Publications

Advertisements commonly include images of individuals, where the individuals may endorse a product, or merely just be incorporated into the advertisement. But such use of an individual’s image, name, or likeness in a commercial advertisement may implicate an individual’s right of publicity. Almost half of the states in the United […]

On November 30, 2018, Marriott revealed that its Starwood reservation system had been hacked exposing the personal data of approximately 500 million guests. It appears that not only credit card information was compromised but also passport numbers, birth dates, cell numbers, arrival and departure dates, etc. The Marriott data breach […]

On October 26, 2018, a new version of the National Practitioner Data Bank Guidebook was published by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), replacing the prior version published in April 2015. As background, hospitals and other health care entities are required to report adverse clinical privileges actions to the […]

Two recent developments from CMS related to provider-based departments: Payment Rates for Off-Campus Provider-Based Hospital Departments Paid Under the PFS Section 603 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 changed the reimbursement source for certain items and services furnished by some off-campus hospital outpatient provider-based departments. The change was to […]

In November 2018, CMS issued its final rule for the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. In a previous article, we had summarized the changes to E&M coding that CMS had proposed in its July 27, 2018 proposed rule. In this final rule, CMS delayed until 2021 any changes to reimbursement for […]