Your prescribed dose of health law news
On March 28, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced four new enforcement actions against healthcare providers for HIPAA violations. Two of the actions were part of OCR’s HIPAA Right of Access Initiative which has been ongoing since 2019.
Three of the actions were against dental…
This is outside our usual catchment area, but interesting nonetheless. The Indiana Supreme Court ruled on March 8 that the state’s Medical Malpractice Act (MMA) does not apply to claims for indemnification filed by one medical provider against another. The decision allows a contract claim by a hospital system against an outside radiology group to…
Rivkin Radler’s Eric Strober will be a panelist at the CLM Focus conference, taking place June 15-16 in Nashville, TN. His program, entitled “Medical Malpractice: Unique Issues in the Defense of Non-MD Healthcare Providers in the Homecare Setting,” will cover the various kinds of claims that are made against non-doctor professionals in the home care…
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on March 3 that Ameet Goyal, M.D., a Westchester-based ophthalmologist, was sentenced to 96 months in prison for falsely billing for millions of dollars of upcoded procedures over seven years, and for fraudulently obtaining two business loans under the CARES Act’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) in the early…
Rivkin Radler’s Michael Sirignano wrote an article, “The Opioid Crisis: An Epidemic Exacerbated by Fraud,” that appeared in the March 3 issue of the New York Law Journal. The article discussed the various types of opioid fraud, including illegal distribution, fake prescriptions, illegal dispensing by pharmacies, and medically unnecessary procedures.
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In a February 23 order, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas vacated a controversial rule issued in September that implemented the independent dispute resolution (IDR) procedure under the federal No Surprises Act (NSA). The lawsuit[1] was brought by the Texas Medical Association. Numerous industry participants had complained that the…
An article in the March issue of Healthcare Risk Management, “Take the Right Steps to Speed Resolution of Malpractice Litigation,” discussed how steps taken in the early phase of malpractice litigation can significantly affect the length of the case. Rivkin Radler’s David Richman was quoted in the article.
David noted that claims of…
On January 24, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a settlement with EyeMed Vision Care LLC based on shortcomings in the company’s data security procedures. The problems were discovered during the state’s investigation of a 2020 data breach that affected 2.1 million people.
EyeMed, owned by Italian eyeware giant Luxottica Group PIVA, provides vision…
An article in the February issue of Healthcare Risk Management, “Protect Peer Review Privileges, or Risk Serious Consequences,” discussed the importance of the hospital peer review privilege. Rivkin Radler’s Chris Kutner was quoted in the article.
Chris noted that the peer review privilege provides an opportunity for a completely candid evaluation. He added…
On Thursday, January 13, in the next installment of Rivkin Radler’s Healthcare Compliance Lunch & Learn series, Rivkin Radler Partner Robert Hussar will present a review of key developments in healthcare fraud and abuse, compliance and government enforcement in 2021 as well as trends and changes in the industry that will impact healthcare organizations and…
