The tax provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “Act”) will impact most taxpayers. To simplify matters, it is helpful to separate the changes that will take place in 2010 and 2011 from future changes. Changes in 2010 and 2011: – Starting in 2010, small businesses will…
Effective May 1, 2010, the Dr. Ron Davis Smoke-Free Air Law prohibits smoking in public places, food establishments, and workplaces. The prohibition applies to all health facilities, hospital long-term care units, nursing homes, hospices, and homes for the aged. Business operators must post “no smoking” signs, remove ash trays and…
Huping Zhou, a former UCLA Healthcare System cardiothoracic surgeon is the first defendant in the nation to receive a prison sentence for a HIPAA privacy violation. After admitting that he illegally read private electronic medical records of patients and obtained individually identifiable health information without a valid reason, Zhou was…
Medicare requires that services provided/ordered must be authenticated by the author with either a hand written or electronic signature (stamps are not acceptable), although there are a few exceptions: (1) facsimiles of original written/electronic signatures are acceptable for the certification of terminal illness for hospice; (2) some orders do not…
A Detroit-area man plead guilty last week to conspiracy to commit health care fraud in an elaborate kickback operation to recruit Medicare beneficiaries to a clinic owned by his co-conspirators. According to the U.S. Departments of Justice (“DOJ”) and Health and Human Services (“HHS”), Melvin Young recruited Medicare beneficiaries to…
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“HHS-OIG”) has revealed a new section to its website dedicated to the state Medicaid Fraud Control Units (“MCFUs”). MCFUs are intended “to investigate and prosecute fraud by Medicaid providers as well as patient abuse and neglect.” While MCFUs…
St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan, which filed for bankruptcy just two weeks ago with liabilities of over $1 billion, is putting one of its many buildings on the market this week, according to the New York Times. St. Vincent’s owns a number of properties in Greenwich Village. So far, it isn’t…
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) reported yesterday that it realizes that fiscal intermediaries haven’t been providing sufficient detail on remittance advices (RAs) when recouping overpayments identified by RACs to allow providers to track and update their financial records. In response to that complaint, CMS issued CR 6870 and…
In February, we blogged on the recent changes in home health agency (HHA) accreditation. In April 2010, NGS issued its Medicare Monthly Review, and reiterated the same HHA accreditation and change of ownership provisions. Particularly, the article discusses the requirements a deactivated HHA must meet in order to reactivate its…
Meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR) technology has recently been expanded to include physicians providing services in outpatient facilities, according to the Continuing Extension Act of 2010. Initially, Congress had intended that only those physicians who purchased and implemented EHR technology would be eligible for the incentive payments, which…