Maintaining compliance with all HIPAA Rules has never been more important for a health care business’s success than it is now. Last year, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) concluded an all-time record in Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) enforcement activity. In 2018, […]
Tomorrow, March 1, 2019, is the deadline for reporting small data breaches (<500) that occurred in calendar year 2018 to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Any HIPAA-covered entities and their business associates are required by the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule to, at least once yearly, report data breaches […]
California has joined a number of other states, including Vermont and Washington, in requiring pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to register with a state department. Assembly Bill 315 (AB 315), Pharmacy Benefit Management was signed by California Governor Jerry Brown on September 29, 2018 and became effective January 1, 2019. The bill includes several new requirements […]
In response to the current opioid crisis sweeping across the country, Congress passed the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act (commonly referred to as the SUPPORT Act). President Trump signed the Act on October 24, 2018, which will take full effect on January 1, 2022. The Act […]
This is a summary of the article Courts Recognize Irreparable Injury Caused by Medicare Appeals Backlog written by Jessica L. Gustafson, Esq. and Abby Pendleton, Esq., published in the January/February 2019 issue of BC Advantage. Presently, there are 426,594 appeals pending and awaiting OMHA adjudication. Despite a statutory mandate to “conduct and conclude a hearing…and […]
As of January 29, 2019, a total of 38 hospitals have joined a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over the new site-neutral payment policy that went into effect beginning January 1, 2019. The final rule that modified the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) will result in a reduction of $380 […]
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has published a 957-page final rule that confirms changes made to the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). This new rule will be expected to have a substantial impact on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) that rely on one-sided risk models, in so far as ACOs in the program […]
The Patient Test Result Information Act – commonly referred to as Act 112 – now requires Pennsylvania imaging entities to directly communicate with patients if the entity finds “significant abnormalities” in the patient’s test results, as well as to continue to follow normal reporting procedure to inform the ordering physician. The catalyst for this legislation, […]
Established in 1986, the National Practitioner Data Bank (“NPDB”) is a “repository of reports that contain information on medical malpractice payments and certain adverse actions related to health care practitioners, providers, and suppliers.” NPDB website. Under the NPDB, hospitals and other entities with peer review committees, health plans, and numerous others are required to report […]
Two cases brought against an Alabama-based hospice company will result in an almost $6 million settlement payment. In two whistleblower complaints filed in 2013 by two former employees, one of which who worked as a clinical director in a Pennsylvania branch, SouthernCare Inc. is accused of wrongly billing Medicare for unnecessary hospice care. When the […]
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