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Physician Law Blog

We provide insights and analysis for physicians, nurses, chiropractors, dentists, physical therapists and other health professionals on issues impacting their practices.

Physician Law Blog
May 5, 2014

Affordable Care Act Update

The Department of Labor issued new FAQs about the Affordable Care Act, including updated model COBRA notices. Please see the following link: http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq-aca19.html.

Physician Law Blog
April 24, 2014

Another False Claims Act Settlement for HEAT - Amedisys Inc. agrees to pay $150M

The Department of Justice announced a False Claims Act settlement where Amedisys agreed to pay $150 million and will be bound by a Corporate Integrity Agreement as a result of alleged improper financial relationships and false billing. The settlement resolves seven qui tam (whistleblower) lawsuits brought primarily from former Amedisys employees. The whistleblowers will collectively split over $26 million from the settlement. Among the claims alleged were that Amedisys billed Medicare for services to ineligible patients by misrepresenting patients’ conditions to increase its Medicare billings as well as maintaining improper relationships with referring physicians. This settlement is an achievement for HEAT, the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team initiative announced in 2009, which continues to combat health care fraud having recovered more than $19.2 billion through False Claims Act cases, with more than $13.6 billion recovered in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs.

Physician Law Blog
March 9, 2014

Another HIPAA Breach -  Encryption Matters

The Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights, the division responsible for investigating HIPAA breaches, has said repeatedly encryption is one of the most basic things providers and business associates can implement to protect patient information. "Pay attention to encryption," said Susan McAndrew, deputy director for health information privacy at OCR, speaking at HIMSS14 this past month, particularly for any devices that can leave the office. "We're interested in protecting the data. You may be interested in protecting the property. We want to turn this into property losses as opposed to data losses."

Physician Law Blog
February 26, 2014

HIPAA Audits – Not a Question of if, but When

Susan McAndrew, Office of Civil Rights deputy director for health information privacy spoke at the HIMSS Conference on 2/24/14. As the OCR already made known, it plans to resume its HIPAA compliance audit program this year following the Pilot HIPAA Audit program in 2012. Now, more information is available on the progress towards the start of those audits. Ms. McAndrew addressed the topic, noting that “hopefully in the coming months you’ll see actual activity that will start the audit process.”