On March 23, 2017, New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced settlements with three mobile health application (app) development companies aimed at curbing deceptive marketing practices and inadequate...more
On January 31, 2017, the Florida Supreme Court held that adverse medical incident reports produced in accordance with Florida law cannot constitute confidential and privileged patient safety work product (PSWP) under the...more
On January 24, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied the Department of Justice’s request for an en banc rehearing in In the Matter of a Warrant to Search a Certain Email Account Controlled and...more
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently issued a favorable advisory opinion (Advisory Opinion) to a university health system (Requestor) regarding two arrangements: (1) a proposal to waive cost-sharing obligations of...more
On December 7, 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a long-awaited final rule (Final Rule) that expands the safe harbor regulations under the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS)...more
12/20/2016
/ Ambulance Providers ,
Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
OIG ,
Remuneration ,
Rural Areas ,
Safe Harbors
On November 30, 2016, the U.S. House of Representatives voted strongly in favor of the 21st Century Cures Act (the Act), an expansive health bill that addresses the discovery and development of new medical therapies as well...more
12/6/2016
/ Disclosure ,
Electronic Medical Records ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Healthcare ,
Mental Health ,
OIG ,
Pending Legislation ,
PHI ,
Privacy Rule ,
Substance Abuse
On October 14, 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a final rule with comment period (Final Rule) implementing the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). The Final Rule...more
10/28/2016
/ Alternative Payment Models (APM) ,
CEHRT ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Medicare ,
Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization (MACRA) ,
MIPS ,
Physician Medicare Reimbursements ,
Physicians ,
PQRS ,
Quality Payment Program (QPP) ,
Rural Health Care Providers ,
Value-Based Payments
On October 12, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit denied a petition for an en banc rehearing of its September 12 decision in Galaria, et al. v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company (Nos. 15-3386/3387). In...more
10/20/2016
/ Appeals ,
Article III ,
Bailments ,
Clapper v. Amnesty International ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Breach ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Fraud ,
Hackers ,
Identity Theft ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
Insurance Industry ,
Insurance Litigation ,
Invasion of Privacy ,
Mitigation ,
Nationwide Insurance Co. ,
Negligence ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
Standing
On September 27, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit handed the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) a significant antitrust victory by granting its request for a preliminary injunction to stay the pending merger...more
DOJ, NY AG REACH SETTLEMENT WITH HOSPITALS IN LANDMARK 60 - DAY RULE CASE -
On August 24, 2016, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and the New York State attorney general announced a $2.95 million...more
9/7/2016
/ 60-Day Rule ,
Affordable Care Act ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Medicare Part A ,
Medicare Part B ,
Overpayment ,
Overpayment Recovery Time Limits ,
Physician Assistants ,
Settlement ,
Vaccinations
On August 5, 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued guidance to nursing homes in a letter to state survey agencies that addresses nursing homes’ obligations to protect residents. The Letter focuses on...more
On July 11, 2016, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) issued a Fact Sheet that provides guidance on (i) how HIPAA Security Rule compliance can assist health care organizations combat ransomware attacks, and...more
7/21/2016
/ Breach Notification Rule ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Data Breach ,
Electronically Stored Information ,
Hackers ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
HIPAA Breach ,
OCR ,
PHI ,
Popular ,
Ransomware ,
Security Risk Assessments
On June 14, 2016, a federal district court in the Northern District of Illinois denied a request from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for a preliminary injunction to enjoin the pending merger of Advocate Health Care...more
7/19/2016
/ Antitrust Investigations ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Health Care Providers ,
Hospital Mergers ,
Hospitals ,
Mergers ,
Penalties ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Stark Law
This legislation (P.A. 16-77) makes substantive and technical changes related to Public Act 15-146, a major public health and health care bill passed by the Connecticut Legislature during its 2015 Legislative Session....more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced it will implement a pre-claim review demonstration for home health services. The three-year demonstration will apply to home health services performed in...more
On May 24, 2016, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) issued guidance (Guidance) to health care providers and patient safety organizations (PSOs) in an attempt to clarify the definition of patient safety work...more
On May 9, 2016, a federal district court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania rejected a request from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for a preliminary injunction to enjoin the pending merger (Merger) between Penn...more
6/6/2016
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Hospital Mergers ,
Hospitals ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
Merger Agreements ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 7 ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
The Clayton Act
The Connecticut legislature recently passed Public Act No. 16-95 (PA 16-95), which aims to increase competition among health care providers by, among other things, restricting physician non-compete agreements. Though passed...more
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently released a compendium (Compendium) of its top unimplemented recommendations. The Compendium comprises 25 unimplemented past OIG...more
On February 19, 2016, the IRS issued proposed regulations regarding Type I and Type III supporting organizations (Proposed Regulations). The Proposed Regulations implement amendments to Section 509(a)(3) of the Internal...more
On February 16, 2016, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that it had entered into an agreement with Complete P.T., Pool & Land Physical Therapy, Inc. (CPT), a physical...more
On February 25, 2016, Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy issued Executive Order No. 51 (Executive Order), which establishes a taskforce (Taskforce) to study and provide recommendations on the state’s certificate of need...more
On February 12, 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a final rule (Final Rule) interpreting the application of Section 1128J(d) of the Social Security Act (the 60-Day Rule) to over payments...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued a final rule (Final Rule) that implements the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement model (CJR Model), a new bundled payment program covering certain...more
On January 7, 2015, HHS issued new guidance (Guidance) regarding an individual’s right to access his or her health information under HIPAA’s Privacy Rule. The Guidance emphasizes that HIPAA, while protecting the privacy and...more