Health Law Alert

On the Friday before a long Memorial Day weekend, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released proposed changes to its regulations implementing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s nondiscrimination regulations. The proposed changes are largely consistent with the Trump administration’s […]

In late March, South Dakota Republican Senator John Thune introduced S. 895 that would permanently extend the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ enforcement instruction to its contractors that Critical Access Hospitals do not need to provide direct supervision for outpatient therapeutic services furnished in its facilities. In general, CMS […]

HHS again makes HIPAA enforcement-related headlines, but not for the same reason it had in the recent past. At the end of April, HHS issued a “Notification of Enforcement Discretion Regarding HIPAA Civil Monetary Penalties” (the “Enforcement Discretion Notice”) in which it announces reduced annual limits for HIPAA violations based […]

Beginning on April 1, 2019, CMS started using a Preclusion List as a basis for denying claims for Medicare Advantage, Part D and PACE claims. The concept of the Preclusion List was finalized a year earlier in CMS-4182-F, Contract Year 2019 Policy and Technical Changes to the Medicare Advantage Cost […]

At this year’s Health Care Compliance Association Compliance Institute, Joanne Chiedi, Principal Deputy Inspector General of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) spoke about innovation in health care and the important role of compliance, recommending that compliance have “a seat – and a voice – at the innovation table.” Ms. Chiedi […]