Lee Kim, Tucker Arensberg attorney and Chair of the mHIMSS Legal/Policy Taskforce, will be a panelist at the American Conference Institute’s Legal and Business Guide to mHealth and Wireless Medical Technology in Washington, D.C. on April 30, 2013. Her panel will cover securing mobile devices, networks, data in the “cloud” and cybercrime.

The OIG has issued a Special Fraud Alert, dated March 26, 2013, describing specific attributes and practices of Physician Owned Distributorships (PODs) believed to produce substantial fraud and abuse risk and pose dangers to patient safety.

PODs are physician owned entities that derive revenue from selling or arranging for the sale of implantable medical…

The Society of General Internal Medicine convened the National Commission on Payment Reform to formulate a recommendation for healthcare payment reform. This Commission released its Report in March 2013. Although we have attached the report, here are the 12 fundamental recommendations.

1.         Over time, payers should largely eliminate stand-alone fee-for-service payment to medical practices because of …

Contributed by Lee Kim, Esq.

412.594.3915

The White House released two documents on February 12th related to critical infrastructure protection and cybersecurity: the Presidential Policy Directive #21 on Critical Infrastructure and Resilience (PPD-21) which replaces the Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD-7) which previously served as the policy basis for the national critical infrastructure protection…

Contributed by Lee Kim, Esq.

412.594.3915

All commercial website and online service providers need to comply with the requirements of the California Online Privacy Protection Act.  California recently issued guidance on how mobile application developers and others can comply with those requirements at the design stage in its guide entitled, "Privacy On the Go…

n November, 2012, the American Medical Association adopted new guiding principles for physicians entering into employment and contractual arrangements. According to one AMA Board Member, “The Principles for Physician Employment provide a broad framework to help guide physicians and their employers as they collaborate to provide safe, high quality, and cost-effective patient care.”…
Continue Reading AMA Adopts Principles for Physician Employment

The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 includes the Physician Update Fix, which essentially provides a 0% Medicare change for 2013. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is currently revising the 2013 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) to reflect the new law’s requirements as well as technical corrections identified since publication of the final…

The Pennsylvania Department of Health has issued its medical records fees for 2013.  The announcement is attached; it provides as follows:

                                                           

                                                                                               Not to Exceed

 

Amount charged per page for pages 1-20                                  $  1.42

 

Amount charged per page for pages 21-60                                $  1.05

 

Amount charged per …

The OIG recently issued an interesting advisory opinion related to a hospital based hospice agency’s intent to establish a volunteer program to provide non-skilled services to terminally ill patients who do not qualify for hospice care. Read the full text of the OIG opinion here: https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/docs/advisoryopinions/2012/AdvOpn12-17.pdf…
Continue Reading OIG Advisory Opinion No. 12-17

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Tucker Arensberg’s Healthcare Practice Group includes some of the most experienced health law attorneys in the region. We handle the legal problems so our clients can handle the important work of caring for patients. We work with physicians, physical therapists, dentists, optometrists, and all other professional care givers to help them avoid the many legal traps of running a practice. Tucker Arensberg lawyers have experience in all major health law issues.