On December 10, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) collaborated on announcing proposed HIPAA changes, intended to “empower patients” and “improve coordination of care”.

That’s encouraging, although one would have thought that to be unnecessary by now.  HIPAA was enacted in 1996.  It is a…

CY 2021 Physician Fee Schedule Update

On December 27, 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act modified the Calendar Year (CY) 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS):

  • Provided a 3.75% increase in MPFS payments for CY 2021
  • Suspended the 2% payment adjustment (sequestration) through March 31, 2021
  • Reinstated the 1.0 floor on the work Geographic Practice Cost

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Recent reports indicate that House and Senate Committee leaders have apparently mutually agreed on a bipartisan arrangement for correcting or preventing surprise medical bills, although legislation has not yet been passed.

Attached is an outline of the “No Surprise Act”, which essentially deals with insured patients receiving unexpected bills for medical services.

Note…

EHR Safe Harbor Permanent

The existing electronic health records items and services Safe Harbor in 42 CFR Section 1001.952(y) was amended by deleting the sunset provision, thereby making the protection permanent.

Cybersecurity Technology and Services

A new Safe Harbor for cybersecurity and technology services is added in 42 CFR Section 1001.952(jj) to facilitate improved cybersecurity. …

On December 2, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will jointly publish the final regulations first proposed on October 17, 2019:

1.     AKS Safe Harbors: https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2020-26072.pdf
2.     Stark Exceptions:  https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2020-26140.pdf

The regulations will become effective January 19,…

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