CMS issued the Final Rule for the 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) on November 2, 2023, for payments to be effective on or after January 1, 2024. Fee Schedule Link The overall payment rates under the PFS will be reduced by 1.25% in calendar year 2024. The final PFS conversion factor will be $32.74, … Continue Reading
As reported earlier in the MedLaw Blog (August 9, 2023), a federal District Court vacated portions of the No Surprises Act federal regulations. Thereafter, CMS halted the arbitration process for resolving disputes regarding out-of-network surprise bills. On October 20, 2023, HHS, Treasury, and the US Office Personnel Management submitted a notice indicating their attempt to … Continue Reading
Michael A. Cassidy and Adam J. Appleberry co-wrote an article titled “Contracting Essentials for All Physicians, Especially Residents and Fellows”. This article will appear in the Legal Summary section of the August 2023 Allegheny County Medical Society (ACMS) Bulletin. The ACMS Bulletin is the Allegheny County Medical Society’s signature publication which reaches over 2,000 physicians in Southwestern Pennsylvania … Continue Reading
Michael Cassidy has been recognized again in the 30th edition of the Best Lawyers in America for his “exceptional work in healthcare law”. … Continue Reading
CMS has halted the arbitration process for “Surprise Billing” established by the “No Surprises Act” for the second time, stating as follows: UNPLANNED OUTAGE “On August 3, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a judgment and order in Texas Medical Association, et al. v. United States Department of Health … Continue Reading
The 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposes a 3.34% decrease in the 2024 PFS conversion factor. It’s currently $33.89 and is proposed to be reduced to $32.75. CMS is also proposing the following: Attached is the Fact Sheet released by CMS on July 13, 2023.… Continue Reading
Since the private equity issue was last addressed in the Bulletin in the Summer of 2022, the volume of healthcare private equity deals has subsided somewhat, according to statistics presented at the March 2023 Pennsylvania Bar Institute Health Law Conference, and that has generally been attributed to unfavorable market conditions affecting investments of all types. … Continue Reading
On February 24, 2023, the DEA announced “Proposed Permanent Rules” for the prescribing of controlled medications on a telemedicine or telehealth basis. Attached are: A summary will follow later this week.… Continue Reading
On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took a dramatic step by proposing a new rule that would prohibit companies from entering into non-compete agreements with its workers. The proposed rule, if approved, takes sweeping action to prohibit employers from entering into non-compete agreements with both employees and independent contractors. And the proposed … Continue Reading
The final “2023 Omnibus Bill” which is the spending bill passed by Congress and signed by President Biden at the end of 2022, provides partial relief from the scheduled Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Conversion Factor cuts. As previously reported, the changes to the Medicare Physician Schedule Conversion Factor would have reduced physician reimbursement by 4.5%. … Continue Reading
Both the federal government and the Pennsylvania state government are taking steps to reform the prior authorization process. Take a look at the Pennsylvania Insurance Department press release that was issued November 3, 2022, touting the passage and signing of Pennsylvania Act 146, which is described as creating a new and more effective process for prior authorization … Continue Reading
The US Office of Inspector General (OIG) released another in a series of Special Fraud Alerts on July 20, 2022, this one directed to potentially fraudulent telehealth, telemedicine, and telemarketing service fraud schemes, collectively referred to as “Telemedicine Companies”. The alert is based upon OIG’s perception that these Telemedicine Companies are engaged in schemes to … Continue Reading
On July 7, 2022, CMS released its proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for 2023, which proposes physician fee schedule reductions via the Medicare Conversion Factor. The general Medicare conversion factor will be reduced by 4.4% from $34,61 to $33.08 The anesthesia conversion factor will be reduced 3.9% from $21.56 to $20.72 The link is attached … Continue Reading
Mike Cassidy recently wrote an article entitled, “Private Equity Deals Offer Both Potential Significant Return and Significant Challenges” in the Legal Summary section of the July 2022 Allegheny County Medical Society (ACMS) Bulletin. The ACMS Bulletin is the Allegheny County Medical Society’s signature publication which reaches over 2,000 physicians in Southwestern Pennsylvania each month. Click here to … Continue Reading
Jeremy Farrell and Rebecca Moran recently wrote an article entitled, “Pregnancy-Related Protections for New Physicians” in the Legal Summary section of the June 2022 Allegheny County Medical Society (ACMS) Bulletin. The ACMS Bulletin is the Allegheny County Medical Society’s signature publication which reaches over 2,000 physicians in Southwestern Pennsylvania each month. Click here to read the article … Continue Reading
The Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA), was passed as part of the consolidated Budget Act for 2022, which also included the telehealth provisions I posted about last week. The definition of “covered entity” in the Act is far greater than covered entity as defined by HIPAA. Covered entity as per CIRCIA includes … Continue Reading
HHS sent notices to noncompliant physicians and facilities on March 10, 2022 giving them 30 days to return funds paid to healthcare providers who have not complied with the agency’s reporting requirements. Attach is the PDF from HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration), which is the agency responsible for dispensing and collecting the grant money. … Continue Reading
The President and Congress extended Medicare telehealth coverage in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which also included additional Ukrainian relief. On Tuesday, March 15, 2022, President Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 (“2022 CAA”). This new law includes several provisions that extend the Medicare telehealth waivers and flexibilities, implemented as a result of COVID-19 to … Continue Reading
Highmark Health issued a Press Release on February 7, 2022 announcing that it’s Financial Investigations and Provider Review (FIPR) department generated more than $245 million in savings related to fraud waste and abuse in 2021, the majority of which was in Pennsylvania–$184 million. Click here to see to what the Highmark FIPR Department has identified … Continue Reading
There has been much discussion and controversy over the new CMS position on billing for split/shared services in facility settings. As originally proposed, and starting in January 2022, if the service was shared among providers (such as physicians and physician assistants), the provider who performed the substantive portion of the visit would be the provider … Continue Reading
There is almost universal agreement regarding predictions for 2022 federal enforcement in the following areas: The use of fraudulently obtained COVID relief funds in both healthcare and in general, but specifically as a foundation for False Claims Act enforcement. Furthermore, the reinstatement of the Yates memo of 2015 by the Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco’s … Continue Reading
