Contributed by Lee Kim, Esq.
412.594.3915
Representatives from the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) and the Utah Department of Technology Services (DTS) announced details of a data breach by hackers involving 24,000 Medicaid claims. Information which may have been compromised included names, addresses, social security numbers, birth dates, and procedure codes according to the…
Contributed by: Lee Kim, Esq.
412.594.3915
In a unanimous decision, the US Supreme Court held that the claims in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. (Docket No. 10-1150) effectively claim a law of nature and are therefore not patent eligible under 35 U.S.C. 101. The claims in the Mayo decision were directed to a process…
Contributed by: Lee Kim, Esq.
412.594.3915
Previously, we commented on the ONC Mobile Devices Roundtable on March 16, 2012. Now, the video and other materials are available online. These materials may be accessed via the following link: http://healthit.hhs.gov/portal/server.pt/community/healthit_hhs_gov__mobile_devices_roundtable/3815?q=mobiledevicesroundtable#archive. (ONC has a Youtube video channel. This link leads to that for the video content.)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: QUESTIONABLE BILLING FOR MEDICARE INDEPENDENT DIAGNOSTIC TESTING FACILITY SERVICES
OEI-09-09-00380
WHY WE DID THIS STUDY
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facilities (IDTF), a type of Medicare provider, offer diagnostic services and are independent of physicians’ offices or hospitals. IDTF services have historically been vulnerable to abuse. In 1997, the Office of Inspector General found that…
Contributed by: Lee Kim, Esq.
412.594.3915
The ONC Health IT Mobile Devices roundtable is being aired today, on March 16, 2012, by way of live video webcast at http://www.hhs.gov/live.
Here are my thoughts upon hearing the content (which is certainly instructive and helpful) (and this was submitted to ONC Health IT for public comment):
1.
Contributed by: Lee Kim, Esq.
412.594.3915
The HITECH Breach Notification Rule requires covered entities to report an impermissible use or disclosure of protected health information, or a “breach,” of 500 individuals or more to HHS and the media. Smaller breaches affecting less than 500 individuals must be reported to the secretary on an annual basis. …
The Commonwealth Fund published a recent report ranking 306 communities on 43 measures of health system performance. The title of the report is “Improving Health Care from the Ground Up” and can be accessed at www.commonwealthfund.org.
I have attached the ranking of the Pittsburgh community and was somewhat surprised to see it ranking in the…
In Edwards v. Geisinger Clinic the Third Circuit held that a health clinic’s statement to a physician and to immigration officials regarding a physician’s “at least three year” employment did not create an employment contract.
A physician took a job with a health clinic with the understanding that he must work at the clinic for…
The Healthcare Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) and the Office of Inspector General have posted a Toolkit consisting of a series of podcast training videos on the following subjects:
· How to Use the Exclusions Database
· How to Report Fraud to the OIG
· OIG’s Self-Disclosure Protocol
· …
A Federal Court denied prevailing party attorneys’ fees to a hospital in a Health Care Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA) proceeding and allowed the hospital to design its own due process in Fox v. Good Samaritan Hospital.
The denial of the attorneys’ fees is basically based upon laches and estoppel theory, because the hospital waited…
