A recent Wall Street Journal article in their “The Future of Everything” commentary stream discusses the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to “tap the treasure trove of information locked in electronic health records to treat people in real time”. An interesting concept. Not all that long ago this would have been disparaged as “cookie-cutter medicine”. … Continue Reading
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued an interim final rule requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for workers in most institutional care settings. A copy of the CMS press release can be found at https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/biden-harris-administration-issues-emergency-regulation-requiring-covid-19-vaccination-health-care. This rule applies to those facilities subject to CMS regulations. Several facilities are regulated by the CMS, but this does … Continue Reading
The Pennsylvania Senate announced on October 26, 2021 that it has passed Senate Bill 705, and a copy of the Senate Press Release can be found at https://www.pasenategop.com/blog/senate-approves-telemedicine-bill/. A previous telemedicine bill was passed in Pennsylvania in July of 2018, when the Pennsylvania Senate approved Bill 780, which was discussed in my MedLaw Blog article … Continue Reading
Michael Cassidy has been included by his peers in the Health Care Law category in The Best Lawyers in America 2022. Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer review publication in the legal profession. Best Lawyers is widely regarded within the legal profession as a signal honor, confirmed upon lawyers by their peers.… Continue Reading
MLN Connects, on Monday August 16, 2021, published a special edition on COVID-19 vaccines codes and payment. It references the CMS explanation entitled “Medicare COVID-19 Vaccine Shot Payment”. I have also attached a PDF of both documents if you cannot access the links.… Continue Reading
Medical practices are now beginning to encounter Medicare payment claw backs by CMS for COVID Accelerated and Advanced Payments (CAAP) and Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecution for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) abuses. Please check the following links below for additional information. Justice Department Takes Action Against COVID-19 Fraud: Justice Department Takes Action Against COVID-19 Fraud … Continue Reading
Click here to read the article on the 2021 Medicare Physician Fee changes which appeared in the March 2021 edition of the Allegheny County Medical Society Bulletin. … Continue Reading
On December 10, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) collaborated on announcing proposed HIPAA changes, intended to “empower patients” and “improve coordination of care”. That’s encouraging, although one would have thought that to be unnecessary by now. HIPAA was enacted in 1996. It is a … Continue Reading
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has announced “Amendments to Charge for Medical Records”. Attached is the link for a copy of the notice.… Continue Reading
CY 2021 Physician Fee Schedule Update On December 27, 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act modified the Calendar Year (CY) 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS): Provided a 3.75% increase in MPFS payments for CY 2021 Suspended the 2% payment adjustment (sequestration) through March 31, 2021 Reinstated the 1.0 floor on the work Geographic Practice Cost … Continue Reading
Recent reports indicate that House and Senate Committee leaders have apparently mutually agreed on a bipartisan arrangement for correcting or preventing surprise medical bills, although legislation has not yet been passed. Attached is an outline of the “No Surprise Act”, which essentially deals with insured patients receiving unexpected bills for medical services. Note that this … Continue Reading
EHR Safe Harbor Permanent The existing electronic health records items and services Safe Harbor in 42 CFR Section 1001.952(y) was amended by deleting the sunset provision, thereby making the protection permanent. Cybersecurity Technology and Services A new Safe Harbor for cybersecurity and technology services is added in 42 CFR Section 1001.952(jj) to facilitate improved cybersecurity. … Continue Reading
On December 2, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will jointly publish the final regulations first proposed on October 17, 2019: 1. AKS Safe Harbors: https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2020-26072.pdf 2. Stark Exceptions: https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2020-26140.pdf The regulations will become effective January 19, … Continue Reading
The Center for Telehealth and e-Health Law (CTeL) is presenting its virtual 2020 Fall Summit on December 1st through December 4th. Mike Cassidy will participate in the Keynote Panel addressing the telehealth issues presented in the OIG’s September 2020 National Health Care Fraud and Opioid Takedown. … Continue Reading
Michael Cassidy has been included by his peers in the Health Care Law category in The Best Lawyers in America 2021. Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer review publication in the legal profession, and has been compiling a list of best lawyers for 27 years. Best Lawyers is widely regarded within the … Continue Reading
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the new hospital outpatient and ambulatory surgical center fee schedule for 2021 on August 12, 2020 at this this link: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/08/12/2020-17086/medicare-program-hospital-outpatient-prospective-payment-and-ambulatory-surgical-center-payment As part of the proposed revisions, CMS intends to transfer over 1,500 procedures from the “inpatient only” category, including 266 musculo-skeletal procedures as of 2021, the … Continue Reading
Mike Cassidy’s article, “Return to practice under the COVID threat” appears in the Bulletin of the Allegheny County Medical Society June edition.… Continue Reading
On June 23, 2020, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia denied the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) summary judgment motion claiming the Trump Administration had exceeded its authority and violated the First Amendment when it issued a new rule requiring greater price transparency. The Opinion is attached in the link below. It … Continue Reading
This is a link to the update of the OIG Work Plan that you will see it includes several new entries regarding COVID issues at nursing homes: Meeting the challenges presented by COVID Audit of nursing homes reporting of COVID-19 information Nursing home oversight during COVID-19.… Continue Reading
Yesterday (May 13, 2020), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a 74-page “toolkit” to help nursing homes mitigate COVID-19 in their facilities. A copy of the CMS publication can be found here: https://www.cms.gov/files/document/covid-toolkit-states-mitigate-covid-19-nursing-homes.pdf The toolkit provides resources dedicated to addressing the very specific challenges facing nursing homes during this crisis. It is … Continue Reading
Michael Cassidy has been included by his peers in the Health Care Law category in The Best Lawyers in America 2021. Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer review publication in the legal profession, and has been compiling a list of best lawyers for 27 years. Best Lawyers is widely regarded within the … Continue Reading
