A recent New York bill, S04998, clarifies the scope of practice for physician assistants. Specifically, it authorizes physician assistants to perform medical services that the physician is otherwise authorized to perform, if the physician is supervising the physician assistant, and if the physician assistant has the necessary training to perform…
Meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR) technology has recently been expanded to include physicians providing services in outpatient facilities, according to the Continuing Extension Act of 2010. Initially, Congress had intended that only those physicians who purchased and implemented EHR technology would be eligible for the incentive payments, which…
The Continuing Extension Act of 2010 was signed into law on April 15. This law reinstates the March 31 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (Fee Schedule) rates for physicians, postponing, yet again, the anticipated-21.3% cut. The zero percent (0%) update to the Fee Schedule has been extended to May 31 will…
Pursuant to the healthcare reform bill that was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010 (“the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” or “the Act”), physicians who furnish MRI, CT or PET tests within their practices for their patients are now required to provide their patients with…
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…
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…
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…
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…
While the HITECH Act technically went into effect last month, on February 17, 2010, HHS’s Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) has yet to issue guidance and regulations about the implementation of new privacy and security requirements contained in the HITECH Act. Because of this failure, OCR has been hinting that…