The Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative has issued a press release and report describing its 10 years of efforts in reforming health care, commenting on the Obama Health Care Reform Initiatives, and describing the Federal Economic Stimulus Bill for health care technology improvements, plus other reports. All the reports are attached as links below and make…

The Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services has issued Advisory Opinion No. 09-05, which states that the OIG will not impose sanctions regarding a proposed on call arrangement in which the hospital will compensate physicians for providing on call coverage for patients presenting to the hospital or emergency department. The…

In Hussein vs. Duncan Regional Hospital, United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma denied immunity under the Health Care Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA) to Duncan Regional Hospital because it terminated a physician’s privileges and reported him to the National Practitioners Data Bank (NPDB) without providing notice or an opportunity to be…

 
Washington, D.C.  May 20, 2009.   Today President Barack Obama signed the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009.   The Act significantly expands protections for whistleblowers who expose fraud in federal contracting.

This new law fixes problems in the False Claims Act, extends whistleblower protections to those who work for contractors and provides new

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A federal judge has conditionally certified a class of potentially 85,000 current and former employees of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in a Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit challenging UPMC’s meal break policy. Conditional certification means that plaintiffs will be able to notify all current and former non-exempt employees from the past three years…

The Department of Labor recently issued new amendments to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).   Those amendments have added  to the notice requirements under the act, creating both a paperwork chore for businesses and a potential legal trap if  the required notices are not provided.  This Alert summarizes the new notice requirements.  

General Notice 

The General Notice must be…

Highmark Medicare Services will be hosting a teleconference on May 15, 2009 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern to discuss the billing of time units for physical and occupational therapy services. The teleconference may reference issues such as CMS Online Manual, Pub. 100-2, Chapter 15, Sections 220 and 230; Change Request CR6321; Frequently Asked Questions…

Most participants in the credentialing process are familiar with state statutes providing peer review immunity and confidentiality. The Tennessee statute analyzed in Smith v. Pratt and HCA Health Services of Tennessee, Inc. /d/b/a CentennialMedicalCenter take that immunity one step further. 

In this malpractice case, the court held that Tennessee Code § 63-6-219 provides immunity…

In Chudacoff vs. UniversityMedicalCenter of Southern Nevada, et al., the United States District Court for the District of Nevada granted partial summary judgment on behalf of Richard M. Chudacoff, M.D., enjoining University Medical Center from reporting Dr. Chudacoff to the National Practitioner Data Bank, and granted summary judgment on Dr. Chudacoff’s…

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