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EBSA Speaks On Health Plans At 9/15 Free Study Group Lunch

September 15, 2015

Solutions Law Press, Inc. is happy to share the following announcement.

Welcome Back From Summer Vacation To NTHCPA Members & Friends!!!

NORTH TEXAS HEALTHCARE COMPLIANCE PROFESSIONALS ASSOCIATION
Invites Members and Guests to Our Next Group Luncheon
Employee Benefit Security Administration Insights On Healthcare Organization’s Health & Other Employee Benefit Plan Rights & Responsibilities Under Employee Retirement Income Security Act
Featuring
Kristi Gotcher
U.S. Department of Labor Employee Benefit Security Administration Investigator
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
DFW Hospital Council Offices
250 Decker Drive
Irving, Texas
RSVP here by Noon on September 14, 2015
Space Limited! Register Early To Reserve Your Spot To Participate!
Stay In Touch. Check Out Our New Newsletter, the NTHCPA News, here
Please share this invitation with others who might be interested in this topic or other NTHCPA events!

The North Texas Healthcare Compliance Professionals Association (NTHCPA) invites members and other interested health care compliance professionals to join us on Tuesday, September 15, 2015 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for our Study Group Luncheon featuring a program on “Employee Benefit Security Administration Insights On Healthcare Organization’s Health & Other Employee Benefit Plan Rights & Responsibilities Under Employee Retirement Income Security Act” from U.S. Department of Labor Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) Investigator Kristi Gotcher.

Drawing on her involvement as investigator with the Department of Labor agency primarily responsible for both interpreting and enforcing ERISA’s rules, EBSA Ms. Gotcher will share key updates and insights on both how ERISA and the EBSA can help patients and providers enforce benefit rights under ERISA-covered health plans and key health and highlight employee benefit compliance responsibilities that health care organizations and their leaders need to ensure that their own health and other employee benefit programs meet to avoid violating ERISA.

About the Speaker

Kristi A. Gotcher is an Investigator with the United States Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) in the Dallas Regional Office. Kristi began working for EBSA in the Dallas Regional Office in November 2007 as a Benefits Advisor. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Social Political Relations from St. Edwards University and a J.D. from Texas Wesleyan University School of Law (now Texas A&M University School of Law). Ms. Gotcher is licensed to practice law in the State of Texas.

Registration & Meeting Details

The meeting scheduled from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 15, 2015 at the DFW Hospital Council Offices located at 250 Decker Drive, Irving Texas. Participants who timely R.S.V.P. will enjoy a complimentary luncheon. Networking and lunch service will begin at 11:30. Our program will begin at Noon.

NTHCPA encourages members and other interested health care compliance professionals to register early to reserve their spot to participate and to share this invitation with others in the industry who might benefit from participation.
There is no charge to participate in the meeting. However space is limited and available only on a first come, first serve basis. To ensure your spot and help us to arrange for adequate space and refreshments for this meeting, R.S.V.P. here as soon as possible and no later than Noon on September 14, 2015. Walk in guests will be accommodated on a space-available basis only.

Thanks To Meeting Underwriter Stamer ׀ Chadwick ׀ Soefje, PLLC

NTHCPA and its members extend our thanks to Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, P.C. and the other members of Stamer ׀ Chadwick ׀ Soefje PLLC for underwriting this month’s study group luncheon and other support of NTHCPA.

A boutique firm of exceptionally experienced and skilled “big-firm” lawyers committed to changing the way law firms serve their clients, Stamer │Chadwick │Soefje, PLLC delivers sophisticated legal advice and innovative solutions to the most challenging and complex problems. Simply put, Stamer │Chadwick │Soefje, PLLC attorneys are “Solutions Lawyers™.”
Stamer │Chadwick │Soefje, PLLC attorneys deliver sophisticated legal advice and innovative solutions to the most challenging and complex problems. Stamer │Chadwick │Soefje, PLLC attorneys possess the breadth of experience to respond to the unique legal and operational challenges health industry and other clients face and help guide them toward pragmatic resolutions that make sense for them. “Solutions Lawyers™ possess the breadth of experience to respond to the unique challenges our corporate and individual clients face and help guide them toward pragmatic resolutions that make sense for them.

Founded by nationally-known, healthcare and labor & employment attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer; labor & employment attorney Robert G. Chadwick; and professional liability and civil litigation attorney Timothy B. Soefje, Stamer │Chadwick │Soefje, PLLC focuses on advising and representing businesses and professionals nationally in the areas of healthcare, cyber liability, ERISA, employee benefits, labor & employment, corporate and commercial litigation, professional liability, construction litigation, and insurance defense. All three attorneys are rated AV® Preeminent™ by Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™ Ms. Stamer and Mr. Chadwick are both Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, are Fellows in the American Bar Foundation, and recognized as “Top Lawyers” in Labor and Employment Law. Ms. Stamer also has received recognition as a “Top” attorney in health care and employee benefits law and is a Fellow in the American College of Employee Benefit Council.

Ms. Stamer more than 28 years’ experience advising and representing health industry and employee benefit clients on a wide range of legal, public policy, management and operational concerns as well as extensive leadership and management experience serving in on the board of health industry nonprofit organizations. Nationally recognized for her legal work, advocacy, publications, writings and presentations on health industry concerns, Ms. Stamer provides legal and management advice, training and coaching, defense, public policy and regulatory advocacy to health industry and other clients on health and other regulatory and operational compliance, federal and state public policy and enforcement, managed care and other contracting, reimbursement, fraud, quality, employment, staffing and other workforce, benefits, licensing, credentialing and peer review, safety, disaster preparedness and response, HIPAA and other privacy and data security, corporate governance, investigations and internal controls, and a host of other health industry compliance and risk management and other legal and operational concerns. In addition to her legal experience, Ms. Stamer also contributes her experience and talents to serving in a number of health industry and other civil and professional groups. Among other things, Ms. Stamer serves as Vice President of the NTHCPA, the RPTE representative to the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits Council and scrivener for its annual agency meeting with the Office of Civil Rights, the ABA International Section Life Sciences and Health Law Committee Vice President of Policy, RPTE Liaison to the ABA Health Care Coordinating Counsel, TIPS Employee Benefit Committee Vice Chair, Founder and Executive Director of the Project COPE: The Coalition on Patient Empowerment, and National Physicians Council for Healthcare Policy. She also previously served as President and Founding Board Member of the Alliance for Health Care Excellence and its Health Care Heroes and Patient Empowerment Programs, as RPTE Employee Benefits & Other Compensation Group Chair and Welfare Benefit Committee Vice Chair, Exempt Organizations Coordinator of the Gulf States Area TEGE Council, Board President and Audit Committee Chair of the Richardson Development Center for Children ECI Agency, National Kidney Foundation of North Texas Board Audit Committee Chair, the United Way of North Texas Long Range Planning Committee. She also has and continues to serve in the leadership of many other civic and professional boards, seminar faculties, editorial advisory boards and publishes and speaks extensively on health industry and employee benefit related concerns.

Mr. Chadwick has extensive experience advising and defending health industry and other clients on OSHA and other occupational health and safety, employee benefits, compensation and other labor and employment concerns as well as defending boards and other management leaders against management liability claims.

Mr. Soefje has extensive experience advising and representing health industry clients and professionals on medical malpractice, officers and directors liability and other professional liability, errors and omissions, construction defect and other litigation and disputes. For additional information, see the firm’s website here or contact Ms. Stamer via e-mail here.

About the NTHCPA

NTHCPA exists to champion ethical practice and compliance standards and to provide the necessary resources for ethics and compliance Professionals and others in North Texas who share these principles. The vision of NTHCPA is to be a pre-eminent compliance and ethics group promoting lasting success and integrity of organizations within North Texas.

Sponsorship and Other Involvement Opportunities

Would you or someone you know like to join the NTHCPA, get notice of upcoming meetings or events and network on relevant professional developments with other health care professionals? Stay on top of information about upcoming meetings and share and dialogue with other NTHCPA members about health care compliance challenges and developments by participating in our meetings and events, joining our Linked In Group here and checking out the NTHCPA News here. To be added to our invitation list, we also encourage interested persons to make sure we have your current contact information by joining the NTHCPA here or registering for the meeting at here.

We also invite interested members to volunteer to help make our study group a success. If you or someone you know would like to help support for the NTHCPA by sponsoring the luncheon or hosting a social hour, speaking at or helping to plan upcoming meetings, suggesting a speaker or topic, helping with the newsletter or website getting more involved in other ways, let us know by emailing us here.

Notice: This communication may be considered marketing purposes. If you wish to update your e-mail for purposes of or would prefer not to receive future e-mail concerning meetings or other activities of the North Texas Healthcare Compliance Professionals Association or other marketing and promotional mailings from it, please send an email with the word “unsubscribe” in its subject heading here.
Please share this invitation with others who might be interested in this topic or other NTHCPA events!

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Health Plans | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Health Care Org’s ERISA Health Plan Reimbursement Opportunities & Compliance Obligations Free 9/15 Study Group Topic

September 9, 2015

Solutions Law Press, Inc. is happy to share information about this upcoming free health industry study group meeting on 9/15/2015 in Irving, Texas.

NORTH TEXAS HEALTHCARE COMPLIANCE PROFESSIONALS ASSOCIATION

Invites Members and Guests to Our Next Group Luncheon

Employee Benefit Security Administration Insights On Healthcare Organization’s Health & Other Employee Benefit Plan Rights & Responsibilities Under Employee Retirement Income Security Act

Featuring

Kristi Gotcher

U.S. Department of Labor Employee Benefit Security Administration Investigator

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

DFW Hospital Council Offices

250 Decker Drive

Irving, Texas

RSVP here by Noon on September 14, 2015

Space Limited! Register Early To Reserve Your Spot To Participate!

Please share this invitation with others who might be interested in this topic or other NTHCPA events!

