False Claims Act Insights - Physician, Refer Thyself: How Stark Law and FCA Intersect
2022 Resolutions: What Healthcare Practices Need To Tackle In the New Year
Goran Musinovic on Healthcare Real Estate Compliance
Podcast: CMS and OIG Final Rules for Innovating Your Value-Based Payment Program - Diagnosing Health Care
Compliance Perspectives: Changes to the Physician Self-Referral and Anti-Kickback Rules
Anti Kickback and Stark Law Enforcement and Compliance Issues
Precision Lens Pays $12 Million to Resolve FCA and AKS Violations - Late last week, Precision Lens and the estate of its former principal agreed to pay $12 million to resolve allegations regarding violations of the False...more
Welcome to the Summer 2024 issue of “FCA Enforcement & Compliance Digest,” our quarterly newsletter in which we compile essential updates on False Claims Act (FCA) enforcement trends, litigation, agency guidance, and...more
Florida Lab Owner Agrees to Pay Over $27 Million to Resolve Three Whistleblower Lawsuits - Daniel Hurt, the prior owner and operator of Fountain Health Services LLC, Verify Health, Landmark Diagnostics LLC, First Choice...more
The Physician Self-Referral Law — known as the “Stark Law” — broadly prohibits physicians from profiting from self-referrals for “designated health services” (DHS) payable by Medicare or Medicaid. For example, the Stark Law...more
From 1998-2008, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) published compliance program guidelines for various industries in the Federal Register....more
Due diligence properly performed in connection with the purchase and sale of a health care entity is simply different—vastly so—than due diligence performed in other contexts. Failure to recognize this reality can lead to...more
When the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (“PHE”) ended on May 11, 2023, many physician groups furnishing certain medical equipment, devices, and/or supplies to their Medicare patients became in violation of the federal...more
This article is part of a continuing series of articles regarding transactional legal issues in the emerging psychedelic space. With ketamine being the only approved psychedelic drug for medical use, ketamine clinics offer a...more
On March 29, 2023, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a press release announcing three related civil settlements totaling over $69 million with Covenant Healthcare System and two physicians—Dr. Mark Adams, a neurosurgeon,...more
The Justice Department continues to pile up healthcare enforcement actions — false claims, anti-kickback, and fraud. DOJ is on its way to a record year....more
Earlier this month a federal judge unsealed a federal qui tam relator complaint originally filed in January 2020 by Dr. Jay Radhakrishnan and Dr. William Julien against Arizona-based Modern Vascular and certain of its...more
Hear directly from the enforcement community - Want to gain insight into properly monitoring, detecting, investigating, and managing violations? Join us virtually at HCCA’s Annual Healthcare Enforcement Compliance...more
The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) last month announced a new blockbuster settlement agreement under the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729 et seq (“FCA”), involving alleged violations of the Stark law and other efforts to...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Flower Mound Hospital Partners LLC, a partially physician-owned hospital in Flower Mound, Texas, agreed to pay $18.2 million to settle its alleged violations of the False...more
The federal government has recently made clear its intention to go after healthcare providers who provide amniotic injections to certain Medicare and Medicaid recipients. Over recent years, the federal government has...more
Akron General Health Systems, a regional hospital system based in Akron, Ohio agreed to pay $21.25 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that it maintained improper relationships with referring physicians,...more
A regional hospital system in Akron, Ohio, Akron General Health System (AGHS) reached a $21.25 million settlement over allegations that an improper physician referral arrangement violated the Anti-Kickback Statute, Physician...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) recently settled whistleblower False Claims Act (“FCA”) allegations against The University of Miami (“UMiami”) for $22 million, which resolves claims from three separate lawsuits...more
William F. Gould In United States v. Merino, No. 19-50291, 2021 WL 754589 (9th Cir. Feb. 26, 2021), the court of appeals reversed the conviction of Marina Merino of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud in violation of 18...more
To date, there has been little consistency in how Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements are enforced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), or the amount of settlements...more
Ensuring compliance with the False Claims Act has never been more important for healthcare providers. By March 2020, we saw healthcare professionals standing at the forefront of one of the greatest health crises in a...more
HHS Announces Formation of FCA Working Group - On December 4, 2020, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it is creating a False Claims Act Working Group to enhance the partnership between...more
Most health care providers have at least a basic understanding of the Anti-Kickback Statute. This federal law prohibits providers from offering, paying, soliciting, or accepting any form of “remuneration” for patient...more
HHS Announces Final Rules Amending Stark Law Regulations and Anti-Kickback Statute - On November 20, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published...more
The U.S. Department of Justice announced on November 20 that Doctor’s Choice Home Care, Inc. agreed to pay $3,856,000 to resolve allegations that the agency paid illegal kickbacks to physicians for referring patients. The...more