Health Care
By: Meghan M. Linvill McNab
on January 23, 2017
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…
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By: Stephanie T. Eckerle
on January 9, 2017
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…
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By: Brandon W. Shirley
on January 9, 2017
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…
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By: Brandon W. Shirley
on January 9, 2017
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…
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By: Brandon W. Shirley
on December 11, 2016
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…
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By: Stephanie T. Eckerle
on December 11, 2016
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…
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By: Stephanie T. Eckerle
on December 8, 2016
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…
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By: Meghan M. Linvill McNab
on November 20, 2016
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.…
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By: Stacy Walton Long
on November 20, 2016
St. Joseph Health (“St. Joseph”), a nonprofit Catholic health care delivery system, purchased a new server to store files, including electronic Protected Health Information (“ePHI”), that incorporated a file sharing application. The default settings of the new server allowed anyone with an internet…
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September 26, 2016
On September 8, 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) finalized the Emergency Preparedness Rule (Final Rule”) for health care facilities. CMS has given significant attention to the Final Rule in light of the many major disasters that have occurred in the last ten years and…
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September 26, 2016
Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act of 20151 On April 27, 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to implement parts of the Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (“MACRA”). MACRA is part of an initiative…
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By: Brandon W. Shirley
on August 30, 2016
The Franciscan Alliance and Christian & Medical Dental Associations joined six states in a lawsuit filed against Health and Human Services (“HHS”) in a Texas federal court on August 23, 2016, challenging the regulations that the HHS’ Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) finalized this past May (“Final…
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