Until now, health care providers have had an ability to self-disclose anti-kickback and false claims violations and receive some benefit in doing so, but not "Stark" anti-referral violations under section 1877 of the Social Security Act. The OIG-approved self disclosure process (the "OIG Self Disclosure Protocol") has been in place for anti-kickback and false claims violations for more than a decade, but it did not apply to Stark violations. The recently enacted health reform legislation (in section 6409 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act aka PPACA) required the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), in cooperation with the OIG, to establish a Medicare self-referral disclosure protocol (SRDP) setting forth a process for providers of services and suppliers to self-disclose actual or potential violations of the Stark physician self-referral statute.

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