Fraud and abuse: A pain physician's guide

The growing burden of regulations and statutes that physicians in the Unite d States must comply with has become an inescapable aspect of the practice of medicine. With the advent of this heightened regulation has also come a new governmental commitment to discover and punish fraud and abuse in the p ractice of medicine. It is thus incumbent upon pain practitioners to be awa re of the basic principles in fraud and abuse law so as to avoid obvious si tuations of legal liability and to know when to seek expert legal advice in the structuring of business transactions affecting their practice.