The American Relief Act, 2025, signed into law on December 21, included a short-term extension of certain telehealth waivers that went into effect in the early days of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. These waivers, for...more
1/17/2025
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
New Legislation ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Telehealth ,
Telemedicine ,
Waivers
The New York State 2024-2025 budget includes legislation that extends until July 1, 2026 the independent practice authority for certain qualified nurse practitioners with over 3,600 practice hours....more
The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced that Silver Lake Hospital, a long-term care hospital in Newark, New Jersey, and some of its investors agreed to pay $30.6 million to settle claims that they violated the False...more
A recent Advisory Opinion (No. 23-15) from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) concluded that a healthcare consulting company’s plan to offer gift cards to physician practices...more
The 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule, released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) earlier this month, extended certain telehealth-related flexibilities that were implemented during the early...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently released two resource documents to help healthcare providers explain the privacy and security risks of telehealth to their patients....more
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced on September 18 that cardiologist Klaus Peter Rentrop and his practice, Gramercy Cardiac Diagnostic Services, P.C., agreed to pay $6.5 million to...more
The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) has announced that its third annual Telehealth Awareness Week will take place September 17-23, 2023. The official website for the event states:...more
On Thursday, September 14, in the next installment of Rivkin Radler’s Healthcare Compliance Lunch & Learn series, Rivkin Radler Partner Eric D. Fader will present an update on the regulatory landscape for the provision of...more
9/1/2023
/ Continuing Legal Education ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
Dentists ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Medicare ,
Mental Health ,
PHI ,
Physicians ,
Telehealth ,
Telemedicine ,
Webinars
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently announced that Manasa Health Center in Kendall Park, New Jersey entered into a Resolution Agreement and Corrective Action Plan to...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on May 8 that David Mente, a Pittsburgh psychotherapist, has paid $15,000 to settle a violation of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. OCR has been...more
We’ll wrap up this edition of Fraud Week with a look at two Connecticut behavioral health providers, one bad and one very, very bad. First, Alicia Thompkins, a social worker from Hartford, pleaded guilty on April 27 to...more
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut recently announced that Michael Lonski, a Greenwich psychologist, pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud. Lonski admitted to billing insurers for services that were not rendered,...more
The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York recently announced that Morris Barnard, a Great Neck gastroenterologist, was sentenced to 30 months in jail for billing Medicare for procedures he never performed....more
I don’t know how to say it any more clearly. Somehow, medical and dental practices continue to get roped into responding to negative patient reviews on Yelp, Google, or elsewhere online, and posting any identifying...more
On January 11, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra formally renewed the federal COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) for another 90 days. The PHE, which originally went into effect on...more
The American Dental Association (ADA) announced on November 15 that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has agreed to create a new Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) code G0330 for dental...more
The U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey and New York Attorney General Letitia James both announced on October 6 that pediatric dentist Barry L. Jacobson, his management company, and 13 affiliated pediatric dentistry...more
Virtual primary care company HealthTap recently announced that it has partnered with Samsung to provide telehealth services through Samsung smart TVs. Users will be able to connect to the HealthTap platform and schedule a...more
On October 7, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey announced that a former physician pleaded guilty to conspiring to wrongfully disclose patients’ protected health information to a pharmaceutical sales...more
If our most recent Fraud Week post (NY Chiropractor Billed for Non-Existent Acupuncture Services) didn’t already drive home the point, it is worth emphasizing that billing insurers for items or services that weren’t actually...more
8/26/2022
/ Bribery ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Billing ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Kickbacks ,
Medicare ,
Nurse Practitioners ,
Telemarketing ,
Wire Fraud
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that Reliance Medical Systems LLC, a Utah-based distributor of spinal implant devices, two of its individual owners, and two of its physician-owned distributorships...more
On July 20, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a Special Fraud Alert to caution healthcare practitioners who may wish to enter into arrangements with telehealth...more
7/27/2022
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
False Billing ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Kickbacks ,
OIG ,
Physicians ,
Telehealth ,
Unnecessary Medical Procedures
On July 15, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra formally extended the COVID-19 public health emergency for another 90 days. ...more
On May 27, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought against Envision Healthcare Corp. alleging violations of California’s corporate practice of medicine (CPOM)...more