Contributed by Paul J. Welk
pwelk@tuckerlaw.com, 412.594.5536
On December 7, the House of Representatives passed S. 3987, the Red Flag Program Clarification Act of 2010. The Red Flags Rule requires financial institutions and creditors to develop and implement a written identity theft program. This legislation would exempt physical therapists and other health care providers from the…
Frengell v. InterCare Community Health Network demonstrates the counterintuitive nature of certain peer review actions.
Dr. Frengell’s employment was terminated following the inappropriate prescription of narcotics. InterCare reported Dr. Frengell to the National Practitioners’ Data Bank, although the report was not required and the court concluded, and InterCare admitted, that it had not provided any…
Pres. Obama signed the Physician Payment and Therapy relief Act of 2010. This act extends the temporary 2.2 % medicare Physician Fee Schedule increase, which replaced the projected 23% SGR decrease for 2010, but only for one more month.
On November 30, 2010 the U.S. Senate passed the Red Flag Program Act of 2010 (Senate Bill 3987 available at http://thomas.loc.gov/) which seeks to exempt certain health care providers from the Red Flags Rule. The bill will next be considered by the House. Please check back for future updates on this legislation.
On November 15, 2010, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Health and Human Services jointly issued an amendment to the interim final rules relating to status as a grandfathered plan under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. With the amendment, insured group health plans are now able to…
MGMA has reported that the House has approved the Senate bill delaying the 23% SGR Medicare decrease to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for one month. If signed by President Obama, this will apply only to the month of December, and will not address the mandatory SGR cuts for next year which, without further action, will be…
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Senate Acts to Avert Medicare Physician Fee Cut On November 18, 2010, the Senate approved a bill that would postpone the scheduled 23% Medicare physician payment cut scheduled to take effect on December 1, 2010, for one month. If approved by the House of Representatives and signed into law |
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In Pierson v. Orlando Health, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida granted a motion for summary judgment for the hospital on the basis that the hospital was immune from any liability from damages under the immunity provisions of the Health Care Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA).
Dr. Pierson had argued that…
On November 16, 2010, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the establishment of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMI), under the Patent Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The acting director of the Center is Richard Gilfillan, M.D., the former president and CEO of Geisinger Health Plan and executive vice president…
In OIG Advisory Opinion No. 10-24, a sleep testing entity with no physician ownership proposes to provide sleep disorder diagnostic testing and related services to a hospital as “under arrangements” contract, in which the hospital would bill for the services as a hospital outpatient service. The Requester would provide the sleep testing equipment, the sleep…
