Contributed by Albert Lee & Katherine Koop

alee@tuckerlaw.com, kkoop@tuckerlaw.com

Graduating from medical school, joining a practice and staying until retirement rarely happens these days. (Although nationwide physician turnover rates have been on the decline, from 6.7% in 2006 to 6.1% in 2008, some estimate that 40% of newly practicing physicians leave their initial practice

Medicare Explains Timely Filing Requirements for Medicare Fee-For-Service Claims

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which amended the time period for filing Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) claims as one of many provisions aimed at curbing fraud, waste, and abuse in the Medicare program.   

Contributed by Lee Kim, Esquire

lkim@tuckerlaw.com, 412.594.3915

The mention of the HIPAA security rules often provokes an irrational fear in people who are not so technically inclined, but there is a difference between knowing the legal compliance requirements and being an information technology specialist. Here is a simple summary of your security obligations and

Cases with opposing interpretations on this issue were decided within the past month. Heretofore, the basic question had been whether medical staff bylaws constituted contracts under state law. The majority of courts deciding these cases have concluded that medical staff bylaws were valid contracts. In the states with the opposite holdings, the basic theory was that bylaws merely

Information Regarding the Holding of April Claims for Services Paid Under the

2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (3-26-2010)

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is working with Congress, health care providers, and the beneficiary community to avoid disruption in the delivery of health care services and payment of claims for physicians, non-physician

Senate failure to pass 30-day extension causes 21.3 percent cut to Medicare physician payments on April 1.

The Senate has adjourned for 2 weeks without postponing the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) Medicare Physician Fee Schedule reduction. For the past several months, since the problem arose 1/1/10, carriers have responded by advising physicians to

On Tort Reform and the Health-Care Bill: Where’d We End Up?

We’ve long thought that the health-care bill teed up two fairly compelling legal issues. The first we’ve spilled many many pixels on in the last couple of days: Whether the bill (now a law) is constitutional.

The second we’ve paid a bit less