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Nawa A. Lodin, a member of Robinson+Cole’s Health Law Group, represents health care providers in connection with compliance matters, health care regulations, and transactions. Read her full rc.com bio here.

On June 13, 2018, Attorney General Maura Healey filed a complaint in Massachusetts Superior Court on behalf of the Commonwealth against Purdue Pharma Inc. and Purdue Pharma L.P., Connecticut-based drug companies that manufacture and market OxyContin.  The lawsuit also names sixteen individual defendants, including current and former CEOs and certain members of the board of Purdue Pharma Inc. This is not the first time a Purdue Pharma company has been accused of wrongdoing with respect to the marketing of opioids. In 2007, Purdue Frederick Company (an affiliate of Purdue Pharma L.P.) paid nearly $700 million dollars in fines and plead guilty to criminal charges, admitting that, with the intent to defraud or mislead, it marketed and promoted  its drugs as less addictive and less subject to abuse.
Continue Reading Massachusetts Files Suit Against Connecticut-Based Purdue Pharma for Opioid Related Harms

On April 27, 2018, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey held that the Medical Executive Committee (“MEC”) of a hospital, which is comprised of doctors that decide who is given privileges within the hospital, can sue and be sued. Nahas v. Shore Med. Ctr., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70785.
Continue Reading US District Court Holds Medical Executive Committees Can Sue And Be Sued

The Joint Commission announced that it will eliminate a requirement of deemed home health organizations to provide the personalized written plan of care to patients. The announcement follows a communication from CMS that it will no longer require that the individualized written plan of care be given to the patients, as written in §484.60 of the Home Health Services Conditions of Participation.   Effective April  30, 2018, the Joint Commission will no longer score organizations on whether they fail to give their patients a written individualized plan of care.
Continue Reading Providing Patient Written Plan of Care Eliminated from The Joint Commission’s Standards for Deemed Home Health Agencies

On March 27, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that a health care provider can seek an injunction in federal court against recoupment by Medicare of alleged overpayments despite not exhausting its administrative appeal remedies, in part because the current delay in scheduling of hearings before an Administrative Law Judge could cause the provider to go out of business before it has an opportunity to exhaust its administrative challenge of the recoupment. This decision could provide a template for other providers facing significant Medicare recoupment demands amidst the “colossal backlog” in Medicare appeals to delay such recoupments until their appeals receive a hearing.
Continue Reading Fifth Circuit Reinstates Provider’s Collateral Challenge to the Medicare Appeal Process