Last week, a U.S. district court judge in the Southern District of Florida upheld a magistrate judge’s decision to dismiss False Claims Act (FCA) allegations against a compounding pharmacy, its private equity firm owner, and...more
The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced a $1.99 million False Claims Act (FCA) settlement with GenomeDx Biosciences Corp. (“GenomeDx”), a laboratory headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia with operations in...more
2/22/2019
/ Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Failure to Comply ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Local Coverage Determination (LCD) ,
Medical Necessity ,
Medicare ,
Physician Medicare Reimbursements ,
Physicians ,
Qui Tam ,
Relators
Last week the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a $57 million settlement with electronic health record (EHR) software vendor Greenway Health LLC (Greenway). According to DOJ, Greenway violated the False Claims Act (FCA)...more
2/14/2019
/ Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
EHR ,
Electronic Health Record Incentives ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Meaningful Use ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
OIG ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Software ,
Third-Party Service Provider
Last week, the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services (OIG) issued a favorable Advisory Opinion regarding a proposal by a pharmaceutical manufacturer (Manufacturer) to loan a...more
2/7/2019
/ Advisory Opinions ,
Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Beneficiary Inducement ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Digital Health ,
Health Care Providers ,
Low-Income Issues ,
Manufacturers ,
Medical Devices ,
New Guidance ,
OIG ,
Patient Assistance Programs ,
Patient Safety ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Smartphones
In an Advisory Opinion posted earlier this week, the OIG gave the green light to a charitable pediatric clinic’s routine waiver of patient cost-sharing amounts. The OIG’s analysis hinged on several factors that, taken...more
1/21/2019
/ Advisory Opinions ,
Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Cost-Sharing ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Fraud and Abuse ,
Health Clinics ,
Healthcare Facilities ,
Low-Income Issues ,
Medicare ,
OIG ,
Pediatrics ,
Waivers
As in years past, the False Claims Act (FCA) remained a powerful health care enforcement tool in 2018, and FCA investigations and litigation persisted, fueled mainly by hundreds of lawsuits filed annually by relators,...more
1/16/2019
/ Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Gilead Sciences Inc v United States ex rel Campie ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Solicitor General ,
Universal Health Services Inc v United States ex rel Escobar
The Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act (the “SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act”) – which is intended to combat the spread and pernicious...more
11/13/2018
/ Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Clinical Laboratories ,
Health Care Providers ,
OIG ,
Opioid ,
Pain Management ,
Patient Referrals ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Remuneration ,
Safe Harbors ,
Secretary of HHS
Clinical laboratories and hospitals should note the potential changes to the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (“PAMA”) reporting requirements tucked into the 1,400 page Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule (the...more
Thousands of laboratories nationwide will be happy to hear that Florida, which licenses in-state as well as out-of-state laboratories, has repealed its laboratory licensure requirements. As of July 1, 2018, laboratories...more
The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently intervened in a False Claims Act (FCA) case that raises a variety of interesting allegations, including payment of kickbacks by a compounding pharmacy to contracted marketing companies...more
In the recently published proposed rule related to the CY 2018 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it is considering changes to the...more
The waiver of copayments, coinsurance, and deductibles owed by patients treated by out-of-network laboratories and other providers is a hot topic in the health care industry. Despite the near absence of clear legal...more
Last Friday afternoon CMS released its eagerly anticipated final rule (the Final Rule) implementing the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA), which, together with the Final Rule, will make sweeping changes to the...more
As reported in our 2015 Laboratory Industry Year in Review post, the laboratory industry began 2016 amid confusion regarding how to comply with the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA), which made the most...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has finally published the long-awaited final rule establishing a process for Medicare Part A and B providers and suppliers to report and return overpayments within 60 days...more
Over the past year, significant regulatory changes began to take shape that will have lasting effects on the laboratory industry for years to come. After publishing draft guidance regarding the regulation of laboratory...more
12/31/2015
/ Aetna ,
Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
CIGNA ,
CLIA ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Laboratory Developed Tests ,
OIG ,
PAMA ,
Stark Law
With Halloween looming, a discussion of skeletons that may be lurking in a health care provider’s closet is timely. Many of our previous posts, as well as the monthly Qui Tam Updates published by our Health Care Enforcement...more
10/29/2015
/ 60-Day Rule ,
Affordable Care Act ,
Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fair Market Value ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Final Rules ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Overpayment ,
Physician Compensation Arrangements ,
Qui Tam ,
Relators ,
Safe Harbors ,
Settlement ,
Stark Law ,
Suppliers ,
Third-Party ,
Training
On September 25, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced publication of the proposed rule (the “Proposed Rule”) implementing substantial changes to the Medicare Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule...more
9/29/2015
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Clinical Laboratories ,
Comment Period ,
Cost-Sharing ,
Data Collection ,
Diagnostic Tests ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
Medicare Part B ,
MPFS ,
PAMA ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Reimbursements ,
Reporting Requirements
Tuesday, the HHS OIG, in collaboration with the Association of Healthcare Internal Auditors, the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA), and the Health Care Compliance Association, released a guidance document entitled...more
Yesterday the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services (the “OIG”) issued Advisory Opinion 15-04 (“Advisory Opinion”) in which it found that an exclusive arrangement between a laboratory...more
Last Thursdday both chambers of the Illinois legislature voted to override the Governor’s amendatory veto and passed Public Act 098-1127, which prohibits a physician from charging a markup on anatomic pathology services if...more
As part of the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) Rule issued last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized its proposal to conditionally package certain ancillary services assigned to APCs...more
This week a federal district court in Ohio ruled in favor of Mobilex USA (Mobilex), the country’s largest mobile medical imaging company, on a motion for summary judgment in a False Claims Act (FCA) suit filed by a former...more
The Fiscal Year 2015 budget for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which was signed into law earlier in the week, included a broad prohibition on clinical laboratory self-referrals. This legislation (the “Bill”) originally...more
Last week, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued a decision in Walsh et al. v. Amerisource Bergen Corp. et al denying the Relator’s motion to dismiss a counterclaim that alleged the Relator...more