Trypanophobia—the fear of needles—played a significant role in a case brought against Rite Aid Pharmacy under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In Stevens v. Rite Aid Corp., the Second Circuit overturned a jury verdict awarding substantial damages to a Rite Aid pharmacist who was terminated after he said he could not perform immunization
Medical Marijuana 103: Patient and Practitioner Regulations in New York State
This blog post is the third in a series of articles discussing the current state of the law in New York regarding medical marijuana. To read the latest post in the series, Medical Marijuana 102: NYS Registered Organizations and Dispensaries, click here.
In today’s post we’re going to be reviewing the requirements imposed by
Percentage-Based Billing Contracts Violate Medicaid Regulations and May Constitute Improper Fee-Splitting
The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MCFU) of the New York State Office of the Attorney General has recently issued restitution demand letters to providers for allegedly entering into percentage-based contracts with their billing agents. The MCFU letters cite the Medicaid Update March 2001, titled “A Message for Providers Using Service Agents” as follows:
NY Medical Providers: Use Caution When Soliciting Positive Reviews on Consumer-Review Websites
Consumers often seek online reviews of a business on platforms such as Yelp, CitySearch, Yahoo and Google Plus Pages before purchasing products or services. This includes patients seeking online reviews of a physician or other licensed professional before seeking treatment. Unfortunately, a practice known as “Astroturfing” has developed where businesses attempt to create an impression
Sixth Amendment Prevents Pretrial Restraint on Health Care Defendant’s Use of Untainted Funds To Pay Counsel
The Supreme Court held last week that in a federal health care fraud prosecution, the Sixth Amendment prevents the government from obtaining a pretrial freeze of assets that were untainted by the alleged crime and that defendant sought to use to pay her lawyer.
In Luis v. United States, the government alleged that the
Who is a “Qualified Person” for Purposes of Access to a Patient’s Medical Records
In our previous post [found here], we explained that, under the Privacy Rule, HIPAA covered entities (health care providers and health plans) must provide individuals and their “personal representatives” with access to the individual’s protected health information. An individual’s personal representative is determined under State law. In this post, we will define
The Individual’s Rights Under HIPAA to Access their Health Information- Verifying the Identity of the Person Requesting PHI
Under the Privacy Rule, HIPAA covered entities (health care providers and health plans) are required to provide individuals, upon request, with access to their protected health information (PHI) in one or more “designated record sets” maintained by or for the covered entity.
Covered entities are also required to protect the individual’s PHI from unauthorized disclosure.
‘Incident To’ Billing: Billing Physician as the Supervising Physician and Ancillary Personnel Requirements
CMS has published a Proposed Rule to clarify how physicians are to bill for services furnished “incident to” the professional services of a physician.
When a medical practice bills Medicare “incident to” for NPP services (i.e. “non-physician practitioners” such as nurses or physician assistants), the bill is rendered by the physician using the physician’s NPI
5 Lessons for Health Care Providers from Joan Rivers’ Death
On November 10, 2014, the US Department of Health and Human Services released its investigation report regarding the death of actress and comedian Joan Rivers. The report, called a “Statement of Deficiencies and Plan of Correction”, highlights numerous mistakes and violations made by Yorkville Endoscopy, the treating facility where Ms. Rivers died (Ms. Rivers
Visiting Nurse Service Settles Some SDNY False Claims Act Allegations, Leaves Others Open As Part Of A “Remaining Investigation”
An interesting SDNY settlement agreement resolves some False Claims Act allegations, but leaves others for another day. Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNS) paid just under $35 million to the United States and New York State to settle allegations that VNS improperly billed Medicaid for 1,740 members whose needs did not qualify for a