Articles and Blogs

On December 12, 2012, the Indiana Supreme Court issued four opinions related to the broad discretion of the trial court in awarding prejudgment interest. In Indiana, the Tort Prejudgment Interest Statute (“TPIS”) (or IC § 34-51-4-1 et. seq.), was enacted to “encourage settlement and to compensate the Plaintiff for the lost time value of money.”…Read More

Executive Summary On December 19, 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of  Inspector General (“OIG”) posted OIG Advisory Opinion 12-20 (the “AO”) permitting a hospital (the “Requestor”) to provide to physicians, free of charge, an electronic interface that would enable the physicians to transmit orders for lab and diagnostic services to the…Read More

On December 19, 2012 the Department of Justice announced the owners and operators of two Miami health care agencies pleaded guilty for their participation in a $48 million home health Medicare fraud scheme.  According to plea documents, the owners conspired with patient recruiters for the purpose of billing the Medicare program for unnecessary home health…Read More

Introduction On December 19, 2012, the Indiana Supreme Court issued a landmark decision holding that a self-pay or out-of-network patient who contractually agrees to pay “the account” for medical services rendered by a hospital, may be liable for rates as set by the hospital’s chargemaster.  The patient may not thereafter challenge the hospital’s billed rates…Read More

Executive Summary Under the Federal Stark Law, for calendar year 2013 hospitals may provide non-monetary compensation to physicians up to an aggregate amount of $380.  The dollar limit for “medical staff incidental benefits” (e.g., meals, parking, other items or incidental services that are used on the hospital’s campus) increases slightly for 2013 to less than…Read More

On December 12, 2012 the FCC approved a report and order expanding the scope of the Universal Service Fund (“USF”).  The $400 million annual fund exists to bring telecommunication services to health care providers for the benefit of persons who reside in rural areas.  The FCC acted to revise the existing USF program by:

CMS Rejects Partial Medicaid Expansion and Drops Support for a Medicaid “Blended Rate” On Monday, CMS announced that states who expand their Medicaid programs to less than 133% of the federal poverty level will not receive the higher federal matching funds set forth in the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”).  The agency said that states may…Read More

The American Medical Association (“AMA”) recently posted a policy titled “Professionalism in the Use of Social Media” (“Policy”). The Policy is intended for use by physicians, noting that the Internet has the ability to allow medical students and physicians to communicate and share information quickly and distribute such information to millions of people easily. The…Read More

Working from home and keeping time It’s becoming more and more common for employees to work from home.  Of course when they work they are to be paid for that work.  But what if the employee works but doesn’t follow the employer’s policy in keeping track of that time.  Are they still entitled to be paid…Read More

Introduction On November 29, 2012, Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and several other congressmen introduced HR 6611, the Patient Access to Drugs in Shortage Act (“Drug Shortage Act” or the “Act”), a new bill aimed at curbing drug shortages of generic sterile injectable drugs (“Sterile Injectables”).  If enacted, the Drug Shortage Act could have a significant…Read More