The Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) recently published News Release IR-2010-25 (the “Release”) announcing that it made an administrative determination to accept the position that medical residents are excepted from FICA taxes based on the student exception for tax periods ending before April 1, 2005 (the “4/1/05 Rule Change Date”),…
In a recent development for the anesthesia community, HealthDataInsights (“HDI”), the RAC for Region D, removed the anesthesia care package issue from its approved issues list. In January of 2010, the RAC vendor posted the following issue: Under NCCI Edit rules, the anesthesia care package consists of preoperative evaluation, standard…
Effective March 15, 2010, pursuant to CMS’s update to the Medicare Claims Processing Manual addressing “Payment to Physician or Other Supplier for Diagnostic Tests Subject to the Anti-Markup Payment Limitation”, among other actions, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) has effectively eliminated an Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility’s (“IDTF’s”)…
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…
A Florida medical center sued for violations of the False Claims Act settled yesterday with the U.S. Justice Department for $12 million. The case was a result of a whistleblower lawsuit filed by the former oncology director of the provider, the Melbourne Internal Medicine Associates P.A. (MIMA). MIMA and its…
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…
Michigan isn’t the first state to consider a tax on healthcare providers to help fund Medicaid. As HLP previously reported, Governor Granholm is pushing again this year for a 3% tax on physician revenue. The taxes can help bring matching federal support for Medicaid, so supporters of the tax argue…
This morning, the intended purchase by Nashville-based Vanguard Health System of the Detroit Medical Center was announced via a joint press release. Vanguard’s Letter of Intent announces that it will invest $850 million into the DMC over the next five years, and promises to keep all eight of DMC’s hospitals…
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…