Wednesday, August 27, 2014
The medical industry is undergoing major changes and the number of small physician groups joining larger hospital systems has increased in recent years. There are many benefits to merging your medical practice with a larger system but there are many things you must consider before doing so. In today’s post, we will cover four important […]
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Last month the U.S. Department of Justice announced it had reached a $24.5million settlement with several Alabama-based medical practices following a lawsuit that alleged the practices violated the False Claims Act. The settlement is another example of why all medical practices and hospital systems should pay close attention to payment arrangements and transactions related to […]
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
We recently wrote about what types of third parties are considered “Business Associates” and we mentioned that, in short, a “Business Associate is any individual or company that ‘performs, or assists in the performance of’ any function or activity on behalf of a Covered Entity that involves the use or disclosure of protected health information.” […]
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
In June 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the individual mandate contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly referred to as Obamacare). That holding paved the way for the ACA to move forward but recent developments may cause the Supreme Court to consider a related issue: the ability of […]
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
A jury recently reached a $14.75 Million verdict in Florida in a case between twoclinical laboratory companies arguing over sales and marketing practices that were potential violations of various state and federal laws. The lessons that follow are important for all medical practices. Background The case began when Ameritox, Ltd. filed suit against its […]
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Entities covered under the HIPAA Privacy Rules face very high penalties for failing to properly handle protected health information (PHI) as one Indiana non-profit health care system learned to the tune of $800,000. If you handle PHI there is a good chance the privacy rules apply to you and you must ensure your staff follows […]
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General(OIG) recently issued a Special Fraud Alert based on a concern that laboratory payments to referring physicians and physician group practices for blood specimen collection, processing, and packaging, and for submitting patient data to a registry or database could constitute illegal remuneration under the […]
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
In July 2013 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)issued a final regulation allowing 340B covered entities (public safety-net health providers) to purchase orphan drugs at the discounted 340B prices even when the drugs aren’t used to treat the rare disease or condition for which the drug obtained orphan status. However, in May […]
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Catherine Nazari, an unsatisfied plastic surgery patient, voiced her dissatisfaction with her physician Jean Loftus online. The comments were critical of Dr. Loftus, so Loftus filed suit for defamation and tortious interference. Unfortunately for the physician, and an important lesson for all physicians, the federal trial court in Kentucky ruled that a physician generally does […]
Monday, June 16, 2014
Prior to 2014, employers could reimburse employees for some or all of their costs to obtain their own individual health insurance policies rather than offering health plans directly to the employees. This benefit was tax-free to employees, whether the employer reimbursed employees directly or paid amounts to their insurance companies. Unfortunately for employers, however, the […]