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
On June 28, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision that overrules the “Chevron doctrine.” This means that federal agencies are limited in their ability to rely on their own interpretation of the laws they...more
Conducting due diligence for physician and provider compensation arrangements during a healthcare transaction is critical for the acquirer. Appropriate due diligence is necessary, regardless of whether the transaction is a...more
Community Health Network (CHN) in Indiana has agreed to pay $345 million to settle false claims allegations that it paid over-the-top salaries to hundreds of physicians and rewarded them for their referrals in violation of...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
In the post-COVID era, health care fraud and abuse issues will be aggressively and swiftly enforced by the government. The legal framework and regulations in the health care space can be intimidating. Below is a comparison of...more
Physician consolidation continued on a robust pace this past year, despite, or maybe because of, the Pandemic. Physician-owned orthopedic practices appear to be no exception to this trend. Interestingly, orthopedic...more
On November 8, 2021, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) released a revised Provider Self-Disclosure Protocol, renamed Health Care Fraud Self-Disclosure Protocol (“SDP”). Prior...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
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
With the pace of orthopedic medical practice recapitalizations showing no signs of slowing, it is appropriate to review certain of the most critical legal issues that any buyer considering a transaction must take into...more
The U.S. healthcare industry remains at a crossroads. The healthcare reform legislation passed under President Barack Obama in 2010, officially called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) but widely referred...more
Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) each released their long-anticipated proposed rules to revise the federal...more
At this time of year, healthcare providers may want to give gifts to patients, referring providers, or other sources of business, but such gifts may violate federal and state fraud and abuse laws and result in civil or...more
In this episode, Mark Rush and John Lawrence discuss the federal government’s expectations related to health care organizations conducting internal investigations and demonstrating a commitment to compliance. The episode also...more
On February 9, 2018, Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (the Act), which included a number of important health law provisions.. ...more
A LOOK BACK... A LOOK AHEAD - While the uncertainty associated with legislative efforts to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) dominated most of the headlines for the healthcare industry last year,...more
The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (the Act) continues to ratchet up penalties for fraud and abuse violations under the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The Act doubles statutory civil fines and quadruples some criminal fines,...more
The HHS Office of Inspector General offers providers an opportunity to self-disclose certain violations in exchange for avoiding some of the more draconian penalties that may otherwise apply under applicable regulations. ...more
As the healthcare industry moves towards value-based purchasing, pay-for-performance, and other payment reform models, industry leaders have identified federal fraud and abuse laws as a barrier to full implementation of such...more
On September 19 and 27, 2016, the US Department of Justice announced two False Claims Act settlements that required corporate executives to make substantial monetary payments to resolve their liability. How will director and...more
Thanks to section 701 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, Public Law 114–74, federal agencies have been forced to implement huge increases in penalties intended to deter health care fraud. The Federal Civil Penalties...more
Spotlight on the False Claims Act - Why it matters: This month, we review a recent Ninth Circuit case that allowed a qui tam relator’s action against various Medicare Advantage organizations to proceed, holding that the...more
A new report suggests that the Stark law is obsolete in new payment models. On June 30, the US Senate Committee on Finance (the Committee) released the report Why Stark, Why Now? Suggestions to Improve the Stark Law to...more
In a long-running False Claims Act case with significant implications for hospitals, Toumey Healthcare System last week agreed to settle its case by paying $72.4 million to the government. While this sum is significant, it is...more