Hospitals "all have gotten comfortable with the idea

... that [physician] practices lose money, and they don't focus on why they lose money, and they don't think it's a risk [that physician compensation may not be commercially reasonable as required by the Stark law]. Do we have a ticking time bomb? The red flags are out there.... Hospitals don't always run practices with an eye for their profitability or just breaking even by operating them efficiently. They're run thinking more about the larger continuum of care in their integrated delivery systems. Practices often are just small potatoes in the larger menu of services."

— Timothy Smith, senior managing director of Ankura Consulting Group in Dallas, told AIS's Report on Medicare Compliance.