The CMS Interoperability and Prior Authorization Rules
Podcast — Drug Pricing: How Are Payers Responding to the IRA?
Findings from Gibbins’ Annual Healthcare Bankruptcy Report
A Fond Farewell: Musings on the End of the Medicare Advantage Hospice Carve-In Demonstration
Video: Braidwood v. Becerra – Challenging the Affordable Care Act’s Preventive Services Coverage Provision – Thought Leaders in Health Law
Hospice and Home Health Survey Perspectives: A Conversation with Kim Skehan, VP of Accreditation at CHAP
Transparency and the Open Payments Program
Taking the Pulse, A Health Care and Life Sciences Video Podcast | Episode 173: Improving rural health care with Dr. Kevin Bennett, the Director of the Research Center for Transforming Health and the
Counsel That Cares - The Private Payer's Perspective on Value-Based Care
Podcast: Health Equity – Behind the Buzzwords – Diagnosing Health Care
A Very “Special” Episode: Amid Controversy, CMS Launches the Hospice Special Focus Program
Grace from CMS: Unexpected Good News on HIS and CAHPS Appeals
This Bandwagon Has a Broken Wheel: OIG Joins the Inconsistent Approach to Hospice GIP Claims
Behind the Curtain: Enhanced Provider Enrollment Oversight
Survey Woes: CMS Ramps Up Hospice Survey Program and Consequences
Inflation Reduction Act’s Drug Price Negotiation Provisions – What Now? – Diagnosing Health Care Podcast
A Glimpse Into the Other Side: Understanding the Perspective of Government Enforcers
I Understood There Would Be No Math: Audits, Extrapolations, and a New Set of Rules
Podcast: Inflation Reduction Act’s Drug Price Negotiation Provisions – What’s Next? - Diagnosing Health Care
Quick Takeaways From the 2024 Proposed Hospice Wage Index Rule
Telemedicine companies are supposed to facilitate medically necessary services to beneficiaries over the telephone via licensed medical professionals. In reality, however, many of these “telemedicine companies” are...more
As discussed in EnforceMintz – Significant 2022 Regulatory and Policy Developments, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued several memoranda in late 2022 and early 2023, reinforcing DOJ’s approach to individual accountability...more
After the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced its Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative in October 2021, many in the False Claims Act (“FCA”) bar expected an onslaught of enforcement actions and qui tam cases. The initiative...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced a rare criminal indictment involving the Medicare Advantage program—a contrast from DOJ’s more typical use of its civil enforcement authority to pursue similar issues...more
Medical Marketer Convicted of $55 Million Fraud Scheme - Late last week, a federal jury in the Northern District of Texas convicted Quintan Cockerell for his role in a $55 million fraud conspiracy involving TRICARE, a...more
Two separate lawsuits alleging False Claims Act (FCA) violations by retail drug pharmacies made their way to the Supreme Court of the United States this term. The lawsuits decided whether the pharmacies could defeat these...more
This issue of McDermott’s Healthcare Regulatory Check-Up highlights significant regulatory activity for April 2023. We discuss several criminal and civil enforcement actions related to the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and the...more
This Tuesday, April 18, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court heard argument in U.S. v. SuperValu. SuperValu is the second – and more consequential – False Claims Act (FCA) case of the term....more
Oral arguments are scheduled for April 18, 2023, in the Supreme Court case combining two Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals cases U.S. ex rel. Schutte v. SuperValu, Inc. (“SuperValu”) and U.S. ex rel. Thomas Proctor v. Safeway,...more
This issue of McDermott’s Healthcare Regulatory Check-Up highlights significant regulatory activity and developments occurring in January 2023, including several criminal and civil enforcement actions related to the federal...more
The Department of Justice and other federal enforcement agencies continued to hotly pursue individuals and entities involved in criminal telefraud schemes in 2022, as evidenced by the national coordinated law enforcement...more
Federal omnibus spending bill rolls back some Medicare payment cuts scheduled for 2023, 2024 - Buried within the $1.7-trillion spending package signed by the President on Dec. 29 was partial relief for a planned 4.5% cut...more
Does violating requirements amount to fraud under the False Claims Act (FCA) when the requirements allegedly violated are unclear? There is currently a circuit split and petitions for review pending to the Supreme Court as to...more
Physicians and practice managers: Keep an eye on medical billing or health services contractors acting on your behalf. Your practice is liable for any violations of state and federal healthcare fraud laws, including Stark...more
When healthcare providers and other government contractors are subject to scrutiny for bills submitted to the government, it is often the result of a whistleblower complaint filed under the qui tam provisions of the False...more
Staying up-to-date with fraud enforcement trends and recent cases and settlements can sometimes be viewed as a “Glass Half Empty” perspective, focusing on negative aspects of the industry and the perceived threat of...more
Courts are grappling with unique questions in the context of managed care programs in False Claims Act (FCA) cases. But are they getting it right? Two questions trending in courts relate to: (1) materiality under the FCA when...more
The following is a summary of the federal Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) reports of fraud and abuse enforcement activity across the country. The enforcement actions reported are...more
What You Need to Know •The federal government is broadening its multi-agency law enforcement effort to address pandemic-related fraud beyond PPP-related cases to encompass alleged instances of healthcare-related COVID-19...more
Each year, the Department of Justice (DOJ) recovers millions of dollars through False Claims Act (FCA) settlements, and 2021 was no exception. Some of the most sizeable or otherwise noteworthy settlements from 2021 were with...more
On October 25, 2021, DOJ intervened in a False Claims Act (FCA) case against Kaiser Permanente, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and certain Permanente Medical Groups (Kaiser). In its complaint, DOJ contends that Kaiser...more
In a Press Release issued on October 14 2021 by the Office of Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy, a potentially groundbreaking settlement was announced. Below is an excerpt from the release, followed by our takeaways....more
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has intensified its already aggressive crackdown on fraud related to COVID-19, recently announcing criminal charges against a telemedicine company executive, a physician, marketers and medical...more
Individual Prosecutions Down But Corporate Resolutions Steady for DOJ’s Fraud Section in 2020, with More in the Pipeline - The Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) Fraud Section recently released a year-in-review report that...more
On January 14, 2021, the Department of Justice announced that it had obtained over $2.2 billion in settlements and judgments from fraud and False Claims Act cases over the previous fiscal year. More than 80 percent of False...more