) which banned per-click charges for referred patients.

It is possible that this decision may be appealed by CUI.