In July 2024, Pennsylvania enacted two significant pieces of legislation relating to telemedicine and physician noncompetition agreements that will have a meaningful impact within the healthcare delivery system with the...more
7/24/2024
/ Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Medical Reimbursement ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Pennsylvania ,
Reimbursements ,
Telehealth ,
Telemedicine
While we would normally be fixated on April 15th being “tax day”, the COVID-19 pandemic is appropriately the focus of all our collective energies and appreciation for the health care providers who are treating those who...more
On December 14, 2015, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a $750,000 settlement with the University of Washington (UW). This is the third HIPAA settlement announced by OCR...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights (OCR), has announced a settlement with Lahey Hospital and Medical Center (Lahey) that arose out of a HIPAA breach involving a stolen laptop. The...more
On Thursday, October 29, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) and the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) jointly issued a rule (the “Final Rule”) to finalize five (5) waivers of certain fraud and abuse...more
11/5/2015
/ ACOs ,
Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Federal Register ,
Final Rules ,
Gainsharing ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Interim Rule ,
Kickbacks ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
Medicare Shared Savings Program ,
OIG ,
Self-Referral ,
Shared Savings Program ,
Stark Law
On September 29, 2015, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) released two reports that reviewed the Office of Civil Rights’ (OCR) enforcement of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The...more
On September 2, 2015, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") announced that it had entered into a Settlement Agreement with an Indiana-based medical practice for alleged violations of the Health Insurance...more
9/4/2015
/ Breach Notification Rule ,
Compliance ,
Covered Entities ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Security ,
De-Identified Protected Health Information ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Healthcare ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
PHI ,
Popular ,
Privacy Policy ,
Settlement Agreements
On June 9, 2015, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) published a one-page fraud alert entitled, "Physician Compensation Arrangements May Result in Significant Liability." This is the...more
On May 14, 2015, four New Jersey legislators introduced the Out-of-Network Consumer Protection, Transparency, Cost Containment and Accountability Act (the "Legislation"). If enacted, the Legislation would increase health care...more
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC-HIT) released version 2.0 of its Guide to Privacy and Security of Electronic Health Information (the Guide). While the Guide clearly states that it...more
On April 16, 2015, President Obama signed into law the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 ("the Act"). The national headlines about the Act’s passage focused on the repeal of the sustainable growth rate...more
On Tuesday, March 10, 2015, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") announced the introduction of the Next Generation Accountable Care Organization ("ACO") Model of payment and care delivery. ACOs...more
In a final rule published in the Federal Register on November 13, 2014, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) eliminated the federal Sunshine Act reporting exclusion for payments to physicians at continuing...more
On October 17, 2014, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (OIG) published in the Federal Register (79 FR 62356 et seq) a notice...more
There are two important updates with respect to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). First, on September 17, 2014, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued guidance to...more
On August 7, 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that the Open Payments system is “temporarily” off-line. The CMS announcement did not state when the Open Payments system would be back on-line....more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a proposed rule that includes a plan to eliminate the continuing medical education (“CME”) exclusion to the reporting requirements under the federal Physician...more
In the May 23, 2014 issue of the Federal Register (79 FR 29732), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published a proposed rule (the “Proposed Rule”) that would change the so-called meaningful use stage...more
On April 26, 2014, the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) House of Delegates adopted The Model Policy on the Appropriate Use of Telemedicine Technologies (FSMB Telemedicine Policy). FSMB is a national organization of...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently released guidance on its website describing a two-phase process for applicable manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (“GPOs”) to register and submit...more
In the December 27, 2013 edition of the Federal Register, the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”), both within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”),...more
The federal government invests significant resources in combating health care fraud and abuse. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) recently released its Strategic Plan...more
In June 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Investigator General (OIG) published a review of its audit of an outpatient therapy services provider. The OIG concluded that the outpatient therapy...more
The final regulations implementing the Physician Payments Sunshine Act take effect April 9, 2013. Pharmaceutical manufacturers, group purchasing organizations, academic medical centers and physicians need to be ready to...more