Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Every dealership will be transferred. We can all agree on that since it is based on the same logic as the statement that every person will eventually die. But even though conventional wisdom says that you and I should develop a plan for what happens when we die, dealers don’t always take the same approach […]
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
A new Security Risk Assessment tool is now available to help small and medium sized offices “conduct an accurate and thorough assessment of the potential risks and vulnerabilities to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information.”* The tool, released by the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), is intended to help […]
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Turning profits into loss? Why would I do that? No dealer is in business to lose money. But what if the types of products and services you sell lead to a situation where losses from one bad transaction wipe out profits on 100+ customer transactions? The world in which you operate is rapidly changing. Are […]
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
How do doctors know when Spring has arrived? When Congress passes a temporary patch to avoid the reimbursement cuts required by the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate reimbursement formula (“SGR”). Enacted in 1997, SGR imposes Medicare reimbursement cuts for physicians and other professionals if the volume of services provided exceeds certain cost targets. Volume has exceeded […]
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Health care professionals must exercise extreme caution when selecting and working with third party vendors because, as Stanford University Hospital & Clinics (SHC) recently learned, problems can arise when vendors fail to follow the law. One of SHC’s vendors subcontracted out its services to a third party. The third party then posted patient information online […]
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
The DOJ and HHS implemented the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative in 2009 to combat healthcare fraud and abuse. HEAT has achieved many victories against healthcare providers and these three recent settlements illustrate that providers must be extremely vigilant when structuring their financial arrangements or they too may face large […]
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Patient referrals by physicians are a common practice. They can benefit patients, but they can also constitute fraud and abuse when illegal financial arrangements are involved. And, as one healthcare practice recently learned, such financial arrangements can lead to multi-million dollar fines! $15.5 Million Fraud and Abuse Settlement Diagnostic Imaging Group (DIG) and its […]
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Most provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) were set to take effect on January 1, 2014. But due to push back, the federal government delayed key requirements: Last summer the IRS announced that the “shared responsibility” requirements for larger employers (also known as the “Pay or Play” rules) would be delayed […]
Friday, March 7, 2014
Imagine this, your health care employee loses a flash drive containing protected health information. You immediately inform the affected patients and the media as required under the breach notification rules of HIPAA and HITECH. You’re in the clear, right? Perhaps not, as one health care provider recently learned to the tune of $150,000. The […]