The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued its Calendar Year 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule, scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on July 31, 2024. In response to industry...more
The old adage—March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb—didn’t quite hold true for the hospice sector, which experienced a late-month flurry of activity. The government gave the hospice sector a lot to consider,...more
Washington’s My Health My Data Act (MHMDA), signed into law last year, is here and goes into effect on March 31, 2024, with small businesses having until June 30, 2024 to comply. ...more
If you have had a loved one suffer from dementia, you know the emotional, physical, and financial toll of this terrible disease. With advancements in dementia treatment, however, there is renewed hope on addressing this...more
Continuing its recent slate of high-profile indictments, convictions, and plea agreements involving healthcare executives who have violated federal healthcare laws, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced...more
In the first win for defendants facing Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) litigation before the Illinois Supreme Court, the Court in Mosby v. Ingalls Memorial Hospital held that BIPA excludes from its...more
The US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) posted on October 25, 2023 Advisory Opinion No. 23-08, in which OIG rejected a proposed arrangement from a cochlear implant device manufacturer...more
The US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) released on November 6 its General Compliance Program Guidance (GCPG), a helpful new resource for the healthcare industry that consolidates...more
The US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) released its new General Compliance Program Guidance (GCPG) on November 6, 2023. The GCPG is designed to serve as a reference guide for the...more
The US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has implemented a final rule, effective November 13, 2023, designed to enhance the oversight of hospice providers throughout the United States and increase regulatory...more
n the second blog post of our series on healthcare chief compliance officers and lawyers accused of “going bad,” we discuss Texas attorney Peter J. Bennett (licensed since 2007) who was charged in the Eastern District of...more
The US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently released Advisory Opinion No. 23-04, which found that fraud and abuse risks were sufficiently low in light of certain safeguards to...more
For over a year, the hospice industry, legislators, and state and federal regulators have expressed concerns about the fast growth and potentially unscrupulous activities of new hospices in several states in particular. Those...more
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on June 8, 2023 that Steven King, a compliance executive of pharmacy holding company A1C Holdings LLC, was convicted of defrauding Medicare out of more than $50 million in a scheme...more
The HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) announced on June 15, 2023 that it plans to initiate a new audit of Medicare payments for hospice general inpatient (GIP) services, focused on hospice GIP services furnished to...more
The Biden administration announced on January 30, 2023 that the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) would officially end on May 11, 2023. The PHE declaration, which first was issued by the Secretary of the US Department of...more
The US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) announced on April 25 that it would be updating its Compliance Program Guidances (CPGs)....more
COVID-19 significantly affected home-based care providers, such as home health agencies (HHAs) and hospices, whose staff had to overcome both physical and mental burdens of going into patients’ homes to deliver care,...more
The US Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General have identified a wire fraud scheme to sell false and fraudulent nursing degree diplomas and transcripts. Coined as...more
In a proposed rule issued on December 27, 2022 to make technical changes to the Medicare Advantage Program, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) buried in the regulatory arcana a material legal change to the...more
The HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) has, for the last several years, been actively auditing hospices regarding their Medicare regulatory and billing compliance, with a national hospice audit in the works. Recently, OIG...more
Following the US Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the federal government has issued various guidance to healthcare providers reinforcing federal legal protections or requirements...more
The HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently announced its Office of Audit Services plans to conduct a nationwide review of hospice eligibility, focusing on those Medicare hospice beneficiaries who haven't had an...more
The CMS Healthcare Staff Vaccination Rule takes aim at ensuring that eligible healthcare workers are soon vaccinated against COVID-19. The interim final rule requires providers and suppliers to fully implement the IFR as a...more
The US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently transmitted a memorandum to the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services detailing the findings of the Massachusetts state auditor's...more