The Affordable Care Act includes many provisions aimed at improving the quality of care provided by different types of health care professionals and providers. Along these lines, the ACA expands the types of facilities and...more
May a licensed healthcare professional refuse to treat a patient? Healthcare providers have legal, ethical and professional duties to address a patient’s needs that fall within the provider’s scope of practice. However, are...more
On Monday, August 4, 2014, The Department of Justice announced that Community Health Systems (“CHS”), the nation’s largest operator of acute care hospitals, agreed to pay $98.15 million to settle nine whistleblower lawsuits...more
The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced another multi-million dollar settlement of alleged False Claims Act violations on March 11, 2014. Specifically, Halifax Hospital Medical Center and Halifax Staffing, Inc. agreed to...more
6/10/2014
/ Billing ,
Corporate Integrity Agreement ,
False Billing ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Halifax Hospital ,
Healthcare ,
Hospitals ,
Medicare ,
Patient Referrals ,
Physician Medicare Reimbursements ,
Qui Tam ,
Relators ,
Stark Law
Recent trends across the country have health systems buying out private physician practices and reclassifying them as hospital-outpatient departments. There are a number of motivations behind these transactions, the greatest...more
The OIG recently made available its 2014 Work Plan. The Plan identifies OIG focus areas and priority projects for the coming year. This post provides a brief summary of many of the new OIG projects for fiscal year 2014 to...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently released the final rule for Medicare’s Physician Fee Schedule for 2014 Calendar Year (“CY). While physicians are expected to see a 20.1% reduction to their...more