The North Texas Healthcare Compliance Professionals Association (NTHCPA) invites members and other interested health care compliance professionals to join us on Tuesday, September 15, 2015 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for our Study Group Luncheon featuring a program on “Employee Benefit Security Administration Insights On Healthcare Organization’s Health & Other Employee Benefit Plan Rights & Responsibilities Under Employee Retirement Income Security Act” from U.S. Department of Labor Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) Investigator Kristi Gotcher.

The health and other employee benefit plan rules of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) generally offer important protections and create significant compliance challenges for health care organizations and providers. On one hand, health care providers generally rely heavily on their or their patient’s ability to obtain health benefits promised under employer or union-sponsored health plans covering their patients to help reimbursement provider charges. Meanwhile, health care providers and their leaders also can incur significant liability for failing to comply with ERISA’s rules when establishing and maintaining health or other employee benefit programs for their own employees. Drawing on her involvement as investigator with the Department of Labor agency primarily responsible for both interpreting and enforcing ERISA’s rules, EBSA Ms. Gotcher will share key updates and insights on both how ERISA and the EBSA can help patients and providers enforce benefit rights under ERISA-covered health plans and key health and highlight employee benefit compliance responsibilities that health care organizations and their leaders need to ensure that their own health and other employee benefit programs meet to avoid violating ERISA.

About the Speaker

Registration & Meeting Details

There is no charge to participate in the meeting. However space is limited and available only on a first come, first serve basis. To ensure your spot and help us to arrange for adequate space and refreshments for this meeting, R.S.V.P. here as soon as possible and no later than Noon on September 14, 2015. Walk in guests will be accommodated on a space-available basis only.

Thanks To Meeting Underwriter Stamer ׀ Chadwick ׀ Soefje, PLLC

Stamer │Chadwick │Soefje, PLLC attorneys deliver sophisticated legal advice and innovative solutions to the most challenging and complex problems. Stamer │Chadwick │Soefje, PLLC attorneys possess the breadth of experience to respond to the unique legal and operational challenges health industry and other clients face and help guide them toward pragmatic resolutions that make sense for them. “Solutions Lawyers™ possess the breadth of experience to respond to the unique challenges our corporate and individual clients face and help guide them toward pragmatic resolutions that make sense for them.

For additional information, contact Ms. Stamer cstamer@solutionslawyer.net

About the NTHCPA

About Solutions Law Press

Other Helpful Resources & Other Information

We hope that this information is useful to you. If you found these updates of interest, you also be interested in one or more of the following other recent articles published on the Coalition for Responsible Health Care Reform electronic publication available here, our electronic Solutions Law Press Health Care Update publication available here, or our HR & Benefits Update electronic publication available here. You also can get access to information about how you can arrange for training on “Building Your Family’s Health Care Toolkit,” using the “PlayForLife” resources to organize low-cost wellness programs in your workplace, school, church or other communities, and other process improvement, compliance and other training and other resources for health care providers, employers, health plans, community leaders and others here. If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns, please be sure that we have your current contact information – including your preferred e-mail by creating or updating your profile here. You can reach other recent updates and other informative publications and resources.

Examples of some of these recent health care related publications include:

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Affordable Care Act, billing, Compliance, Corporate Compliance, employee benefits, ERISA, Health Care Fraud, Health Plans, healthcare, heatlth insurance, Hospital, Physicians, Reimbursement, Risk Management | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

OCR’s Proposed Sex & Other Discrimination Rules Spell Headaches & New Risks For Health Care Providers, Insurers & Others

September 3, 2015

November 6, 2015 is the deadline for health care providers, health insurance exchanges, Medicare Advantage plans, Medicaid Advantage plans, health insurers providing coverage in the health insurance marketplaces, their contractors and other concerned parties to comment on a proposed rule on Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities published today by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement the federal prohibition against sex discrimination in health programs and activities enacted under Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and tightening other nondiscrimination requirements that generally apply to Health Insurance Marketplaces, any health program that HHS itself administers, and any health program or activity, any part of which receives funding from HHS, such as hospitals that accept Medicare patients or doctors who treat Medicaid patients, and health insurance issurers participating in the Health Insurance Marketplaces, Medicare or Medicaid Advantage Plans and other entities covered by the HHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR) civil rights rules (covered entities) and various other programs and activities administered by HHS’ Office of Civil Rights (OCR).

Since OCR already aggressively investigates and enforces federal prohibitions against discrimination based on race, color, national origin, disability, age and sex against covered entities as part of the Obama Administration’s broader civil rights agenda, covered entities can look forward to OCR’s adoption of the proposed rules to add even more teeth and fire to the already aggressive enforcement by OCR of health care providers, insurers and other parties subject to the civil rights laws enforced by OCR. See. e.g., Health Care Employer’s Discrimination Triggers Medicare, EEOC Prosecutions; Genesis Healthcare Disability HHS OCR Discrimination Settlement Reminder To Use Interpreters, Other Needed Accommodations For Disabled; OCR Settlements Show Health Care & Disabled Housing Providers Face Growing Disability Discrimination Risks Given the often multimillion dollar penalties and other heavy sanctions that OCR already has imposed against a long and ever-growing list of state and other health care, child care, elder care, insurance and other entities for violating the discrimination or other civil rights rules administered by OCR, health care and other providers, Medicare and Medicaid Advantage and other insurers, and other covered entities generally will want both to carefully review and comment as appropriate on the proposed rules, as well as review and tighten as advisable their existing practices to reduce the risk of being sanctioned, excluded or both for violation of these nondiscrimination and other civil rights requirements by OCR. In this respect, covered entities will want both to evaluate their risks and responsibilities under the specific rules about Section 1557’s sex discrimination prohibits, as well as changes that more broadly affect the interpretation and enforcement of the nondiscrimination rules enforced by OCR generally.

Sex and Gender Identity Discrimination

Concerning the new prohibition against sex discrimination added by Section 1557 of the ACA, the proposed rule expressly provides that covered entities must treat woman equally with men in the health care they receive generally as well as specifically comments on the obligations of covered insurers with respect to sex discrimination including gender identity. While other provisions of the ACA bar certain types of sex discrimination in insurance, for example by prohibiting women from being charged more than men for coverage, the proposed regulation makes clear that the protections of Section 1557 reach even more broadly to prohibit sex discrimination both in the health coverage patients obtain as well as in the health services they seek from providers.

Not unexpectedly in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell and the Obama Administration’s proactive agenda on the advance of rights for lesbian, bisexual, gay and transsexual (LBGT) individuals, the proposed rule makes clear that OCR construes prohibited sex discrimination under Section 1557 to include discrimination based on gender identity as well as to address various coverage and care practices that OCR views as prohibited sex discrimination of LBGT individuals. In this respect, the proposed rule makes clear HHS’s commitment, as a matter of policy, to preventing discrimination based on sexual orientation by providing, among other things that Individuals may not be subject to discrimination based on gender identity by any covered entities including insurance policies and their issuers. OCR also highlights various policy provisions and other practices by insurers that it views as prohibited sex discrimination against transsexual individuals such as categorical exclusions on coverage of all care related to gender transition. Similarly, the proposed rule also states that health care providers, insurers and other covered person must treat all individuals consistent with their gender identity, including in access to facilities. Beyond the already proposed safeguards against sex discrimination based on gender identity, OCR also requests comment on how a final rule can incorporate the most robust set of protections against discrimination that are supported by the courts on an ongoing basis.

Other Nondiscrimination Rule Expansions

Beyond its requirements relating to sex discrimination, the proposed rule also addresses a host of other concerns relating to the civil rights rules more generally. As an initial matter, the proposed rule invites individuals in protected classes to file complaints and pursue other enforcement by confirming that OCR interprets Section 1557 as allowing individuals to seek legal remedies for discrimination under Section 1557. While OCR already has been allowing this in practice, this blessing of the right of individuals to seek legal remedies unquestionably will encourage the filing of more complaints and other private actions.

The proposed rule also would add more teeth to the already aggressive enforcement by OCR of its position that covered entities must accommodate community deficiencies of persons with cognitive, speech, hearing or other disabilities and English proficiency limitations on their ability to communicate on health care matters by establishing more detailed minimum standards for the provision of language services, such as oral interpreters and written translations to persons with limited English proficiency and to provide individuals with hearing or other disabilities affecting their ability to communicate to provide auxiliary aids and services, including alternative formats and sign language interpreters, and the accessibility of programs offered through electronic and information technology. These proposed requirements are designed to provide more teeth and compliance with OCR’s expectation that covered entities will affirmatively act to offer accommodations needed to ensure the ability of individuals to communicate when the individual’s ability to understand or respond is impaired by disabilities or limited English proficiency.

Also, the proposed regulations specifically addresses various practices by Medicare and Medicaid Advantage plans and other insurers offering coverage in the marketplace that OCR views as discriminatory. For instance, the proposed rule states that insurers participating or offering coverage through any Health Insurance Marketplace cannot engage in any marketing practices or benefit designs that discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability. This prohibition would extend to all the plans of insurers participating in the Marketplace are covered by the proposed rule.

Beyond the already proposed expansion in the current regulatory expectations, OCR also invites input about additional requirements to broaden the safeguards in the proposed regulations by requesting comment on whether Section 1557 should include an exemption for religious organizations and what the scope of any such exemption should be as well as comment on how a final rule can incorporate the most robust set of protections against discrimination that are supported by the courts on an ongoing basis.

