On July 15, 2022, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the resolution of eleven investigations as part of its Health Insurance Portability and...more
On June 13, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights issued guidance (the “Guidance”) for covered health care providers and health plans relating to the use of remote communication...more
On March 28, 2022, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced the resolution of three investigations and one matter before an Administrative Law Judge related...more
On February 1, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released its enforcement statistics for fiscal year 2021. The DOJ obtained over $5.6 billion in False Claims Act (FCA) recoveries in the fiscal year ending September...more
COVID-19 – and its variants Delta and Omicron – continue to wreak havoc around the world. Thousands of individuals have died and continue to die, and millions more have been diagnosed as having COVID-19. Many sectors of the...more
2/3/2022
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Home Health Care ,
Hospitals ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
Nurses ,
Physicians ,
Popular ,
Telehealth ,
Vaccinations
On November 30, 2021, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced its five actions – four settlements and corrective action plans, and one civil money penalty in...more
The 24th Annual Report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reports that the Federal Government won or negotiated more than $1.8 billion in health care fraud...more
On July 1, 2021, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), along with several other federal agencies, issued an interim final rule to implement the first of several requirements in the No Surprises Act, which...more
On June 2, 2021, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced that the Diabetes, Endocrinology & Lipidology Center, Inc., (DELC) agreed to pay $5,000, enter into a...more
On March 24th and March 26th, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced it settled its respective seventeenth and eighteenth enforcement actions as part of...more
One year ago – in early 2020 – most of us did not know what COVID-19 meant (co-Corona; vi-Virus; d-disease; 19 – 2019); had no idea how to “zoom”; did not know what social distance meant; and, were largely unfamiliar with...more
2/18/2021
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Hospitals ,
Medicaid ,
Medical Records ,
Medicare ,
Physicians ,
Stark Law ,
Tax Reform ,
Telehealth ,
Vaccinations
On December 22, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced a settlement of a thirteenth enforcement action under its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative (the...more
The Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) recently announced it had settled its 10th and 11th enforcement actions in its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative (the...more
On October 9, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced it had settled its ninth enforcement action in its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative (the...more
INTRODUCTION - The health care world – in fact, THE WORLD – has changed significantly since March with the onset of COVID-19. As we collectively work to return to a “new normal,” the health care delivery system will be one of...more
On May 8, there were two new developments in Pennsylvania that help psychologists and dentists and their respective patients as the Commonwealth continues to take steps to reopen in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. First,...more
On May 6, 2020, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed an executive order providing a wide range of health care practitioners with protection from civil liability for good faith actions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic. This...more
While we would normally be fixated on April 15th being “tax day”, the COVID-19 pandemic is appropriately the focus of all our collective energies and appreciation for the health care providers who are treating those who...more
On March 28, 2020, in connection with the recently enacted Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it is expanding its accelerated and advance...more
4/8/2020
/ Accelerated Payments ,
CARES Act ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Health Care Providers ,
Hospitals ,
Medicare ,
Nursing Homes ,
Physicians ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Relief Measures
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on April 2, 2020 that it will not impose penalties for violations of certain provisions of the HIPAA Privacy Rule against...more
On March 23, 2020, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed Executive Order 109 ordering that all elective surgeries performed on adults be suspended in the state after 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 27 in light of the COVID-19...more
Several telemedicine provisions were recently updated at the federal level in an effort to increase patient access to health care services, and New Jersey enacted a telemedicine statute on March 19 in an attempt to address...more
On March 18, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Delaware Governor John Carney issued a second modification to his March 12, 2020 state of emergency declaration. ...more
On March 17, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it is temporarily easing enforcement of certain regulations issued under the Health Insurance Portability and...more
As health care providers prepare for an increase in patients infected or who suspect they are infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19), providers have many considerations to ensure they maintain regulatory...more