Hospitals and Health Systems

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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

On April 30, 2018 a Massachusetts physician was convicted of a criminal violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), as well as one count of obstruction of a criminal health care investigation, in a Massachusetts federal court. The convictions relate to the purported sharing of confidential patient information by the physician with pharmaceutical sales representatives that allowed the pharmaceutical company to target patients with specific conditions (and to correspondingly facilitate the receipt of prior authorizations for the company’s drugs from patients’ insurers).
Continue Reading DOJ Announces Criminal Conviction of Physician for HIPAA Violation

A series of criminal and civil enforcement actions announced in recent weeks demonstrate the continued attention that state regulators throughout the Northeast are placing on health care fraud. These actions, and the significant sanctions imposed by courts and the government, can serve as a reminder that violators of health care fraud laws are subject to scrutiny at both the federal and state levels (often simultaneously), and that such violations can create exposure to significant civil and criminal penalties.
Continue Reading State Enforcement Actions Demonstrate Continued Scrutiny of Health Care Fraud

On March 16, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Decision Memo for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) for Medicare beneficiaries with advanced cancer (CAG-00450N). In the memo, CMS concluded that NGS as a diagnostic laboratory test is reasonable, necessary and covered nationally when performed in a CLIA-certified laboratory, ordered by a…

On February 9, 2018, Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (the Act), which included a number of important health law provisions..

AKS and CMP Violations

Under the Act, Congress doubled the statutory civil fines for certain violations of the Anti-kickback Statue (AKS) and adjusted certain fines under the Civil Monetary Penalty (CMP) Law. The Act also increased the maximum criminal penalty from $25,000 to $100,000 and increased the maximum incarceration period from five years to ten years.
Continue Reading Bipartisan Budget Act Revises Stark Law, Increases Penalties for AKS and CMP Law Violations, and Expands Telehealth Coverage

The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently resolved two health care fraud cases – one criminal and one civil – that demonstrate the government’s continued scrutiny of lavish meals and “speaker’s bureaus” sponsored by pharmaceutical and device manufacturers as potential avenues for the payment of kickbacks to physicians for referrals of health care items and services. These cases indicate the criminal and civil risk that providing lavish meals or purported speaker’s bureau payment can pose, and the corresponding need to proactively assess the legitimacy of such programs and events.
Continue Reading Recent Anti-Kickback Cases Emphasize Government Scrutiny of Speaker’s Bureaus and Lavish Meals Funded by Pharmaceutical and Device Manufacturers

On February 15, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Decision Memo outlining revisions to its 2005 National Coverage Determination (NCD) for Implantable Automatic Defibrillators (ICDs) . The updated NCD  includes changes to the covered indications for ICDs, new patient criteria and exceptions to waiting periods for symptomatic patients with certain…

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has extended the eligible hospital and critical access hospital (CAH) attestation deadline from February 28, 2018 to March 16, 2018. The extension provides additional time to submit attestation data and electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) data. Eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals attesting to the CMS Electronic…

On February 13, 2018, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a $100,000 settlement with a court-appointed receiver representing Filefax, Inc. (Filefax) arising from the 2015 discovery of medical records that contained protected health information (PHI) of over two thousand individuals in a dumpster. Filefax, a now-defunct medical records moving and storage company located in Illinois, acted as a business associate under HIPAA.

OCR initiated an investigation in February, 2015, after receiving an anonymous complaint concerning medical records that had been discovered and delivered to a facility for shredding and recycling. OCR’s investigation indicated that Filefax impermissibly disclosed PHI of 2,150 individuals over a two week span in early 2015 by leaving PHI in an unlocked truck in Filefax’s parking lot, or by leaving PHI within medical records sitting outside of Filefax’s business for a third party to collect.
Continue Reading Dumpster Diving Leads to $100,000 Fine for Defunct Business Associate Due to Improper Disposal of Medical Records

Last month, a U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Florida overturned judgments totaling $347,864,285 returned by a jury under the federal False Claims Act (FCA) and Florida’s state equivalent against the owners and operators of 53 specialized nursing facilities in Florida, determining that the plaintiffs’ allegations failed to satisfy the “demanding” and “rigorous” materiality standard endorsed by the Supreme Court in its 2016 Escobar decision. In an order released January 11, 2018, the District Court reversed the jury’s conclusions and granted the defendants judgment as a matter of law.
Continue Reading Escobar Compels Florida District Court to Overturn $350 Million Jury Verdict Arising from Claims of Inadequate Documentation