Unquestionably these and other changes proposed in the proposed regulation likely will impact the practices and risks of virtually all covered entities. The proposed rule is open for public comment through November 6, 2015. Covered entities and other interested persons will want to promptly review the specifics of the proposed regulation in light of OCR’s already existing investigation and enforcement activities and their current or contemplated practices. To the extent appropriate, covered entities will want to ensure that they carefully prepare and submit all revelevant comment or other feedback promptly submitted on or before the November 6, 2015 comment deadline. Whether or not a covered entity elects to comment of the proposed regulations, however, all covered entities also should begin tightening and adapting their existing policies and practices to respond to the positions revealed by the proposed regulations, as OCR’s enforcement activities reflect that OCR will act to enforce many of these expectations even as it pursues adoption of the proposed regulations in final form.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section, Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law, and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 28 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes more than 23 years experience advising and defending hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care, housing, insurance and other clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to discrimination and other charges from OCR, HUD, EEOC, DOJ, private claimants and others. She also advises and assists a broad range of health industry and other clients to respond to and defend Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR, CMS & other HHS agencies, Department of Labor, IRS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting for several years with OCR. Ms. Stamer also works extensively with health care providers, health plans and insurers, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance, investigations, defense, and other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on discrimination and other civil rights, pandemic and other contagious disease, HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance, quality, reimbursement, and a broad range of other industry internal controls, compliance, risk management, employment, patient safety, staffing, credentialing, board governance, antitrust, contracting and other legal and operational concerns for a multitude of clients and associations ranging from the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, the American Health Lawyers Association, the Medical Group Management Association, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Other Helpful Resources & Other Information

Examples of some of these recent health care related publications include:

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns, please be sure that we have your current contact information – including your preferred e-mail – by creating or updating your profile here. For important information concerning this communication click here.THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMER IS INCLUDED TO COMPLY WITH AND IN RESPONSE TO U.S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT CIRCULAR 230 REGULATIONS. ANY STATEMENTS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE NOT INTENDED OR WRITTEN BY THE WRITER TO BE USED, AND NOTHING CONTAINED HEREIN CAN BE USED BY YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON, FOR THE PURPOSE OF (1) AVOIDING PENALTIES THAT MAY BE IMPOSED UNDER FEDERAL TAX LAW, OR (2) PROMOTING, MARKETING OR RECOMMENDING TO ANOTHER PARTY ANY TAX-RELATED TRANSACTION OR MATTER ADDRESSED HEREIN.

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: accommodate, age discrimination, Civil Rights, cognitive disorder, Disability Discrimination, Discrimination, English as Second Language, gender identity discrimination, Health Care, Health insurer, hearing imparied, HHS, Hospital, housing, insurer, language impaired, Limited English Proficiency, Medicaid, Medicaid Advantage, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, National Origin Discrimination, OCR, Office of Civil Rights, Physicians, rage discrimination, real estate, religious discrimination, same-sex, sex discrimination, treatment | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Feds Charges 8 For Alleged $50M In Bogus Student Substance Abuse Counseling Claims

September 3, 2015

Federal prosecutors secured indictments against 8 more former employees of Long Beach, California based Atlantic Health Services, formerly known as Atlantic Recovery Services (ARS) for health care fraud and aggravated identity theft for their alleged participation in a scheme that prosecutors claim resulted in the submission of more than $50 million in fraudulent bills to a California state program for alcohol and drug treatment services for high school and middle school students that in many instances, were not provided or were provided to students who did not have substance abuse problems. Download Drug Counseling Scam Indictment.

The latest in the ongoing series of charges brought by federal officials resulting from investigations into charges made by ARS, the indictments accuse ARS and its employees of engaging in a long-running fraud scheme to steal tens of millions of dollars from a program with limited resources that was designed to help underprivileged youth in recovery. In the process, prosecutors claim the defendants and ARS branded many innocent young people as substance abusers and addicts in order to boost enrollment numbers and billings.

Prosecutors claim ARS received more than $46 million from California’s Drug Medi-Cal program after ARS submitted false and fraudulent claims for group and individual substance abuse counseling services. All 8 defendants are former employees of ARS, which received contracts to provide substance abuse treatment services through the Drug Medi-Cal program to students in schools in Los Angeles County. The schools included various sites operated by Soledad Enrichment Action and public schools in Montebello, California, Bell Gardens, Californina, Lakewood, and the Antelope Valley.

According to the indictment unsealed this morning, the claims submitted by ARS to the Drug Medi-Cal program were false and fraudulent for a number of reasons, including:

ARS billed for services provided to students who did not have substance abuse disorders or addictions and therefore did not qualify to receive Drug Medi-Cal services;
ARS billed for counseling sessions that were not conducted at all;
ARS billed for counseling services that were not conducted in accordance with Drug Medi-Cal regulations regarding length, number of students, content and setting;
ARS personnel falsified documents, including treatment plans, group counseling sign-in sheets, progress notes and update logs (which listed the dates and times of counseling sessions); and
ARS personnel forged student signatures on documents.
The defendants named in the indictment are:

Lori Renee Miller, 54, of Lakewood, California, the program manager at ARS who supervised substance abuse recovery managers and counselors;
Nguyet Galaz, 41, of Montclair, California, who oversaw services provided at approximately 11 schools in Los Angeles County;
Angela Frances Micklo, 56, of Palmdale, California, who managed counselors at approximately nine schools in Los Angeles County, including several in the Antelope Valley;
Maribel Navarro, 48, of Pico Rivera, California, who managed counselors at approximately ten schools in Los Angeles County;
Carrenda Jeffery, 64, of the Mid-City District of Los Angeles, who managed counselors at approximately three schools;
LaLonnie Egans, 57, of Bellflower, California, who managed counselors at three schools;
Tina Lynn St. Julian, 51, of Compton, California, who worked as a counselor at two schools; and
Shyrie Womack, 33, Egans’ daughter, also of Bellflower, who worked as a counselor at three schools.The indictments announced today raise the total former ARS employees charged as a result of an investigation by the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services; the California Department of Justice, Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse; and IRS – Criminal Investigation of ARS to 20. Previously, 11 other defendants pleaded guilty to health care fraud charges stemming from the ARS scheme. Those defendants are former ARS managers Cathy Fernandez, 53, of Downey, California; Erin Hoover, 37, of Long Beach, California; Elizabeth Black, 51, of Long Beach; Helsa Casillas, 44, of El Sereno, California; and Sandra Lopez, 41, of Huntington Park, California; and former ARS counselors Tamara Diaz, 45 of East Los Angeles, California; Margarita Lopez, 40, of Paramount, California; Irma Talavera, 27, of Paramount; Laura Vasquez, 52, of Pico Rivera; Cindy Leticia Ortiz, 29, of Norwalk, California; and Arthur Dominguez, 63, of Glendale, California. Another defendant, Dr. Leland Whitson, 75, of Redondo Beach, California, the former Medical/Clinical Director of ARS, previously pleaded guilty to making a false statement affecting a health care program. The dozen defendants who already pleaded guilty are pending sentencing by U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez.
Each of the eight defendants named in the August 26 indictment unsealed today potentially faces decades in federal prison if convicted. For example, if convicted, Miller faces a statutory maximum sentence of 324 years in federal prison. Federal officials arrested six of the defendants today. The Justice Department says it expects Galaz and Micklo self-surrender in the coming weeks.

With health care fraud enforcement a key component of the federal government’s efforts to bring down health care costs and the continuing success of federal and state health care fraud investigation and enforcement efforts like those already achieved by the Justice Department against the 12 defendants that already pleaded guilty, health care providers providing substance abuse or other treatments reimbursed by federal or state programs should must ensure that their care and billings are appropriately delivered and documented to withstand almost inevitable government scrutiny of their operations and activities.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section, Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law, and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 26 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, Department of Labor, IRS, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Other Helpful Resources & Other Information

Examples of some of these recent health care related publications include:

Leave a Comment » | drug treatment, Health Care, Health Care Fraud, health care reimbursement, substance abuse treatment | Tagged: clinics, drug treatment, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Reimbursement, medi-Cal, Medicaid, Medicare, mental health care chemical dependency, school health care, substance abuse, substance abuse counseling, treatment facilities | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Check Out & Comment By 10/13 On FDA Proposed Food Labeling Rule Changes

August 20, 2015

Consumers, health care providers and others concerned about nutrition labeling should review proposed changes to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food labeling rules recently proposed by the FDA and submit any comments by the October 13, 2015 comment deadline.
With diet and lifestyle related diseases continuing to drive American disability and healthcare costs, American policymakers, business leaders, insurers, employers and consumers increasingly are looking to help Americans to eat better. FDA issued two proposed rules and one supplemental proposed rule on updating the nutrition facts label. Growing interest in promoting better health by helping Americans to eat smarter has prompted recurrent interest in improvements to food labels required by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules.

In response to these concerns, FDA now is considering final adoption of two proposed rules and one supplemental proposed rule on updating the nutrition facts label. Interested parties can review these proposed rules and other related information here.

Concerned parties should review these proposed rules and other related information here.

About Project COPE: The Coalition On Patient Empowerment & Coalition on Responsible Health Policy

Do you have ideas about how to improve the understandability of medication warnings or research findings for patients or other ideas about how to improve healthcare or health care policy? Share your ideas in the PROJECT COPE: Coalition On Patient Empowerment LinkedIn Group. If you have knowledge, experience or other resources that could help patients, families, communities, or the government better understand or cope with Asperger’s or other health care conditions, costs of care, or other challenges affecting Americans and the American health care system, we encourage you to get involved and share your insights.

As American leaders continue to struggle to deal with these and other mounting problems impacting the U.S. health care system, the input of individual Americans and businesses and community leaders is more critical than ever. Get involved in helping to shape improvements and solutions to the U.S. health care system and the Americans it cares for by sharing your ideas and input through the Coalition For Responsible Health Care Policy and exchanging information and ideas for helping American families deal with their family member’s illnesses, disabilities and other healthcare challenges through PROJECT COPE: Coalition On Patient Empowerment.

Sharing and promoting the use of practical practices, tools, information and ideas that patients and their families, health care providers, employers, health plans, communities and policymakers can share and offer to help patients, their families and others in their care communities to understand and work together to better help the patients, their family and their professional and private care community plan for and manage these needs is the purpose of PROJECT COPE.

