Passed in the House and Senate and awaiting signature by the President, the Red Flag Program Clarification Act of 2010 limits the definition of “creditor” to include only those that use consumer reports, furnish information to consumer reporting agencies or advance funds to a person. Importantly, the definition does not…
Identical bills passed by both House and Senate. Building upon the fifth 1-month extension patch this year that delayed a steep 23% Medicare provider pay cut, the U.S. House and Representatives (by a vote of 409-2) and the U.S. Senate (unanimously) both passed another pay cut delay. This delay will…
$2.5 billion in settlements in crackdown against fraud. The federal government has announced the largest settlement amounts in the history of the False Claims Act for fiscal 2010. The $2.5 billion amount received from healthcare False Claims Act cases remarkably does not include hundreds of millions of dollars that the…
From the medicine cabinet to the street. 33 people have been charged so far as Buffalo, NY investigators devote increasingly greater resources toward an emerging class of suppliers in the illicit drug trade: medical patients, including many who rely on Medicaid to fund their prescriptions. Often at no charge, patients…
On December 7, 2010, the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas refused to dismiss False Claims Act (FCA) claims against a hospice provider. The defendant, Hospice Care of Kansas, Inc. (HCK), which was purchased by defendant Voyager Hospicecare, Inc. in 2004, provides hospice care to Medicare beneficiaries. The…
December 1st was slated to be a bad day for physicians–it was the day the 23% Medicare pay cuts were going into effect. Today, Congress agreed to a one month delay in the cuts, which will go into effect on January 1, 2011. For more information, please contact the Health…
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has officially requested comments from the physician community regarding policies and standards for accountable care organizations (ACOs) participating in the Medicare program under the Shared Savings Program or in connection with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). CMS’s request focuses…
Effective January 1, 2011, the new Stark In-Office Ancillary Services Exception (the “IOASE”) provisions will require physicians or group practices relying upon the IOASE (collectively, “Physician Practices”) to furnish the following notice/disclosure to patients receiving MRI, CT, and PET (as identified on the Stark CPT/HCPCS Code list): • Written notice…
For the fourth time this year, the Senate approved a one-month patch that will delay a 23% cut in Medicare payments to physicians until January 1, 2011. The action, passed on Thursday, November 18, is a result of an agreement backed by chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus…
Representatives Dingell (D-Mich.), Pete Stark (D-Calif.), and other representatives have introduced legislation to extend the current physician Medicare reimbursement rates for 13 months as well as to provide a 1% update for this year and next year. We will continue to keep our readers apprised of any future developments. For…