How Do You Evaluate and Address the Compliance Risks Associated with ACOs and...
On July 10, 2012, two members of the Husch Blackwell Healthcare Group, Kate Mihalevich and Cori Turner, presented a webinar on ACO strategic physician alignment billing compliance. The webinar:...
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Husch Blackwell Healthcare Attorneys Discuss Compliance Strategies for...
Husch Blackwell Healthcare attorneys Cori Casey Turner and Tiffany Hetland discuss compliance strategies for Medicare’s 72-Hour Rule in the latest issue of For The Record. To read the article, click...
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Federal Government Teams Up with Private Insurance to Combat Health Care Fraud
HHS and DOJ today announced that Federal law enforcement is teaming up with private insurance organizations in the fight against health care fraud. While the details of how this partnership will work...
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Standard of Care May be Revised by New AHRQ Training Modules
A client recently asked me to review its fall policies and procedures as they relate to the standard of care. Because that project was on my mind, the new training modules for nurse aides in long...
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Home Health Billing Practices to Fix Now
In August, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report describing inappropriate and questionable billing by home health agencies. The...
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New Technology May Help an Old Problem: Remote Monitoring to Reduce...
In less than two weeks, CMS will begin reducing a hospital’s Medicare reimbursements by as much as 1% if the hospital’s readmission rates are too high. This reduction is part of a program authorized...
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Federal Government Threatens to Prosecute Providers Who Use Electronic Health...
The heads of both the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sent a joint letter on Monday, September 24, to five hospital industry groups, including the American...
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Appealing Medicare Payment Decisions Pays Off, Report Finds
A recent report by the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services (OIG) concluded that in Fiscal Year 2010, 61% of Medicare providers that appealed CMS payment...
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“Fiscal Cliff” Deal Extends Collection Time for Medicare Overpayments
President Barack Obama signed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, often called the “fiscal cliff” agreement, on January 2, 2013. Buried in the 59 pages of the act is a seven-line amendment to...
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Government Announces Record-Breaking Recoveries of Healthcare Fraud Money
The Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services released a report last week showing that the government has achieved the highest return on investment in the 16-year history of the Health Care...
View ArticleOIG Issues Report Regarding Suspicious Billing Practices by CMHCS
Earlier this month, the US Dept. of Health and Human Services Office of inspector General (OIG) issued a report regarding suspicious billing practices by community mental health clinics (CMHCS). OIG...
View ArticleCMS Approves Texas Bundled Payment Pilot Programs
On January 31, 2013, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the health care organizations selected to participate in the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative...
View ArticlePhysician Payments Sunshine Act
On February 1stthe long overdue final rule of the Sunshine Act was released. The Act aims to increase transparency relating to payments and investments held by physicians and teaching hospitals. For...
View ArticleTexas Governor Reigns in HHSC Inspector General
On June 14ththe Governor signed into law SB 1803. It amends Chapter 531 by limiting the Texas Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHSC-OIG) ability to implement payment holds,...
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DSH Program Takes a Hit Under Healthcare Reform
Pursuant to the Affordable Care Act, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently adopted a final rule implementing $1.1 billion in cuts to the Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH)...
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Joe Geraci Weighs In on Whether QHPs will be Considered Health Plans
Husch Blackwell attorney Joe Geraci was recently quoted in an AIS Health Reform Week article regarding Qualified Health Plans (QHPs). The article reports that the Obama administration is sending mixed...
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Congress Proposes SGR Repeal and Medicare “Fix”
On Thursday, February 6, 2013, three congressional committees—the Senate Finance, House Ways and Means and House Energy and Commerce—introduced collaborative bipartisan legislation to repeal the...
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CMS Clarifies Rules Regarding Respite Care, Vaccines for Hospice Patients
This article was originally published by the American Health Lawyers Association. Copyright 2014, American Health Lawyers Association, Washington, DC. Reprint permission granted. On February 5, CMS...
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Caveat Emptor: Key Due Diligence Considerations for Hospitals
In a recent article in Health Value Digest, Tiffany Hetland explored two items a hospital should have on its checklist when acquiring a physician practice: a billing and coding audit and a review of...
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DOJ intervenes in first False Claim Act case involving ACA ’60-day repayment...
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the New York State Attorney General intervened in a federal False Claims Act (FCA) case on June 27, 2014, accusing Mount Sinai Health System of failing to...
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