The Coalition and its PROJECT COPE arise and run on the belief that health care reform and policy must be patient centric and patient empowering. The best opportunity to improve access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans is for every American, and every employer, insurer, and community organization to seize the opportunity to be good Samaritans. The government, health care providers, insurers and community organizations can help by providing education and resources to make understanding and dealing with the realities of illness, disability or aging easier for a patient and their family, the affected employers and others. At the end of the day, however, caring for people requires the human touch. Americans can best improve health care by not waiting for someone else to step up: Step up and help bridge the gap when you or your organization can. Speak up to help communicate and facilitate when you can. Building health care neighborhoods filled with good neighbors throughout the community is the key.

The outcome of this latest health care reform push is only a small part of a continuing process. Whether or not the Affordable Care Act makes financing care better or worse, the same challenges exist. The real meaning of the enacted reforms will be determined largely by the shaping and implementation of regulations and enforcement actions which generally are conducted outside the public eye. Americans individually and collectively clearly should monitor and continue to provide input through this critical time to help shape constructive rather than obstructive policy. Regardless of how the policy ultimately evolves, however, Americans, American businesses, and American communities still will need to roll up their sleeves and work to deal with the realities of dealing with ill, aging and disabled people and their families. While the reimbursement and coverage map will change and new government mandates will confine providers, payers and patients, the practical needs and challenges of patients and families will be the same and confusion about the new configuration will create new challenges as patients, providers and payers work through the changes.

We also encourage you and others to help develop real meaningful improvements by joining PROJECT COPE: Coalition On Patient Empowerment and by sharing ideas, tools and other solutions and other resources. The Coalition For Responsible Health Care Policy provides a resource that concerned Americans can use to share, monitor and discuss the Health Care Reform law and other health care, insurance and related laws, regulations, policies and practices and options for promoting access to quality, affordable healthcare through the design, administration and enforcement of these regulations.

You also may be interested in one or more of the following other recent articles published on the Coalition for Responsible Health Care Reform electronic publication available here such as the following, our electronic Solutions Law Press Health Care Update publication available here, and/or our HR & Benefits Update electronic publication available here:

You also can get details about how to arrange for your employees or other communities to participate in training on “Building Your Family’s Health Care Toolkit,” using the “PlayForLife” resources to organize low-cost wellness programs in your workplace, school, church or other communities, and other process improvement, compliance and other training and other resources for health care providers, employers, health plans, community leaders and others here.

NOTE: This article is provided for educational purposes. It is does not provide legal advice, establish any attorney-client relationship or provide or serve as a substitute for legal advice to any individual or organization. Readers must engage properly qualified legal counsel to secure legal advice about the rules discussed in light of specific circumstances. ANY STATEMENTS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE NOT INTENDED OR WRITTEN BY THE WRITER TO BE USED, AND NOTHING CONTAINED HEREIN CAN BE USED BY YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON, FOR THE PURPOSE OF (1) AVOIDING PENALTIES THAT MAY BE IMPOSED UNDER FEDERAL TAX LAW, or (2) PROMOTING, MARKETING OR RECOMMENDING TO ANOTHER PARTY ANY TAX-RELATED TRANSACTION OR MATTER ADDRESSED HEREIN. ©2015 Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, P.C. Non-exclusive license to republish granted to Solutions Law Press. All other rights reserved.

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

10 Practical Pointers To Use Law To Better Strengthen The Legal Defensibility Of Your Business & Its Leaders

August 13, 2015

10 Practical Pointers To Use Law To Better Strengthen The Legal Defensibility Of Your Business & Its Leaders.

via 10 Practical Pointers To Use Law To Better Strengthen The Legal Defensibility Of Your Business & Its Leaders.

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Check Defensibility Of Policies & Practices Given New HHS/DOJ Joint Disability Law Technical Assistance

August 10, 2015

Child welfare agencies, health care providers and their contactors and other service providers should evaluate the adequacy and defensibility of their existing practices for accommodating and providing other services to individuals with disabilities and their families in light of the new joint technical assistance to state and local child welfare agencies and courts on the requirements of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act jointly announced by the Departments of Health & Human Services (HHS) and the Justice (DOJ) under a new HHS/DOJ partnership intended to help child welfare agencies protect the welfare of children and ensure compliance with nondiscrimination laws announced here August 10, 2015.

Federal child welfare and discrimination laws generally prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability, and require providers of government programs, services, and activities to make reasonable modifications to their policies and practices when necessary to avoid discrimination on the basis of disability, unless such modifications would fundamentally alter the nature of the program or the services. The new joint technical assistance addresses disability discrimination complaints that HHS and DOJ say the agencies have received from parents who have had their children taken away or otherwise have not been given equal opportunities to become foster or adoptive parents.

The technical assistance provides an overview of Title II of the ADA and Section 504 and examples about how to apply them in the child welfare system, including child welfare investigations, assessments, guardianship, removal of children from their homes, case planning, adoption, foster care, and family court hearings, such as termination of parental rights proceedings. It also underscores that Title II and Section 504 prohibit child welfare agencies from acting based on unfounded assumptions, generalizations, or stereotypes regarding persons with disabilities.

HHS and DOJ hope “[p]roviding this technical assistance to state and local agencies and courts will help ensure that families who have a member with a disability get equal access to vital child welfare services,” said Mark Greenberg, HHS’ Administration for Children and Families’ Acting Assistant Secretary.

The new child welfare technical assistance is part of a broader ongoing emphasis on investigation and enforcement of disability and other discrimination laws by HHS, DOJ and other agencies under the Obama Administration. Under the Obama Administration, HHS, DOJ and other agencies already have heavily sanctioned many child welfare, health care and other agencies and providers for alleged violation of these and other federal disability discrimination laws. See, e.g., Health Care Employer’s Discrimination Triggers Medicare, EEOC Prosecutions; Hospital Will Pay $75K For Refusing To Hire Disabled Worker; OCR Settlements Show Health Care & Disabled Housing Providers Face Growing Disability Discrimination Risks; Genesis Healthcare Disability HHS OCR Discrimination Settlement Reminder To Use Interpreters, Other Needed Accommodations For Disabled. In the face of this emphasis, child welfare, health care and other agencies and their legal counsel and other service providers should expect greater deference and enforcement to the needs of children and parents with disabilities in child custody, adoption, divorce and other proceedings, as well as continued investigation and enforcement of disability and other discrimination laws against child welfare, health care, and other social service agencies, their legal counsel and other advocates and others providing services. These and other organizations and service providers should evaluate the defensibility of the existing policies, practices and recordkeeping practices of their own organization, as well as those of their contractors and subcontractors in light of these and other disability discrimination laws, regulations and enforcement practices.

For More Advice, Assistance Or More Information

The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, past Board President of the Richardson Development for Children and former Board Audit Committee Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has lead, advised, represented and conducted training and investigations of disability and other legal and operations risk management and compliance for early childhood intervention (ECI) and other childcare, health care, public and private schools, social service and other public and private organizations. Ms. Stamer also has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others. Ms. Stamer continuously advises health industry clients about compliance and internal controls, workforce and medical staff performance, quality, governance, reimbursement, and other risk management and operational matters. Ms. Stamer also publishes and speaks extensively on health and managed care industry regulatory, staffing and human resources, compensation and benefits, technology, public policy, reimbursement and other operations and risk management concerns. Her insights on these and other related matters appear in the Health Care Compliance Association, Atlantic Information Service, Bureau of National Affairs, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insurance, the Dallas Morning News, Modern Health Care, Managed Healthcare, Health Leaders, and a many other national and local publications. You can get more information about her health industry experience here. If you need assistance responding to concerns about the matters discussed in this publication or other health care concerns, wish to obtain information about arranging for training or presentations by Ms. Stamer, wish to suggest a topic for a future program or update, or wish to request other information or materials, please contact Ms. Stamer via telephone at (214) 452-8297 or via e-mail here.

About Solutions Law Press

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns, please be sure that we have your current contact information – including your preferred e-mail – by creating or updating your profile here. For important information about this communication click here.THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMER IS INCLUDED TO COMPLY WITH AND IN RESPONSE TO U.S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT CIRCULAR 230 REGULATIONS. ANY STATEMENTS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE NOT INTENDED OR WRITTEN BY THE WRITER TO BE USED, AND NOTHING CONTAINED HEREIN CAN BE USED BY YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON, FOR THE PURPOSE OF (1) AVOIDING PENALTIES THAT MAY BE IMPOSED UNDER FEDERAL TAX LAW, OR (2) PROMOTING, MARKETING OR RECOMMENDING TO ANOTHER PARTY ANY TAX-RELATED TRANSACTION OR MATTER ADDRESSED HEREIN. ©2015 Cynthia Marcotte Stamer. Non-exclusive right to republish granted to Solutions Law Press, Inc. All other rights reserved.

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

10 Year Prison Sentence. $8M Civil Settlement Highlight Risks Of Wrongfully Billing Services Performed By Nonphysicians As Physician Services

July 31, 2015

Austin, Texas physician Dennis B. Barson Jr. and his medical clinic administrator are headed to prison. The 10 year prison sentence imposed against Barson on July 27, 2014, like an $8 million plus health care fraud civil settlement announced by the Justice Department on July 24, 2014 illustrate the significant legal risks that physicians and other health care providers face when physician charges are improperly billed to Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare or other federal or state health care programs for services actually provided by non-physician staff. Physicians and others should heed the lessons from these and other similar federal and state health care fraud enforcement actions when deciding how and when it is appropriate to delegate to and bill federal health care programs for physician services where physicians assistants, nurse practitioners or other nursing staff or other non-physicians perform part or all of the procedures billed.

Dr. Barson Prison Sentence Highlights Criminal Risks

On Monday, July 27, 2015, U.S. District Court Judge Melinda Harmon ordered Barson to serve 120 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release and pay restitution of approximately $1.2 million in punishment for his November 5, 2014 on all 20 counts of conspiracy to defraud Medicare of $2.1 million. See, Austin Doctor Heads to Prison for Health Care Fraud.

