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Providers who have followed the six-year saga of tweaks and additions to the Stark self-referral law may have been expecting major changes when CMS released the third and supposedly final phase of Stark in the September 5 Federal Register. But overall, Stark II, Phase III is mostly harmless, and in many cases it gives providers even more flexibility in meeting provisions set forth in previous phases, says Robert A. Wade, Esq., partner with Baker & Daniels, LLP, in South Bend, IN.