Senate leaves for recess with no action on SGR repeal -
Despite a successful vote in the House yesterday, the Senate failed to bring to a vote legislation to repeal the flawed Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR)...more
In Beber v. Metzger and MDVIP, along with other physician defendants, a Florida jury awarded $8.5 million in a malpractice claim, and found MDVIP, a national concierge physician network with over 800 physicians, partially...more
The Ohio State Medical Board has proposed new telehealth prescribing regulations, which are predicated upon whether the drug is a controlled or not a controlled substance....more
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a Bill late last week, which will take effect as of January 1, expanding telehealth coverage in New York. This law does three things which are on the leading edge of telehealth coverage....more
Scott Leah, an attorney in Tucker Arensberg’s Pittsburgh office, recently circulated the below client alert:
Employers with more than 50 employees need to be aware of a recent ruling on FMLA notices, which employers...more
In Kates v. Doylestown Hospital, the Pennsylvania Superior Court, in a non-precedential decision, held back the Pennsylvania Peer Review Protection Act does not provide confidentiality protection for certain records....more
42 U.S.C. § 1981 prohibits discrimination affecting citizens rights to make contracts. In the credentialing field, § 1981 has been used to circumvent the immunities provided by the Health Care Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA)...more
The Pa. Departments of Health and Insurance have established a website in an attempt to provide ongoing information and guidance regarding the termination of the Highmark...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a proposed rule intended to make ACOs and Medicare Shared Savings Plans more practical and attractive to potential providers. The proposed rule was released on...more
On July 21, 2014, I posted the proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, and described the intent by CMS to eliminate global surgery.
On November 13, 2014, CMS issued the final 2015 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, and...more
On October 27, 2014, the Governor signed Pennsylvania General Assembly enacted House Bill 1846, which limits both the authority and the reimbursement of physicians and providers other than pharmacies for prescription drugs. ...more
In United States ex rel. Martin et al. v. Life Care Centers of American, Inc., the Court held that the government could extrapolate from a random sample in order to impose False Claims Act (FCA) liability against Life Care...more
CMS has announced its concern regarding the level of compliance for documenting the face-to-face elements necessary for home health care certification....more
It should come as no surprise there are cases in which hospitals seek to and actually do recover income guarantee payments made to physicians whom, either through termination of employment or loss of hospital privileges, fail...more
In OIG Advisory Opinion 14-06, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) concluded that payment by a specialty pharmacy to a retail pharmacy on a “per-fill” basis for services provided by the retail pharmacy could violate the...more
It is ironic to learn the Office of Inspector General (OIG) believes the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) essentially has an insufficient compliance program to maintain the privacy...more
Highmark and UPMC took a major step toward resolving network participation issues June 27, 2014, by executing a Consent Decree with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Departments of Insurance and Health.
The Consent...more
In the recently proposed 2015 Physician Fee Schedule, CMS devoted significant resources to discussing potentially misvalued services, which I believe is code for places where CMS would like to reduce reimbursement. One of the...more
In the proposed 2015 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, CMS is seeking comments regarding expanding coverage for secondary interpretation of diagnostic imaging....more
CMS has issued the Proposed 2015 Physician Fee Schedule and Fact Sheets for specific issues (ASC, ESRD, Home Health, Physician Quality Programs)....more
Perhaps not coincidentally, immediately following the release of the Questionable Laboratory Payments Special Fraud Alert by the OIG, posted yesterday on the Med Law Blog, the OIG has followed up with Audit Report OIG –...more
There has been significantly enhanced scrutiny of financial relationships between referring physicians by both the Office of Inspector General (OIG) and Pennsylvania authorities....more
Last week, the American Medical Association (AMA) issued a new report regarding coverage of and payment for telemedicine (CMS Report 7-A-14). The report recognizes the telemedicine is a “key innovation in support of health...more
A Hospital in Ohio tried to prevent access to a patient incident report on the basis of Peer Review Privilege. The Hospital claimed that, since the incident report was reviewed by the Hospital Peer Review Committee, the...more
The American Health Lawyers Association Regulatory Accreditation and Payment Practice Group (RAPPG) has issued an email alert regarding the issuance of a final rule by CMS intending to streamline Medicare regulatory...more