The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights and The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology recently published a new fact sheet entitled “Permitted Uses and Disclosures: Exchange for Health Oversight Activities.” This fact sheet provides…
The FDA continues to monitor and assess potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities associated with radio frequency (“RF”) enabled implantable devices. The FDA recently reviewed St. Jude Medical’s Merlin@home Transmitter and software patch – an implantable cardiac device – to determine any…
On January 3, 2017, the Indiana Department of Insurance (“Department”) issued Bulletin 235, titled “Interest Rate for Failure to Pay a Clean Claim,” clarifying the interest rate calculated on clean claims pursuant to Indiana Code Sections 27-8-5.7 and 27-13-36.2 (“Clean Claims Laws”). Under the…
On January 9, 2017, the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services (the “OIG”) released a thirty-two page report detailing its review of NorthShore University HealthSystem’s (“NorthShore”) Medicare compliance during 2013 and 2014, as part of a series of hospital…
On January 13, 2017 CMS published a comprehensive final rule revising the conditions of participation (“COPs”) that home health agencies (“HHAs”) must abide by in order to participate in Medicare and Medicaid programs. Through the changes to these rules, CMS seeks to achieve broad-based, measurable…
On January 9, 2017, the United Stated Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights (HHS) announced that it has issued its first enforcement action with a healthcare entity due to the entity’s alleged failure to notify affected individuals, HHS and media outlets of a breach of…
On December 31, 2016, a Federal District Court judge in Texas issued an order (the “Order”) temporarily preventing the Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights from enforcing certain sections of the new anti-discrimination regulations issued on May 18, 2016. Several states, including…
On January 5, 2017, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut and the Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced that they had entered into an agreement with John Dempsey Hospital, a subsidiary of University of Connecticut Health Center (“UConn”), to resolve an accusation of its…
Federal law penalizes a person who offers or gives a Medicare or Medicaid beneficiary any remuneration that it knows or should know is likely to influence the beneficiary’s selection of a specific provider, practitioner, or supplier of Medicare or Medicaid covered items or services. The OIG…
The United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (“HHS”) and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (“UMass”) recently entered into a Resolution Agreement and Corrective Action Plan to settle HIPAA violations resulting from the impermissible disclosure of…
On December 5, 2016, the OIG posted Advisory Opinion No. 16-12 concerning a laboratory’s proposal to provide the labeling of test tubes and specimens free of charge to dialysis facilities. One of the stated purposes of offering this free service was to “obtain or retain the business of a particular…
We previously published an article regarding the CMS proposed rule (published July 17, 2015) to revise the requirements that Long-Term Care (“LTC”) facilities must meet to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and its proposed changes to LTC facilities use of arbitration agreements.…
