On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 (the “Act”) into law. As is evident, barring any legal challenges that require a reconfiguration of the law, the Act will have a profound effect upon the business of medicine. By January…
The DEA recently published its Final Interim Rule regarding Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances. This Rule comes almost two years after the DEA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to revise its regulations to allow the creation, signature, transmission, and processing of controlled substance prescriptions electronically (73 FR 36722). The…
As Medicare providers and suppliers are acutely aware, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) has determined that the use of Recovery Audit Contractors (“RACs”) is a “cost-effective” way to identify and correct improper payments, in part as a result of the contingency-fee-based structure of using these auditors. Primarily…
HLP reported earlier this week that the failure of OCR to issue HIPAA regulations regarding the implementation of the HITECH Act was likely to lead to a delay in enforcement of the relevant provisions, though no official delay had been announced. In an update on its website on Wednesday, OCR…
While the HITECH Act technically went into effect last month, on February 17, 2010, HHS’s Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) has yet to issue guidance and regulations about the implementation of new privacy and security requirements contained in the HITECH Act. Because of this failure, OCR has been hinting that…
HHS announced that it would “provide approximately $162 million to 16 states and qualified designated entities (SDEs) to facilitate non-proprietary health information exchange that adheres to national standards.” Those states receiving part of that $162 million are Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, South Carolina, Iowa, Idaho, North Dakota, Alaska, Nebraska, South…
As an update to our March 3 post, the US Senate has passed H.R. 4213 – The American Workers, State, and Business Relief Act –, which if passed by the House of Representatives and signed into law, would extend the freeze to the Sustainable Growth Rate through September 30, 2010.…
The Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor (“RAC”) program has a strong supporter in President Obama. On March 10, 2010, Obama signed a White House Memorandum, which states his support of the use of “high-tech bounty hunters,” such as RACs and Medicaid Integrity Contractors (“MICs”), to help root out health care fraud…
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (“ONC”), an office of the Department of Health and Human Services, released a proposed rule creating a program to certify electronic health records (“EHR”) systems. The rule creates both a temporary and a permanent certification system, designed to assure users…
Recent Medicare regulations regarding ownership changes for HHAs have been the source of controversy and confusion. After numerous attempts by HLP founding partner Robert Iwrey, Esq. to obtain clarification regarding enforcement of these regs, Rob was pleased to receive an email this morning from Frank Whelan, a CMS adminstrator with…