Medicare Regulations allows CRNA’s to administer anesthesia without physician supervision if the state governor opts out of the regular physician supervision requirement.

Governor Ritter of Colorado opted out in 2010, and his action was challenged by the Colorado Medical Society and the Colorado Society of Anesthesiologists.  That challenge was dismissed by Colorado trial courts, which…

The Federal District Court of the Western District of Texas has ruled against the Texas Medical Board and granted TelaDoc’s Motion for a Preliminary Injunction prohibiting the Texas Medical Board from enforcing new rules requiring either a face-to-face or an existing physician patient relationship in order to prescribe medication.

The Court rejected the Texas Medical…

On June 9, 2015, the OIG issued a Fraud Alert entitled “Fraud Alert: Physician Compensation Arrangements May Result in Significant Liability”.  This is just a one page letter warning hospitals and physicians by stating the OIG recently reached settlements with 12 individual physicians who entered into questionable medical directorship and office staff arrangements;…

Cooper v. Pottstown Hospital is another case where a dissatisfied party is attempting to use the federal Anti-Kickback Statute or the Stark Law in litigation arising out of the contracts to which they were willing parties at one time.  Usually, breaching parties have used this argument as a defense, claiming that the contracts were illegal,…

House Bill 706 has been introduced in the Pennsylvania House.  This is a “parity” bill which does the following:

It defines telehealth in such as way as to neither mandate nor prohibit asynchronous or synchronous telehealth technology.  It simply defines telehealth as the remote interaction of the healthcare provider with a patient through the use…

The Texas Medical Board recently adopted a new rule requiring face to face encounters by physicians with patients before prescribing medication.  Teladoc has sued the Texas Medical Board in Federal Court alleging restraint of trade, stating that the new Texas rule “would raise prices and reduce access” to telehealth services.  The Complaint alleges the same…

The ruling by Judge Ward of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas highlights another facet of the ongoing dispute between UPMC and Highmark.

On February 18, 2015, Judge Ward of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas ruled that the arbitration agreements contained in the various agreements between Highmark and UPMC hospitals, most of…

All states have some degree of confidentiality protection for peer review activities and the information generated by those activities, and there is additional federal protection for information gathered and created by Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs), established pursuant to the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act (PSQIA) of 2005.

However, physicians, hospitals, and medical staffs should…

Med Law Blog Editor

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