Articles and Blogs

On December 6, 2016, the Michigan House unanimously passed Senate Bill 753, which incorporates provisions related to telehealth into the Michigan Public Health Code (the “Code”). The bill adds six sections to the Code to permit health professionals to provide telehealth services after obtaining informed consent from patients. Additionally, the bill sets standards for drug…Read More

On December 7, 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) released a final rule (“Final Rule”) codifying new safe harbors to the Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”) and new exceptions to the beneficiary inducement provisions of the Civil Monetary Penalties law (“CMP”). In the Final Rule, OIG focused its efforts on…Read More

On December 7, 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) published a final rule (“Final Rule”) clarifying several exceptions to the Civil Monetary Penalties law (“CMP”) dealing with beneficiary inducements. OIG has finalized all of the beneficiary inducement CMP exceptions proposed in the October 2014 proposed rule (“Proposed Rule”).1…Read More

Effective today, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) issued a Policy Statement regarding gifts of nominal value to Medicare and Medicaid Beneficiaries (“Beneficiary(ies)”). In its statement, OIG increased the dollar amount of the “nominal value” exception to the Civil Monetary Penalties law (“CMP”) from $10 per item or service…Read More

On November 22, 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) reported its thirteenth settlement for 2016 related to a malware infection at a workstation that infiltrated the entire system of a covered entity that had elected to be a hybrid entity. The incident resulted in the impermissible disclosure…Read More

Trump Nominates HHS Secretary and CMS Administrator On November 29, President-elect Donald Trump announced his choice to lead the top federal health care agencies.  Trump nominated Rep. Tom Price, MD, (R-GA) to head HHS and health care consultant Seema Verma as the next CMS Administrator.  Dr. Price currently serves as the House Budget Committee Chairman…Read More

In recent years, increasing numbers of municipalities have asked health care entities that might otherwise be exempt from property taxes to enter into payment in lieu of taxes agreements (“PILOTs”). While most prevalent in the Northeast Region of the country, PILOTs are expanding in popularity nationwide as municipalities seek to expand their budgets by taxing…Read More

Under the federal Stark Law, hospitals may provide non-monetary compensation to physicians up to an aggregate amount of $398 for calendar year 2017. The dollar limit for “medical staff incidental benefits” (e.g., meals, parking and other items or incidental services that are used on the hospital’s campus) is less than $33 per occurrence. Other requirements of the…Read More

Driven in part by retroactive fees imposed upon pharmacies by pharmacy benefit managers (“PBMs”) and compounded by recent high profile cases of significant price increases for relatively common drugs,1 both retail and institutional pharmacies have continued to push for enhanced prescription drug pricing transparency. Recent state and federal legislation, as well as lawsuits filed by coalitions of…Read More

Yesterday, the First Circuit Court of Appeals issued a new opinion in Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar.  Applying the materiality test enunciated by the Supreme Court in June, the First Circuit reaffirmed its previous decision that the whistleblowers’ complaint sufficiently stated a claim under the False Claims Act (“FCA”) to…Read More