On June 30, 2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) posted at the Office of Federal Register its Proposed 2009 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule rule. The rule is scheduled to be published in the July…
The Questions and Answers below apply to the recent decision by the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services to hold for up to 10 business days claims paid under the Medicare physician fee schedule (MPFS) that contain July 2008 dates of service.
Q1. Will claims containing services paid under the MPFS be held that …
In continuing coverage from previous editions of Health and Life Sciences Law Daily, the New York Times (6/27, Pear) reports that physicians now "face a 10 percent cut in Medicare payments next week, following the Senate’s failure on Thursday to take up legislation that would have…
The Medicare rules for the physician fee schedule (RB-RVS) would have mandated a 10% reduction for 2008 pursuant to the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula. Congress postponed that for the first 6 months of 2008, but he 2nd 6 months is looming. Without actionmt he postmenement ends and the automatic 10.1% reduction kicks in automatically. The House has approved another reprieve. Quick Senate action is expected. Excerpts form the WSJ report follow.
Expect the current elected officials to enact the reprieve for the next 6 months and pass this problem on to the new administration.Continue Reading House Approves Medicare Physician Fee Freeze for 2008
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS LAW ALERT
June 25, 2008
EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY – NEW LAW PROVIDES NEW EMPLOYEE BENEFIT
PLAN RIGHTS TO MEMBERS OF THE MILITARY AND THEIR SURVIVORS
Effective immediately, a new federal law, called the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act of 2008 (HEART Act), requires action to be taken by sponsors of qualified retirement…
Introduction
A properly designed retirement program can increase a physician’s retirement plan benefit by more than $80,000 while decreasing the practice’s contribution to the non-physician and even non-owner physician employees by $20,000. If this $100,000 plus difference catches your attention, read the rest of the article! Our examples illustrate how similarly situated physicians can have dramatically different…
A recent blogger (RB) posted a comment that it would be helpful if the MedLaw Blog (MLB) included the full descriptions of all the acronyms used in the posts. Therefore (TF), I am including a link to the Department of Health and Human Services Health Law Acronyms Webpage (DHHSHLAW).
Michael A. Cassidy (MAC).
Collection Notices Must Interpreted From The Point Of View Of The “Least Sophisticated Debtor”
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania has reinforced that collection notices must be interpreted from the point of view of the “least sophisticated debtor.”
Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692 (FDPCA), the…
The Supreme Court of Kansas ruled on May 16, 2008 affirmed in the case of Kansas Heart Hospital, LLC and Cardiac Health of Wichita vs. Badr Idbeis, M.D. and 13 other shareholder defendants, that the Kansas Heart Hospital, LLC and Cardiac Health of Wichita were justified in forcing a mandatory redemption of the other …
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee concluded that a hospital’s affirmative defenses pursuant to the Healthcare Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA) were not sufficient to independently establish federal jurisdiction, and therefore approved a physician’s motion to remand the state court case that had been removed to federal court by the hospital defendant.…