With Judge Harmon presiding, a Houston jury found Barson and his medical clinic administrator, Dario Juarez, 55 guilty on the Medicare fraud charges last November. Another co-defendant Edgar Shakbazyan entered a guilty plea to the 21-count original indictment on October 27, 2014. Shakbazyan, of Glendale, California, was sentenced to 97 months in prison, while Juarez, of Beeville, Texas received 130 months. Both will also serve three years of supervised release. The jury convictions of Barson and Juarez followed a trial where Department of Justice prosecutors proved the health care fraud charges based on evidence that Barson, Juarez and Shakbazyan fraudulently billed Medicare for rectal sensation tests and electromyogram (EMG) studies of the anal or urethral sphincter never performed. Shakbazyan was additionally charged and plead guilty to conspiracy to pay kickbacks for payments made to recruiters and beneficiaries. According to the testimony at trial, Barson was the only doctor affiliated with the medical clinic located at 8470 Gulf Freeway in Houston. However, Juarez represented himself to be a doctor and was the one who actually saw patients at the clinic. Barson, Juarez and Shakbazyan caused Medicare to be billed for procedures on 429 patients in just two months. The three men also billed Medicare for seeing more than 100 patients on 13 different days, including a high of 156 patients on July 13, 2009.

Barson’s defense attempted to convince the jury that he was a victim of identity theft and was not the perpetrator of the crimes. The jury conviction shows the jurors not believe his story. The criminal charges are the result of a joint investigation conducted by agents of the FBI, Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General and the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Texas Attorney General’s Office.

Margossian Settlement Shows Even More Common Civil Penalty Risks

Barson’s sentencing is one of a growing series of criminal convictions and sentencing of physicians and other health care providers for health care fraud by participating in arrangements where Medicare, Medicaid or other federal health care programs are billed for services not provided or not provided as required to qualify for reimbursement. On July 24, 2015, for instance, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and the State of New York announced that that Brooklyn, New York OB/GYN Haroutyoun Margossian, will pay $8, 047, 291.05 as part of a civil settlement with the United States and the State of New York that resolves charges brought under the federal False Claims Act and the New York False Claims Act that Margossian wrongfully billed Medicare and Medicaid for physician services for treatments of women suffering from urinary incontinence that unlicensed and often unsupervised staff, rather than Margossian or another physician, actually administered. Under the terms of the civil settlement agreement, Margossian will pay a total of $8,047,291.06. Contemporaneously with the execution of the civil settlement agreement, the government filed a criminal charge against Margossian for making false statements to Medicare and entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with him. See, Board Certified Obstetrician And Gynecologist Agrees To Civil Fraud Settlement In Conjunction With Deferred Prosecution In Medicare And Medicaid Fraud Investigation.

Health Care Fraud Investigations Raise Other Licensing & Practice Risks

The Barson and Margossian actions are just two, of the already long, and ever-growing criminal convictions, civil sanctions and civil settlements that Federal and state health care fraud fighters already can count as notches of success in their war against health care fraud by physicians and other health care providers. With these successes fueling more investigations, physicians and others considering engaging in billing or other practices in violation of the False Claims Act or other health care fraud laws clearly should be prepared to “do time” for improperly billing physician fees to federal health care programs for services not provided by the billing physician or engage in other inappropriate billing practices. While successfully defending criminal and civil investigations is critical for physicians and others under investigation, targets of audits and investigations also must prepare to deal with a host of other threats to their practices which almost inevitably arise regardless of whether the government investigation leads to a conviction, civil sanctions or a settlement.

As demonstrated by the Margossian settlement, even if physicians, practice management and others swept up into these investigations escape being criminally charged, subjected to civil sanctions or penalties or suspended or excluded from Medicare or other federal health care programs, health care fraud investigations or charges still will carry a heavy cost. Alongside of the growing success of federal and state prosecutors in criminally prosecuting physicians and others for health care fraud, health care fraud warriors are realizing even greater success in securing civil sanctions and settlements, federal program exclusions and other civil and administrative punishments against physicians and other health care providers that the government accuses of violating the False Claims Act or other federal health care fraud rules.

Of course, whether or not health care fraud civil or criminal investigations, ultimately result in any civil or criminal prosecution, conviction or settlement, physicians and other licensed health care providers under suspicion, audit, investigation, charges or other scrutiny for alleged false claims or other health care fraud inevitably must deal with a broad range of other professional fallout as these activities almost always trigger scrutiny or other actions by their employers and medical practices, peer review notifications and investigations by hospitals, managed care organizations and other health care organizations and plans where they have privileges or contracts, and licensing board or other professional disciplinary investigations if not actual discipline.

Act To Strengthen Your Defenses

In the face of these and other enforcement actions, physicians and others should take steps to minimize the risk of an investigation or audit leading to criminal, civil or other charges as well as take steps to help ensure sufficient resources to defend themselves if the government comes knocking.

Of course, the first step of the process should be to take proper, well documented efforts to properly comply with the rules and be prepared to prove it. Physicians and the clinics, hospitals and management working with them should use care to critically evaluate when and what can be defensibly billed as physician services to Medicare or another federal healthcare program taking keeping in mind that the billing party, not the government, generally bears the burden of proving that the amount bill qualifies for coverage. For this reason, physicians and others involved in the process must carefully consider the adequacy of the physician’s involvement in prescribing and delivering services intended to be billed as physician services to Medicare, Medicaid or other federal health care programs to ensure that they deliver and document the services appropriately and that these service billed under the physician’s number as physician services meet all other requirements to qualify for reimbursement as billed. In areas where questions could be raised, physicians and their organizations are strongly urged to take extra care to conduct and retain documentation of their analysis and efforts to verify the compliance of their actions before proceeding, including consulting legal counsel for advice within the scope of attorney-client privilege. Beyond exercising great care to accurately document and properly bill for all services, physicians and others working with them also should familiarize themselves with their obligations and rights under employment agreements, shareholder or partnership agreements, medical staff bylaws, managed care contracts, medical licensing board rules and the Health Care Quality And Improvement Act. In many cases, these arrangements will compel a physician to provide notice of an investigation, audit, allegation or charge, trigger separate investigatory or disciplinary action against the physician, or both. These notice and other obligations may arise and often trigger employment, peer review, licensing board or other investigations before or concurrent with the investigation or prosecution by the government.

Along with the stiff civil sanctions or settlements imposed, physicians and others investigated or charged with health care fraud often incur significant legal and other costs responding to and defending years of government audits and investigations, as well as well as employment, peer review, licensing board and other investigations and disciplinary actions that almost always result from when a physician is accused or investigated for health care fraud even if the government investigation ultimately does not lead to the government filing criminal or civil charges against the physician or other licensed healthcare provider. Since a physician faces a substantial likelihood of being required to respond to and defend him or herself against peer review, licensing board, employment or other nongovernmental investigations or charges as well as the government action, physicians and others also should consider if they can expect to have sufficient funds to pay the legal and other costs of their defense in the event they come under scrutiny taking into account their existing malpractice or other liability insurance coverages, commitments to defend and indemnify under employment, shareholder or partnership, or other agreements, and other resources. Physicians and their organizations concerned about the adequacy of these resources may wish to explore, where available, raising their malpractice policy coverage limits, purchasing other supplemental coverage, and other similar steps to better position themselves to have funds to support and conduct their defense. As part of this process, physicians generally will want to review the adequacy and limits of the coverages that their practices provides, as well as consider the reliability of that coverage in the event that the physician is terminates or leaves the practice as a result of the investigation or otherwise.

When considering the sufficiency of their existing professional liability insurance coverages, physicians generally will want to consider the adequacy of the coverage if the physician remains with the practice as well as if the physician leaves it. The 10 year statute of limitations applicable to False Claims Act claims, physicians billings can come back to haunt a physician 10 years after their submission. With this tremendously long liability period, even in the absence of government investigation, a significant risk exists that a physician may experience a practice relocation or other change that would affect his coverage during this period. When an investigation happens, the possibility that the physician will relocate his practice skyrockets as physicians often experience suspensions of privileges, involuntary employment terminations and other disruptions to their practice in direct response to the investigation or prosecution. Consequently, physicians should consider purchasing tail coverage, maintaining separate, portable professional liability coverage or both to mitigate these risks.

Beyond the availability of the professional liability coverage, physicians and their practices also should consider the adequacy of the coverage provided by their professional liability or other policies. When reviewing these coverages, physicians and practices should consider what coverage, if any, the policies provide for defense of the physician in relation to peer review, licensing, or other disciplinary actions, government investigations or prosecutions, or both. If the policy provides no or limited coverage for costs of defending against these events, both the physician and his associated organization or practice may want to explore purchasing additional riders on the existing policy, purchasing separate coverage or both as well as to raise the limits on the coverages provided in light of the predictable high expenses of defending these events.

While physicians definitely need evaluate their coverages in anticipation of a potential investigation or prosecution, practice leaders, hospitals and other organizations that would be swept up into these investigations generally share an interest in ensuring that the physician possesses adequate resources to defend against a government investigation or prosecution, as their organization and its billings are likely to be adversely impacted if the physician is unable to defend the billings.

For More Advice, Assistance Or More Information

The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others. Ms. Stamer continuously advises health industry clients about compliance and internal controls, workforce and medical staff performance, quality, governance, reimbursement, and other risk management and operational matters. Ms. Stamer also publishes and speaks extensively on health and managed care industry regulatory, staffing and human resources, compensation and benefits, technology, public policy, reimbursement and other operations and risk management concerns. Her insights on these and other related matters appear in the Health Care Compliance Association, Atlantic Information Service, Bureau of National Affairs, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insurance, the Dallas Morning News, Modern Health Care, Managed Healthcare, Health Leaders, and a many other national and local publications. You can get more information about her health industry experience here. If you need assistance responding to concerns about the matters discussed in this publication or other health care concerns, wish to obtain information about arranging for training or presentations by Ms. Stamer, wish to suggest a topic for a future program or update, or wish to request other information or materials, please contact Ms. Stamer via telephone at (214) 452-8297 or via e-mail here.

