Manishkumar Patel of Pelham Manor, NY recently pleaded guilty in connection with a healthcare fraud and kickback scheme involving the sale of fraudulent prescriptions to pharmacies, durable medical equipment suppliers, and laboratories, which then obtained payments from Medicare. The scheme resulted in $50 million in fraudulent claims from 2019-22.
Patel and a co-conspirator worked with
Robert Clark of Pompano Beach, Florida recently pleaded guilty to his role in a Medicare fraud scheme. Clark and his co-conspirators purchased Medicare Beneficiary Identification numbers unlawfully and then billed Medicare for over-the-counter COVID-19 test kits. The conspirators also paid illegal kickbacks and bribes to marketers for referring Medicare beneficiaries for genetic tests.
Approximately $30
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
On December 14, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and other agencies announced the indictment of Niranjan Mittal, a Brooklyn cardiologist, on multiple fraud charges. Mittal allegedly fabricated patient records, paid physicians for patient referrals, and billed for medically unnecessary procedures. The U.S. Attorney’s Office also filed a civil fraud
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