On September 24, 2020, President Trump issued an Executive Order encouraging Congress to restrict surprise billing and prevent third party payors from denying care to patients with pre-existing conditions. President Trump wants Congress to act prior to the end of the year, but obviously there is not much chance of that happening.
Orthopedic Practice Pays $1.5 Million for HIPAA Damages
Most medical practices view HIPAA compliance as maintaining appropriate documentation regarding patient notices and consents, and controlling access to the PHI within the office; that’s PRIVACY. Practices tend to forget the technology/security side of HIPAA, which requires maintaining, or reasonably attempting to maintain, secure EHR/IT systems; that’s SECURITY.
Athens Orthopedic Clinic PA agreed to pay
AHLA and Health IT News Report Enormous Telehealth Hacking Increases
The American Health Law Association and Health IT News recently published reports indicating enormous increases in telehealth hacking attacks.
Sam Kassoumeh, COO of Health IT News and Co-Founder of SecurityScorecard, stated:
“The rapid pace at which telehealth applications were ruled out during the pandemic made them attractive targets for cyber criminals . . . Our
Mike Cassidy Included Again in The Best Lawyers in America 2021
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
Proposed 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Changes
Attached is a link to the fact sheet for “proposed policy, payment, and quality provisions changes to Medicare physician fee schedule for calendar year 2021”.
Among other things, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposes to:
- Significantly decrease the Medicare Work Relative Value Unit (WRVU) conversion factor from $36.09 to $32.26
- Significantly revise the
CMS 2021 Fee Schedule Expands ASC Procedures
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
Return to practice under the COVID threat
Mike Cassidy’s article, “Return to practice under the COVID threat” appears in the Bulletin of the Allegheny County Medical Society June edition.
Federal Court Rejects American Hospital Association Challenge to Trump Price Transparency Rule
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
OIG Work Plan: Nursing Homes and COVID
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.
Will COVID Finally Bring Telehealth Professional Licensing into the 21st Century?
The COVID pandemic has illuminated the need to modernize professional licensing. Although professional licensing has always been a necessary vigilance with licensing has always been appropriate, and never more so than as highlighted by the opioid epidemic and telemedicine fraud schemes when physicians could issue prescriptions and orders for services over the internet for patients