Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives proposed a bill that ups the ante on Medicare fraud. The bill, the Medicare Fraud Enforcement and Prevention Act, will double prison sentences from 5 to 10 years and fines from $25,000 to $50,000 for Medicare fraud-related crimes, and creates a new crime for…
The New York state attorney general’s office announced yesterday that it recovered more than $283 million and obtained a record of 148 Medicaid fraud convictions in 2009. This information is detailed in an Annual Report submitted to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The report…
The Feds joined a False Claims Act lawsuit against Satilla Regional Medical Center, a Georgia Hospital. The lawsuit, filed by a nurse in 2007, alleges that the hospital allowed an unqualified physician, Najam Azmat, to perform endovascular procedures, leading to the death of at least one patient and injuries to…
Today, John Muir Health began notifying its 5,450 patients about a possible breach of their personal and health information. The notifications came two months after two laptop computers were stolen from the John Muir Physician Network Perinatal office in Walnut Creek, California. Although the laptops were password protected, and there…
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”),…
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…
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…