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
As a general rule, healthcare employers are required to pay employed physicians and other contracted providers fair market value (FMV) for their services, but many employers do not understand relevant regulatory standards. ...more
On July 1, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) published a final rule...more
Historically, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) has not aggressively pursued enforcement activity under the Sunshine Act. However, this may change in 2024. Late last year, CMS updated its Open Payments...more
On October 30, 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a proposed rule establishing penalties for healthcare providers who violate the information blocking rules implemented under the 21st Century...more
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed into law in August 2022 with the goal of curbing inflation by, among other things, lowering prescription drug prices. Notable prescription drug provisions of the IRA include the...more
The following is a summary of selected 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...more
The ability to directly negotiate drug prices has been a policy goal for Democrats for many years and was recently accomplished through the Inflation Reduction Act’s (“IRA”) Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program (the...more
On October 21, 2022, CMS announced new actions to increase accountability and scrutiny on nursing homes in the Special Focus Facilities Program (SFF Program), an oversight program for the poorest performing nursing homes in...more
Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) audits have recently become a common tool used by both law enforcement and private insurers in the Medicare program. While they focus on educating Medicare providers about proper billing...more
Clinical laboratories have come under increased scrutiny in the past few years, especially those that deal with COVID-19 testing or drug testing. These federal investigations can be surprising and confusing for lab...more
In late December, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued its decision in Yates v. Pinellas Hematology & Oncology, P.A. The appellate court affirmed the district court’s imposition of damages and...more
On November 4, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) revealed its Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing, which has been published in the Federal Register and is...more
New Rule Finalizes Penalties for Violating the 2021 Price Transparency Rule - On November 2, 2021, CMS published the 2022 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System Final Rule that addressed its previously-proposed...more
On November 2, 2021, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will implement increased penalties for hospitals that do not comply with the Hospital Price Transparency Rule, effective January 1,...more
Employer-sponsored health plans can add air ambulance claims reporting to the list of required disclosures that will go into effect in the next several years. Under proposed regulations published September 16, 2021, by...more
On 19 July 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the 2022 Outpatient Prospective Payment System/Ambulatory Surgery Center Payment System proposed rule (OPPS Proposed Rule),1 which includes a...more
On July 19, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden’s administration released a proposed rule that would increase penalties for hospitals that do not comply with the Hospital Price Transparency Rule, effective January 1, 2022. The...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) calendar year 2022 rule proposing changes to payment policies under the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) and Medicare Part B (the Proposed Rule) will officially be published in...more
Effective September 2, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented an interim final rule with comment period to bolster its regulatory authority in addressing a number of issues relating to CMS's...more
On June 23, 2020, a federal district court upheld a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regulation that requires hospitals to publicly report information regarding their standard charges, including privately...more
On June 1, CMS issued guidance to states on new requirements for nursing homes in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since March 6, 2020, CMS has relied on State Survey Agencies to perform Focused Infection Control surveys of...more
On June 1, 2020 CMS published QSO-20-31-All. It is effective immediately and provides in part as follows: (1) States will need to perform focused infection control surveys (FICS) of 100% of the certified nursing homes in...more
On February 9, President Trump signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (“BBA”) into law. The BBA funds the federal government through March 23 and included a bipartisan agreement to increase annual spending authority for a...more
Medicare is offering relief from penalties for certain Medicare beneficiaries who enrolled in Medicare Part A and had coverage through the individual marketplace. For a short time, these individuals will be able to enroll in...more
In 2014, CMS issued a final rule related to 42 CFR 424.535, which gave CMS expanded authority to impose penalties on providers. Although the rule is several years old, the first version published in 2006, the rule has been...more