About Solutions Law Press

Solutions Law Press™ provides business risk management, legal compliance, management effectiveness and other resources, training and education on human resources, employee benefits, compensation, data security and privacy, health care, insurance, and other key compliance, risk management, internal controls and other key operational concerns. If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here. If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns, please be sure that we have your current contact information – including your preferred e-mail – by creating or updating your profile here. For important information about this communication click here.THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMER IS INCLUDED TO COMPLY WITH AND IN RESPONSE TO U.S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT CIRCULAR 230 REGULATIONS. ANY STATEMENTS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE NOT INTENDED OR WRITTEN BY THE WRITER TO BE USED, AND NOTHING CONTAINED HEREIN CAN BE USED BY YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON, FOR THE PURPOSE OF (1) AVOIDING PENALTIES THAT MAY BE IMPOSED UNDER FEDERAL TAX LAW, OR (2) PROMOTING, MARKETING OR RECOMMENDING TO ANOTHER PARTY ANY TAX-RELATED TRANSACTION OR MATTER ADDRESSED HEREIN. ©2015 Cynthia Marcotte Stamer. Non-exclusive right to republish granted to Solutions Law Press, Inc. All other rights reserved.

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

New HIPAA Settlement Highlights Internet Applications Safeguards, Whistleblower & Management Oversight Compliance Risks

July 10, 2015

Health care providers, health insurers, group health plans and health care clearinghouses (Covered Entities), their business associates and their leaders need to ensure the adequacy of the security of internet portals and applications used to create, use, access or disclose protected health information (PHI) and should establish and administer ongoing procedures to monitor and maintain adequate PHI security on an ongoing basis in light of a new Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rule (“HIPAA Rules”) Resolution Agreement with St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center (SEMC) announced today (July 10, 2015) by the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR). Concurrently, the Resolution Agreement also reaffirms the growing involvement of employees and other workforce members as HIPAA “whistleblowers” as well as the need for Covered Entities, business associates and their leaders to ensure that they include and administer documented requirements for board reporting and oversight in their HIPAA compliance and risk management activities.

To settle OCR charges that the Brighton, Massachusetts’s based hospital system violated the HIPAA Rules resulting from OCR’s investigation of a November 16, 2012 complaint made to OCR by SEMC workforce members, SEMC has agreed to pay $218,400 and to implement a “robust corrective action plan” to correct deficiencies in its HIPAA security and other compliance revealed in the investigation.

According to OCR, OCR opened the investigation after employees complained to OCR that SEMC violated HIPAA by allowing workforce members to use an internet-based document sharing application to share and store documents containing electronic protected health information (ePHI) of at least 498 individuals without having analyzed the risks associated with such a practice. According to OCR, its investigation of the complaint revealed among other things that:

SEMC improperly disclosed the PHI of at least 1,093 individuals;
SEMC failed to implement sufficient security measures regarding the transmission of and storage of ePHI to reduce risks and vulnerabilities to a reasonable and appropriate level; and
SEMC failed to timely identify and respond to a known security incident, mitigate the harmful effects of the security incident, and document the security incident and its outcome. Separately, on August 25, 2014, SEMC submitted notification to HHS OCR regarding a breach of unsecured ePHI stored on a former SEMC workforce member’s personal laptop and USB flash drive, affecting 595 individuals. A review of detailed corrective action plan imposed under the Resolution Agreement provides helpful insights about some of the steps that OCR is likely to expect Covered Entities and business associates to take to meet its security expectations for internet applications and portals. Beyond imposing a $218,400 penalty (“Resolution Amount”) against SEMC, the Resolution Agreement requires among other things that SEMC in accordance with the Resolution Agreement and to OCR satisfaction.

In announcing the Resolution Agreement, OCR Director Jocelyn Samuels sent a clear message to Covered Entities and their business associates to confirm and maintain the adequacy of security of internet portals and applications used in connection with PHI. “Organizations must pay particular attention to HIPAA’s requirements when using internet-based document sharing applications,” said OCR Director Jocelyn Samuels. “In order to reduce potential risks and vulnerabilities, all workforce members must follow all policies and procedures, and entities must ensure that incidents are reported and mitigated in a timely manner.”

To self-assess the adequacy of its policies and workforce and operations compliance with HIPAA including conducting unannounced audits of SEMC workforce members’ familiarity and compliance with SEMC policies and procedures on transmitting ePHI using unauthorized networks; storing ePHI on unauthorized information systems, including unsecured networks and devices; removal of ePHI from SEMC; prohibition on sharing accounts and passwords for ePHI access or storage; encryption of portable devices that access or store ePHI; security incident reporting related to ePHI;
The adequacy of workforce compliance with these policies by conducting unannounced site visits to various SEMC departments, inspections of certain laptops, smartphones, storage media and other portable devices as well as on workstations and other devices containing ePHI;
To identify and report to OCR any material compliance issues with the policies and recommendations for improving these policies and procedures, oversight and supervision, or training;
Develop and implement to OCR satisfaction corrections to policies, practice and training along with oversight mechanisms reasonably tailored to ensure that all SEMC workforce members follow such policies and procedures, and only use and disclose ePHI appropriately;
Collect and retain for OCR review and approval certain documentation of compliance; and
Conduct documented investigations of potential violations, redress and report to OCR about investigations and violations.

First, management should take special note that members of the SEMC workforce made the complaint to OCR that prompted OCR’s investigation.

As in other health care compliance areas, required workforce training coupled with HIPAA’s anti-retaliation and whistleblower protections provide encouragement if not incentives for disgruntled or well-meaning employees or other workforce members and business partners of covered entities or business associates make complaints about suspected HIPAA or other compliance concerns internally or to OCR. Management needs to take appropriate steps to ensure that its policies and processes include appropriate privacy and human resources procedures to manage both its HIPAA compliance obligations and potential retaliation and other human resources exposures that can result if these concerns are mishandled. Employee & Other Whistleblower Complaints Common Source of HIPAA Privacy & Other Complaints. Effective health plan and employer HIPAA and human resources compliance, reporting internal investigation and risk management policies and practices are critical to manage both HIPAA and other compliance exposures and the retaliation and other human resources risks that inevitably arise when employees or other workforce members or business partners raise compliance concerns or participate in compliance investigations internally or externally.

Second, the Resolution Agreement also reflects the clear expectation that management of Covered Entities and business associates make compliance with HIPAA a priority. Consistent with its recent practice, the Resolution Agreement requires management oversight and accountability for ensuring compliance with the Resolution Agreement and HIPAA by requiring an officer to attest to the fulfillment of the requirements of the Resolution Agreement. This emphasis upon requiring leadership oversight and prioritization of HIPAA compliance tracks the broader general expectations regarding responsibilities for management and boards concerning compliance with HIPAA and other federal health care increasingly articulated by HHS and other federal agencies enforcing laws subject to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines like HIPAA, See e.g. Practical Guidance for Health Care Governing Boards on Compliance Oversight. While OCR officials have indicated that the need for officer attestation like that required by the Resolution Agreement may not be required in all cases, the inclusion of these requirements coupled with these other developments sends a strong message that Boards and other management should ensure that their processes include appropriate evidence and document retention of management oversight.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section, Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law, and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 27 years’ experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, Department of Labor, IRS, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Other Helpful Resources & Other Information

We hope that this information is useful to you. If you found these updates of interest, you also be interested in one or more of the following other recent articles published on the Coalition for Responsible Health Care Reform electronic publication available here, our electronic Solutions Law Press Health Care Update publication available here, or our HR & Benefits Update electronic publication available here. You also can get access to information about how you can arrange for training on “Building Your Family’s Health Care Toolkit,” using the “PlayForLife” resources to organize low-cost wellness programs in your workplace, school, church or other communities, and other process improvement, compliance and other training and other resources for health care providers, employers, health plans, community leaders and others here. If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns, please be sure that we have your current contact information – including your preferred e-mail by creating or updating your profile here. You can reach other recent updates and other informative publications and resources. Examples of some of these recent health care related publications include:

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns, please be sure that we have your current contact information – including your preferred e-mail – by creating or updating your profile here. For important information concerning this communication see here. THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMER IS INCLUDED TO COMPLY WITH AND IN RESPONSE TO U.S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT CIRCULAR 230 REGULATIONS. ANY STATEMENTS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE NOT INTENDED OR WRITTEN BY THE WRITER TO BE USED, AND NOTHING CONTAINED HEREIN CAN BE USED BY YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON, FOR THE PURPOSE OF (1) AVOIDING PENALTIES THAT MAY BE IMPOSED UNDER FEDERAL TAX LAW, OR (2) PROMOTING, MARKETING OR RECOMMENDING TO ANOTHER PARTY ANY TAX-RELATED TRANSACTION OR MATTER ADDRESSED HEREIN.

Leave a Comment » | Academic medicine, Ambulatory care, ASC, data breach, data security, Health Care, Health Plan, HIPAA, hospitals, managed care, OCR, Privacy | Tagged: Corporate Governance, Data Breach, Data Security, Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Health Care Clearinghouse, Health Care Providers, health care technology, Health Plans, HIPAA, Mobile Devices, Office of Civil Rights, Privacy, Protected Health Information, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

McGraw Appointed New OCR Deputy Director

June 17, 2015

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, Privacy and Data Security practice co-chair Deven McGraw has been tapped to serve as the new Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights Deputy Director for Health Information Privacy.

McGraw, who also previously served as the Director of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, as the Chief Operating Officer at the National Partnership for Women & Families, and served as Chair of the federal Health IT Policy Committee Privacy and Security Workgroup.

