It was the night before Christmas and all through the west, not a physician was conspiring, not even the next. . .  On December 24, 2008, the FTC announced settlement of price fixing cases against AllCare IPA, a 500 physician multi-specialty IPA organized as Independent Practice Associates Medical Group, Inc. in Modesto, California

A New Jersey Court has awarded $400,000 to a deaf patient who claimed her doctor discriminated against her by refusing to provide an interpreter. Irma Gerena sued Robert Fogari, a Jersey City rheumatologist, under the Federal Americans With Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act, claiming violations for refusing to provide to interpreter. This is not a new issue. The

There has been some consternation whether the FTC Red Flag rules applied to medical practices as creditors. Organized medicine has been seeking clarification. which has not been forthcoming. Fortunately, this 6 month delay should allow somtime to review this issue.

FTC Will Grant Six-Month Delay of Enforcement of ‘Red Flags’ Rule Requiring Creditors and Financial Institutions

Once enrolled in the Medicare Program, physicians, other non-physician individual practitioners and physicians group practices are required to notify CMS of changes in their practice structures. These requirements are sometimes referred to as change in ownership (CHOW) rules. Physicians and other individuals are required to report the following on form CMS-855-I:

 

1.         Change of business

On August 22, 2008 the Department of Health and Human Services published a Proposed Rule that would modify two of the medical data code set standards adopted in the Transactions and Code Sets final rule.  The Proposed Rule would modify the standard code sets for coding diagnoses and inpatient hospital procedures by concurrently adopting

Congress Overrides Medicare Veto

The House voted 383 to 41 to override the veto, while the Senate voted 70 to 26, in both cases far more than the two-thirds necessary to block the president’s action.

With organized medicine and other lobbies promoting the popular measure in an election year, Republicans broke heavily from the White