The U.S. Department of Justice announced on July 24 that Admera Health LLC, a New Jersey-based biopharmaceutical research and clinical laboratory testing company, agreed to pay $5,389,648 to resolve kickback allegations brought by two whistleblowers under the False Claims Act (FCA).
Admera provides biopharmaceutical research services for healthcare institutions and provided clinical laboratory testing services
The New York State 2024-2025 budget includes legislation that extends until July 1, 2026 the independent practice authority for certain qualified nurse practitioners with over 3,600 practice hours.
Our prior post on this topic provides additional details on which nurse practitioners qualify to practice independently, that is, without a written practice agreement or collaborative relationship
The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced that Silver Lake Hospital, a long-term care hospital in Newark, New Jersey, and some of its investors agreed to pay $30.6 million to settle claims that they violated the False Claims Act (FCA) and the Federal Debt Collection Procedures Act (FDCPA). The hospital allegedly overbilled Medicare by claiming
A recent Advisory Opinion (No. 23-15) from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) concluded that a healthcare consulting company’s plan to offer gift cards to physician practices in exchange for referring potential new customers to the company does not violate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS).
The consulting company
The 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule, released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) earlier this month, extended certain telehealth-related flexibilities that were implemented during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. CMS issued a Fact Sheet summarizing the telehealth updates, as well as other important Medicare policy changes.
Until 2020
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Trenton, NJ announced on November 22 that primary care physician Yitzchok “Barry” Kurtzer of Monsey, NY, and his wife pleaded guilty to soliciting and receiving kickbacks and bribes in exchange for ordering genetic tests. Kurtzer had offices in the Scranton, PA area that his wife helped manage. Two of his
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently released two resource documents to help healthcare providers explain the privacy and security risks of telehealth to their patients.
The first document, entitled “Educating Patients about Privacy and Security Risks to Protected Health Information when Using Remote Communication Technologies
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced on September 18 that cardiologist Klaus Peter Rentrop and his practice, Gramercy Cardiac Diagnostic Services, P.C., agreed to pay $6.5 million to settle allegations that they violated the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark Law. Rentrop admitted to paying physicians millions of dollars in
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently issued guidance entitled “Collecting, Using, or Sharing Consumer Health Information? Look to HIPAA, the FTC Act, and the Health Breach Notification Rule.” The guidance points out that while businesses that collect, use, or share consumer health information are (or should be) accustomed to complying with HIPAA and its Privacy
The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) has announced that its third annual Telehealth Awareness Week will take place September 17-23, 2023. The official website for the event states:
“During the week, the ATA invites telehealth solution providers, hospital systems and medical practices, patient advocacy leaders, policymakers, and other stakeholders to highlight the need to establish