According to OCR’s announcement of her appointment, McGraw will spearhead OCR’s policy, enforcement, and outreach efforts on the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules; as well as lead OCR’s work on Presidential and Departmental priorities on health privacy and security. She is scheduled to join OCR on June 29, 2015.

More Information Or Assistance

Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section, Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law, and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 27 years of experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, Department of Labor, IRS, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns.

The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others.

A popular lecturer and widely published author on health industry concerns, Ms. Stamer continuously advises health industry clients about compliance and internal controls, workforce and medical staff performance, quality, governance, reimbursement, and other risk management and operational matters. Ms. Stamer also publishes and speaks extensively on health and managed care industry regulatory, staffing and human resources, compensation and benefits, technology, public policy, reimbursement and other operations and risk management concerns. Among others, Ms. Stamer recently chaired the Third Annual Health Care Privacy & Security Forum hosted in conjunction with the 7th Annual Southern California ISSA-HIMSS Privacy & Security Summit and has served on the steering committee for the Summit and spoken for the past four years. She also has provided HIPAA and other privacy and data security risk management and compliance training for the Association of state & Territorial Health Plans, a host of health care organizations, health plans, school districts and other academic medicine and other educational institutions, health plans, medical societies and staffs and others. She has been interviewed by national and local media about privacy and other issues arising in connection with the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Dallas and a wide range of other health care and other compliance, risk management and public policy concerns and her insights on these and other concerns frequently are published or quoted the Health Care Compliance Association, Atlantic Information Service, Bureau of National Affairs, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insurance, the Dallas Morning News, Modern Health Care, Managed Healthcare, Health Leaders, and a many other national and local publications. You can get more information about her health industry experience here. If you need assistance responding to concerns about the matters discussed in this publication or other health care concerns, wish to obtain information about arranging for training or presentations by Ms. Stamer, wish to suggest a topic for a future program or update, or wish to request other information or materials, please contact Ms. Stamer via telephone at (214) 452-8297 or via e-mail here.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Other Helpful Resources & Other Information

We hope that this information is useful to you. If you found these updates of interest, you also be interested in one or more of the following other recent articles published on the Coalition for Responsible Health Care Reform electronic publication available here, our electronic Solutions Law Press Health Care Update publication available here, or our HR & Benefits Update electronic publication available here. You also can get access to information about how you can arrange for training on “Building Your Family’s Health Care Toolkit,” using the “PlayForLife” resources to organize low-cost wellness programs in your workplace, school, church or other communities, and other process improvement, compliance and other training and other resources for health care providers, employers, health plans, community leaders and others here. If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns, please be sure that we have your current contact information – including your preferred e-mail by creating or updating your profile here. You can reach other recent updates and other informative publications and resources.

Examples of some of these recent health care related publications include:

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns, please be sure that we have your current contact information – including your preferred e-mail – by creating or updating your profile here. For important information concerning this communication click here.THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMER IS INCLUDED TO COMPLY WITH AND IN RESPONSE TO U.S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT CIRCULAR 230 REGULATIONS. ANY STATEMENTS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE NOT INTENDED OR WRITTEN BY THE WRITER TO BE USED, AND NOTHING CONTAINED HEREIN CAN BE USED BY YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON, FOR THE PURPOSE OF (1) AVOIDING PENALTIES THAT MAY BE IMPOSED UNDER FEDERAL TAX LAW, OR (2) PROMOTING, MARKETING OR RECOMMENDING TO ANOTHER PARTY ANY TAX-RELATED TRANSACTION OR MATTER ADDRESSED HEREIN.

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Data Breach, HIPAA, HITECH Act, OCR, Privacy | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Tex Docs Urged To Support Medical Board Reforms

May 5, 2015

The Association of Physicians and Surgeons is urging Texas physicians and others concerned about facing a potential licensing board disciplinary action in Texas to urge the Texas Legislature to enacted SB 1813, which would end confidential complaints against physicians and provide access to other information.
SB 1813 would amend the required notice requirements for licensing board actions by the Texas Medical Board to require that the Board:
Notify a physician subject to a Board complaint of the filing of the complaint
Provide the physician a full copy of the complaint, without redaction, and a statement of the alleged violation in plain language

Require the Board to deliver a copy of the preliminary and final reports, including any dissenting or minority report, to the physician who is the subject of the review.
Provide the name and medical credentials of each physician who files an expert report to the physician under review.
Although opposed by the Texas Medical Association and Texas Hospital Association, the majority of the Texas Senate Health & Human Services Committee voted in favor of S.B. 1813.

Expanding medical regulation and expectations are driving up the standards physicians are expected to meet. Meanwhile reimbursement is declining and competition is increasing. These and other changes make physicians at risk not only for discipline for legitimate quality issues as well as allegations of billing fraud, disruptive conduct and a host of other highly subjective charges. Frequently these charges are made by competitors or others with agendas other than traditional quality. Not being able to identify and confront their accuser is viewed by many physicians as a major impediment to defending themselves.

Effective defense is critical. The Texas Medical Board is known for its heavy handed investigation and discipline. Discipline by a licensing board or peer review organization results among other things in reports to the Health Care Quality Data Bank, loss or restrictions on privileges, licenses, employment or a combination of these, great expense, lost income, embarrassment and more.

Timely access to information and records is viewed by many as one small piece of the puzzle that many physicians believe would help doctors understand and defend against charges. Physicians or others that support this change should communicate their support to their elected representatives and others in the Texas Legislature as soon as possible.

Leave a Comment » | Evidence Based Medicine, Health Care, Health Care Finance, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Health Care Quality, Health Care Qulity, Hospital, Licensing, Peer Review, Physician, Physician Licensing, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

CMS Proposes New Quality Measures, Reporting, Other Changes For FY 2016 Psych Facilities Prospective Payment SYstem Updates

May 2, 2015

June 23, 2015 is the deadline for submitting comments on proposed updates to the Medicare Psychiatric Facilities Prospective Payment System Regulations (PFPPS Rule) that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) wants to implement beginning October 1, 2015 published on May 1, 2015 in the proposed “Medicare Program; Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities Prospective Payment System—Update for FiscalYear Beginning October 1, 2015 (FY 2016) available for review here (Proposed PFPPS Rule). All inpatient facilities and other affected providers and patients should review the potential implications of these proposed changes and act quickly to comment on any concerns on or before this June 23, 2015 deadline. The Proposed PFPPS Rule, if implemented as proposed, will update the prospective payment rates for Medicare inpatient hospital services provided by inpatient psychiatric facilities (IPFs) (which are freestanding IPFs and psychiatric units of an acute care hospital or critical access hospital) for IPF discharges occurring during the fiscal year (FY) beginning October 1, 2015 through September 30, 2016 (FY 2016). The Proposed PFPPS Rule also proposes:

A new IPF-specific market basket;
To update the IPF labor-related share; a transition to new Core Based Statistical Area (CBSA) designations in the FY 2016 IPF Prospective Payment System (PPS) wage index;
To phase out the rural adjustment for IPF providers whose status changes from rural to urban as a result of the proposed wage index CBSA changes; and
New quality measures and reporting requirements under the IPF quality reporting program.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. A practicing attorney with extensive health industry experience, also recognized as a knowledgeable and highly popular health industry thought and policy leader, who writes and publishes extensively on health industry concerns, Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section, Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law, and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 27 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising and defending hospitals, nursing home, home health, physicians and other health care professionals, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies and programs in response under CMS, OCR, HHS, FDA, IRS, DOJ, DEA, NIH, licensing, and other regulations; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to Board of Medicine, OIG, DOJ, DEA, DOD, DOL, Department of Health, Department of Aging & Disability, IRS, Department of Insurance, and other federal and state regulators; ERISA and private insurance, prompt pay and other reimbursement and contracting; peer review and other quality concerns; and other health care industry investigation, and enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others. Ms. Stamer continuously advises health industry clients about compliance and internal controls, workforce and medical staff performance, quality, governance, reimbursement, and other risk management and operational matters. Ms. Stamer also publishes and speaks extensively on health and managed care industry regulatory, staffing and human resources, compensation and benefits, technology, public policy, reimbursement and other operations and risk management concerns. Her insights on these and other related matters appear in the Health Care Compliance Association, Atlantic Information Service, Bureau of National Affairs, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insurance, the Dallas Morning News, Modern Health Care, Managed Healthcare, Health Leaders, and a many other national and local publications. You can get more information about her health industry experience here. If you need assistance responding to concerns about the matters discussed in this publication or other health care concerns, wish to obtain information about arranging for training or presentations by Ms. Stamer, wish to suggest a topic for a future program or update, or wish to request other information or materials, please contact Ms. Stamer via telephone at (214) 452-8297 or via e-mail here.

About Solutions Law Press

Solutions Law Press™ provides business risk management, legal compliance, management effectiveness and other resources, training and education on human resources, employee benefits, compensation, data security and privacy, health care, insurance, and other key compliance, risk management, internal controls and other key operational concerns. If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here. If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns, please be sure that we have your current contact information – including your preferred e-mail – by creating or updating your profile here. For important information concerning this communication click here.THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMER IS INCLUDED TO COMPLY WITH AND IN RESPONSE TO U.S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT CIRCULAR 230 REGULATIONS. ANY STATEMENTS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE NOT INTENDED OR WRITTEN BY THE WRITER TO BE USED, AND NOTHING CONTAINED HEREIN CAN BE USED BY YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON, FOR THE PURPOSE OF (1) AVOIDING PENALTIES THAT MAY BE IMPOSED UNDER FEDERAL TAX LAW, OR (2) PROMOTING, MARKETING OR RECOMMENDING TO ANOTHER PARTY ANY TAX-RELATED TRANSACTION OR MATTER ADDRESSED HEREIN. ©2015 Cynthia Marcotte Stamer. Non-exclusive right to republish granted to Solutions Law Press, Inc. All other rights reserved.

