Health Law Attorney Blog

Published on: March 16, 2010 | by The Health Law Partners

HHS Announces Additional $162 Million to Promote Meaningful Use of Health Information Technology

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 Dakota, Connecticut, Mississippi, Indiana, Montana, […]

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Published on: March 15, 2010 | by The Health Law Partners

Update on Reimbursement Freeze

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. Currently, the physician reimbursement freeze […]

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Published on: March 11, 2010 | by The Health Law Partners

OIG Cracks Down First Months of 2010

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) has continued to indict, prosecute, and convict members of the healthcare community for allegedly violating the Civil Monetary Penalty (CMP) statue and the False Claims statute. Some notable prosecutions are below: – On February 2, 2010, Maria Aloise, the president and owner of Atenas Medical Equipment, Inc. (Atenas), was […]

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Published on: March 10, 2010 | by The Health Law Partners

President Obama Emphasizes Support of RAC Program

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 in government-run Medicare and Medicaid […]

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Published on: March 8, 2010 | by The Health Law Partners

ONC Proposes Certification Program for Electronic Health Records Systems

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 to that EHR systems and […]

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Published on: March 5, 2010 | by The Health Law Partners

Concerns About Pete Stark Thwart His Assuming the Chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee

Rep. Sander Levin, an expert on trade issues, has been tapped to take over the House Ways and Means Committee after Rangel stepped down and Rep. Pete Stark stepped aside. It has been widely reported that concerns by fellow members of the House Ways and Means Committee over Rep. Pete Stark’s politics, background and history […]

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Published on: March 5, 2010 | by The Health Law Partners

CMS Issues Additional Guidance Regarding Elimination of Consultation Codes

As HLP previously reported, in December, CMS issued MLN Matter 6740 announcing that consultation codes would no longer be used to reflect the different locations where services were provided. This week, CMS issued additional guidance regarding billing for those services that would previously been coded as consultations. This guidance includes a Questions and Answers on […]

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Published on: March 4, 2010 | by The Health Law Partners

HLP Receives Direct Clarification Regarding HHA Ownership Changes

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 the Division of Provider and […]

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Published on: March 4, 2010 | by The Health Law Partners

Pete Stark Replaces Charlie Rangel on House Ways and Means Committee

Yesterday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi selected Congressman Pete Stark of California to head the powerful Ways and Means Committee, replacing New York Congressman Charlie Rangel, who has stepped aside temporarily amid ethics investigations. Stark is best known in health care for first proposing what is now known as “the Stark law,” which regulates physician self-referral, […]

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Published on: March 3, 2010 | by The Health Law Partners

Congress Extends Freeze in Medicare Reimbursement for 30 Days

Physician reimbursement under the Medicare program will not face a 21% cut, at least not for the next 30 days. Yesterday, on March 2, 2010, the Senate passed the Temporary Extension Act of 2010 (H.R. 4691, 111th Cong. § 5 (2010)), which postponed the effective date of a planned 21% fee reduction for an additional […]

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