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…
On Monday, April 6, 2010, CMS updated its RAC website by announcing a series of nationwide calls as detailed below: April 28, 2010, 1:00pm – 2:30pm EST: Nationwide RAC 101 Call, 1-877-251-0301 May 4, 2010, 1:00pm – 2:30pm EST: Nationwide RAC 101 Call for Home Health and Hospice Providers, 1-877-251-0301…
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”),…
In a recent development for the anesthesia community, HealthDataInsights (“HDI”), the RAC for Region D, removed the anesthesia care package issue from its approved issues list. In January of 2010, the RAC vendor posted the following issue: Under NCCI Edit rules, the anesthesia care package consists of preoperative evaluation, standard…
Effective March 15, 2010, pursuant to CMS’s update to the Medicare Claims Processing Manual addressing “Payment to Physician or Other Supplier for Diagnostic Tests Subject to the Anti-Markup Payment Limitation”, among other actions, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) has effectively eliminated an Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility’s (“IDTF’s”)…
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…
A Florida medical center sued for violations of the False Claims Act settled yesterday with the U.S. Justice Department for $12 million. The case was a result of a whistleblower lawsuit filed by the former oncology director of the provider, the Melbourne Internal Medicine Associates P.A. (MIMA). MIMA and its…