As we covered in a prior Telehealth Update, many of the flexibilities upon which telehealth providers have come to rely in recent years are tied to the federal Public Health Emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic (the...more
9/2/2022
/ Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Controlled Substances ,
Controlled Substances Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
DEA ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Medicare ,
Pending Legislation ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Rural Health Care Providers ,
Telehealth ,
Waivers
On Monday, February 7, 2022, U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, and Todd Young, R-Indiana, introduced the Telehealth Extension and Evaluation Act, which if passed, would extend several of the telehealth waivers...more
2/11/2022
/ Controlled Substances Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Facilities ,
Hospitals ,
Medicare ,
Patients ,
Physicians ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Secretary of HHS ,
Telehealth
Last week, CMS announced its final Physician Fee Schedule Payment Policies (the “Final Rule”), which will become effective January 1, 2022. The Final Rule included several updates to Medicare coverage of telehealth services,...more
As previously covered, over the past year the telehealth landscape has been a patchwork of temporary waivers and regulations, expanding access during the COVID-19 pandemic but leaving providers and patients uncertain about...more
As we’ve discussed in previous posts, since the beginning of the pandemic, telehealth providers have seen a dramatic increase in demand for their services along with a number of temporary regulatory measures aimed at...more
As we’re all painfully aware, public health issues dominated 2020 and with the country’s attention focused on COVID-19 testing, status, transmission and care, HIPAA went mainstream. Health information became critical not only...more
On August 4, CMS posted a proposed rule on CY 2021 Payment Policies, which included important updates about the expansion of Medicare covered telehealth services due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This follows on the heels of...more
8/6/2020
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Medicare ,
OCR ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Relief Measures ,
Telehealth ,
Telemedicine ,
Waivers
Last Thursday, the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine (BORIM) approved its first permanent telehealth policy. The Board’s policy provides that: (1) a “face-to-face encounter" is not a pre-requisite for a...more
Earlier this month, we wrote about what the future of telehealth might look like in a post-COVID-19 world. In that post, we referenced comments made by CMS Administrator Seema Verma, in which she voiced her support for...more
During a live virtual event yesterday with STAT News, CMS Administrator Seema Verma expressed support for permanently expanding access to telehealth services after the COVID-19 public health emergency resolves. As we...more
6/11/2020
/ 1135 Waivers ,
CARES Act ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Governor Baker ,
Health Care Providers ,
IRS ,
Professional License ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Telehealth ,
Telemedicine
Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced additional waivers of limitations on Medicare reimbursement of telehealth services and updated its summary of COVID-19 blanket waivers. We’ve...more
On Monday, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Ajit Pai, circulated a plan to his fellow Commissioners detailing how the $200 million the agency will receive via the CARES Act should be deployed for a...more
4/1/2020
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Emergency Response ,
FCC ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Interstate Telecommunications Service Providers (ITSP) ,
Medicare ,
OCR ,
Public Health ,
Relief Measures ,
Telehealth ,
Telemedicine ,
Waivers
Telehealth is going to play a critical role in the delivery of care in the coming weeks and months as health care providers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the CDC and other public health agencies continue to recommend...more
As the decade winds down, it’s hard to believe that the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules are almost twenty years old. It has been ten years since the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights...more
12/24/2019
/ Business Associates ,
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Covered Entities ,
Data Breach ,
Data Security ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FBI ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
Government Investigations ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
HIPAA Privacy Rule ,
OCR ,
Patient Privacy Rights ,
PHI ,
Phishing Scams ,
Ransomware
On August 8, 2019, FDA issued a notice on its medical device recall database stating that a company called Opternative, Inc. had initiated a recall for the Visibly Online Refractive Vision Test, a software application offered...more
Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued an advisory opinion (Advisory Opinion No. 19-03) (Opinion) concluding that a program consisting of free, in-home...more
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) is taking a significant step towards expanding needed services to Veterans by proposing a rule to preempt state restrictions on telehealth....more
In previous blog posts, we addressed the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s (DPH) proposed regulations that affect hospitals, dialysis clinics and medical marijuana programs. In this final post on DPH’s recent...more
Last week, the US Attorney’s Office in Boston announced that drug company Warner Chilcott agreed to plead guilty to health care fraud and pay $125 million to resolve criminal and civil liability arising out of allegations...more
11/5/2015
/ Civil Liability ,
Conspiracies ,
Criminal Liability ,
Disclosure ,
Durable Medical Equipment ,
Guilty Pleas ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Home Health Care ,
Individual Accountability ,
Kickbacks ,
Marketing ,
Medical Records ,
Patient Privacy Rights ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Physicians ,
Sales ,
Training ,
Unauthorized Access ,
Vendors ,
Warner Chilcott
Health care is big business in Massachusetts, and it is a highly regulated business. But Governor Charlie Baker hopes to simplify the Massachusetts regulatory regime. This past March, Governor Baker initiated a year-long...more
This is the fourth and final post in our series on the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). Pub.L. No. 114-10. We’ve previously covered the repeal of the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) in our April 20th post,...more
4/27/2015
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
EHR ,
Electronic Health Record Incentives ,
Electronic Medical Records ,
GAO ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
HITECH Act ,
Meaningful Use ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization (MACRA) ,
Medicare Part B ,
PQRS ,
Telehealth ,
Telemedicine
Last week, the Florida Senate Health Policy Committee removed language from proposed telehealth legislation that would require Medicaid reimbursement for telemedicine services at the same rates as face-to-face examinations....more