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…

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services expanded Medicare coverage for telehealth nationwide, as discussed here. The $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill signed into law by President Biden today extended the current telehealth accommodations for 151 days after the end of the federal public health emergency, which…

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…

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) recently issued a report entitled “Electronic Medical Records in Healthcare” that discussed security risks applicable to electronic medical records (EMRs) and electronic health records (EHRs). EHRs and EMRs are prime targets for cyber attackers because protected health information (PHI)…

On Thursday, March 10, in the next installment of Rivkin Radler’s Healthcare Compliance Lunch & Learn series, Rivkin Radler’s Chris Kutner and Ashley Algazi will discuss Compliance and Legal Considerations for Value Based Arrangements. The program will take place from 12:00 noon to 1:00 PM Eastern time via Zoom.

The topics covered will include:

  • Framework

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We don’t often cover brand-new proposed legislation on Rivkin Rounds, generally preferring to wait until it’s closer to becoming law. However, two bipartisan bills introduced in Congress last week are worthy of mention.

The Telehealth Extension and Evaluation Act would allow the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to extend certain pandemic-era flexibilities in Medicare…