Company: PIII
Filing Date: 2025-03-28
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001628280-25-015305
Chunk: 264

Company: P3 Health Partners Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-28
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 264
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, the AKS has been violated.

The AKS includes statutory exceptions and regulatory safe harbors that protect certain arrangements. By way of example, the AKS safe harbor for value-based arrangements and the safe harbor for arrangements between managed care organizations and downstream contractors both require, among other things, that the arrangement does not induce a person or entity to reduce or limit medically necessary items or services furnished to any patient. Failure to meet the requirements of an applicable AKS safe harbor, however, does not render an arrangement illegal. Rather, the government may evaluate 

P3 Health Partners Inc. | 2024 Form 10-K | 12

such arrangements on a case-by-case basis, taking into account all facts and circumstances, including the parties’ intent and the arrangement’s potential for abuse, and may be subject to greater scrutiny by enforcement agencies.

The Stark Law prohibits a physician who has a financial relationship, or who has an immediate family member who has a financial relationship, with entities providing designated health services (“DHS”) from referring Medicare and Medicaid patients to such entities for the furnishing of DHS, unless an exception applies. The Stark Law also prohibits the entity from billing for any such prohibited referral. Unlike the AKS, the Stark Law is violated if the financial arrangement does not meet an applicable exception, regardless of any intent by the parties to induce or reward referrals or the reasons for the financial relationship and the referral.

The federal False Claims Act (“FCA”) prohibits a person from knowingly presenting, or caused to be presented, a false or fraudulent request for payment from the federal government, or from making a false statement or using a false record to have a claim approved. A claim includes “any request or demand” for money or property presented to the United States government. Moreover, the government may assert that a claim including items and services resulting from a violation of the AKS or the Stark Law constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the civil FCA. Penalties for a violation of the FCA include fines for each false claim, plus up to three times the amount of damages caused by each false claim. Private individuals also have the ability to bring actions under these false claims laws in the name of the government alleging false and fraudulent claims presented to or paid by the government (or other violations of the statutes) and to share in any amounts paid by the entity to the government in fines or settlement. Such suits, known as qui tam actions, are pervasive in the healthcare industry.

Further, the Civil Monetary Penalties Statute authorizes the