Long Term Care & Senior Living Blog

The Justice Department announced that St. James Healthcare, a hospital in Butte, Montana, and its parent, Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System, based in Denver, CO, agreed to resolve allegations of violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute, the Stark Law and the False Claims Act by improperly providing financial benefits to physicians and physician groups that made referrals to the hospital.

In an era where long-term care facilities are increasingly implementing the use of electronic medical records, facilities need to be aware of the issues that might come into play during litigation.

Last December Missouri House Representative Bill White introduced HB 100, titled the Adult Health Care Consent Act. This bill attempts to specify the order of priority of persons entitled to make health care decisions for an individual who has been certified as physically and cognitively unable to consent to his or her own health care.

The State of Illinois has very specific requirements that apply to disclosure of employee personnel records. The requirements are codified in the Illinois Compiled Statutes as the Personnel Record Review Act, 820 ILCS 40/1 et seq. The Act addresses an entity’s response to requests for records from health care and other regulatory agencies, as well as an entity’s response to requests from its own employees and former employees.

Both Chambers of the Illinois legislature recently passed Senate Bill 1912 (Raoul, D-Chicago; Sims, D-Chicago) and transmitted the proposed law to the Governor, who has 60 days to take action. The proposed law would create strict requirements and harsh penalties for the failure of a settling party to timely effectuate settlement payment. The Bill would amend the Code of Civil Procedure and create new requirements for settlements in civil cases seeking money damages for personal injury, wrongful death, or any other civil remedy.