Leave a Comment » | Health Care, Health Care Fraud, Medicare, Psychiatric, Reimbursement | Tagged: health care quality, Inpatient, Medicare, Medicare Participation, Medicare Reimbursement, Prospective Payemnt, Prospective Payment, psychiatric, Quality | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Great Time To Remind Patients, Employees To Check Their Immunizations Are Up To Date

April 22, 2015

Originally posted on Coalition For Responsible Health Care Policy:

April 18–25 is National Infant Immunization Week. Publicity over measles, rotavirus, pertussis, polio, rubella, various flu strains and the much rarer Ebola and other viruses have helped remind Americans that immunizations play a critical role in protecting their families and others in their communities from potentially deadly or disabling diseases disease.

Decisions about what immunizations you and your family members should or should not get should be tailored to your individual health risk profile, in consultation with your physician taking into account the latest medical evidence and risk data. While some immunizations make sense for the majority of individuals, other vaccinations may be unnecessary or inappropriate for others. Decisions about what immunizations to get and when can depend on a wide range of factors unique to the individual health, lifestyle, community and situation of the individual, the contagious disease and other risk profiles of the communities in which they live…

View original 1,145 more words

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section, Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law, and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 26 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, Department of Labor, IRS, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Other Helpful Resources & Other Information

Examples of some of these recent health care related publications include:

f you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns, please be sure that we have your current contact information – including your preferred e-mail – by creating or updating your profile here. For important information concerning this communication click here.THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMER IS INCLUDED TO COMPLY WITH AND IN RESPONSE TO U.S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT CIRCULAR 230 REGULATIONS. ANY STATEMENTS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE NOT INTENDED OR WRITTEN BY THE WRITER TO BE USED, AND NOTHING CONTAINED HEREIN CAN BE USED BY YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON, FOR THE PURPOSE OF (1) AVOIDING PENALTIES THAT MAY BE IMPOSED UNDER FEDERAL TAX LAW, OR (2) PROMOTING, MARKETING OR RECOMMENDING TO ANOTHER PARTY ANY TAX-RELATED TRANSACTION OR MATTER ADDRESSED HEREIN.

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

CMS Issues Last Call For Comments, Questions On Proposed Medicare Home Health Billing Templates

April 21, 2015

Physicians and other practitioners and others with concerns or other input on a plan by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to implement a voluntary electronic clinical template and a voluntary home health paper clinical template available for review here will have one final chance share their concerns by submitting feedback and questions on the templates via email here, participating in the final Open Forum telephone conference call about the proposed templates that CMS has scheduled for Tuesday, April 28, 2015 from 1:30-2:30 pm Eastern Time, or both.

Physicians and others who prescribe or bill for home health services should use these or other opportunities to learn about the proposed templates and the CMS plans to implement them for “voluntary” use by home health care subscribers. At minimum, physicians and other health care providers prescribing or billing for these services will want to take the voluntary guidelines, if implemented, into account when ordering, providing or billing for this care to minimize potential problems in billing of Medicare for these services. Even if never implemented in final form, however, reviewing the proposed template provides valuable insights into CMS’ perspectives on the requirements that home health care must meet to qualify for Medicare benefit coverage and CMS’ expectations about how physicians and others should order and bill services intended to qualify for reimbursement by Medicare..

CMS developed the proposed templates over the past year in response to reported findings of extraordinarily high error rates in Medicare home health care claims submissions and payments. According to CMS, analysis performed under the Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) program raised concerns about the accuracy and appropriateness of Medicare home health claims submissions and payment. CMS reports that in fiscal year 2014, the CERT program analysis revealed that more than half (51.4 percent) of the home health claims were paid improperly and that approximately 90 percent of the 1308 CERT-reviewed claim lines in error were found to have insufficient documentation errors.

According to an Apri1 21, 2015 announcement, CMS now plans to deploy the proposed voluntary home health electronic and paper clinical templates developed by CMS over the past year to help physicians and other practitioners better meet CMS’ requirements for accurately documenting patient eligibility for the Medicare home health benefit. CMS believes the use of clinical templates may reduce burden on the physicians and practitioners who order home health services to code and bill care in accordance with CMS expectations.

As part of the developmental process, CMS has hosted a series of Special Open Door Forum calls inviting physicians and other practitioners, home health agencies and other interested parties to provide feedback on the draft templates. The next and final Open Door Forum to discuss the draft templates is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, April 28, 2015 at 1:30p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Interested persons can use the following information to join the April 28, 2015 Open Door Forum conference call: Participant Dial-In Number: 1-800-603-1774, Conference ID#: 78964234. Questions or feedback on the templates can be emailed here.

We value all of the comments submitted and consider each one, but we cannot guarantee all questions will be addressed during the Open Door Forum Call. We will try to address the most common issues/concerns received. CMS will continue to accept comments sent to the email address even after the call. Stakeholders are encouraged to submit questions or comments as quickly as possible.

Physicians and other practitioners with questions, concerns or other input about the proposed templates or their use should consider participating in the telephone conference, submitting questions or other input to the designated email, or both.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section, Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law, and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 26 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, Department of Labor, IRS, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Other Helpful Resources & Other Information

We hope that this information is useful to you. If you found these updates of interest, you also be interested in one or more of the following other recent articles published on the Coalition for Responsible Health Care Reform electronic publication available here, our electronic Solutions Law Press Health Care Update publication available here, or our HR & Benefits Update electronic publication available here. You also can t access to information about how you can arrange for training on “Building Your Family’s Health Care Toolkit,” using the “PlayForLife” resources to organize low-cost wellness programs in your workplace, school, church or other communities, and other process improvement, compliance and other training and other resources for health care providers, employers, health plans, community leaders and others here. If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns, please be sure that we have your current contact information – including your preferred e-mail by creating or updating your profile here. You can reach other recent updates and other informative publications and resources.

Examples of some of these recent health care related publications include:

Leave a Comment » | billing, Clinical pathway, Health Care, Health care coding, Health Care Fraud, Home Health, Physician, Reimbursement, templates | Tagged: Health Care Compliance, Health Care Fraud, home health, Medicare, Physicians, Reimbursement | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

HHS Proposes Stage 3 Meaningful Use EHR Incentive Programs & 2015 Edition Health IT Certification Criteria Rules

March 20, 2015

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) on March 20, 2015 announced the release of the Stage 3 notice of proposed rulemaking for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Records (EHRs) Incentive Programs and 2015 Edition Health IT Certification Criteria which the Agencies believe will improve the way electronic health information is shared and ultimately improve the way care is delivered and experienced.

Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, doctors, health care professionals and hospitals, including critical access hospitals, can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments when they adopt and meaningfully use health IT technology certified by ONC. Since the programs began in 2011, more than 433,000 eligible professionals and eligible hospitals have received an incentive payment representing about 60 percent of eligible professionals in either the Medicare or Medicaid programs and about 95 percent of eligible hospitals.

The Meaningful Use Stage 3 proposed rule issued by CMS specifies new criteria that eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals must meet to qualify for Medicaid EHR incentive payments. The rule also proposes criteria that providers must meet to avoid Medicare payment adjustments (Medicaid has no payment adjustments) based on program performance beginning in payment year 2018. The rule gives more flexibility and simplifies requirements for providers by focusing on advanced use of electronic health records and eliminating requirements that are no longer relevant. The Stage 3 proposed rule’s scope is generally limited to the requirements and criteria for meaningful use in 2017 and subsequent years. CMS is considering additional changes to meaningful use beginning in 2015 through separate rulemaking. Learn more here.

The 2015 Edition Health IT Certification Criteria proposed rule aligns with the path toward interoperability – the secure, efficient, and effective sharing and use of health information –identified in ONC’s draft shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap. The proposed rule builds on past editions of adopted health IT certification criteria, and includes new and updated IT functionality and provisions that the Agencies believe support the EHR Incentive Programs care improvement, cost reduction, and patient safety across the health system.

“This Stage 3 proposed rule does three things: it helps simplify the meaningful use program, advances the use of health IT toward our vision for improving health delivery, and further aligns the program with other quality and value programs,” said Dr. Patrick Conway, M.D., M.Sc., CMS acting principal deputy administrator and chief medical officer. “And, in an effort to make reporting easier for health care providers, we will be proposing a new meaningful use reporting deadline soon.”

“ONC’s proposed rule will be an integral component in the shared nationwide effort to achieve an interoperable health system,” said Karen DeSalvo, M.D., M.P.H, M.Sc., national coordinator for health IT. “The certification criteria we have proposed in the 2015 Edition will help achieve that vision through provisions that consider the range of health IT users and uses across the care continuum, including those focused on interoperable standards, data portability, improved transparency, privacy and security capabilities, and increased oversight through ONC’s Health IT Certification Program.”

The Stage 3 proposed rule may be viewed here and the comment period ends on May 29, 2015. The 2015 Edition proposed rule may be viewed here and the comment period ends on May 29, 2015. The Draft 2015 Edition Certification Test Procedures may be viewed at HealthIT.gov, and the comment period ends on June 30, 2015.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section, Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law, and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 26 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, Department of Labor, IRS, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Other Helpful Resources & Other Information

Examples of some of these recent health care related publications include:

Leave a Comment » | Academic medicine, Accreditation, Affordable Care Act, Ambulatory care, ARRA, ARRA Funding, ASC, DEA, DME, Doctor, E-Prescribing, Electronic Health Records, Electronic Medical Records, Evidence Based Medicine, FACTA, Health Care, Health IT | Tagged: Electronic Health Records, ERH, Health Care Reform, INteroperatbility, Meaningful Use | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

More PQRS Guidance Released

March 7, 2015

On March 6, 2015, MLN Matters® Special Edition Article #SE1508, “Guidance on the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) 2013 Reporting Year and 2015 Payment Adjustment for Rural Health Clinics (RHCs), Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs),” was released to provide education on the PQRS 2013 reporting year and 2015 payment adjustment for RHCs, FQHCs, and CAHs.

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Former National Quality Forum Committee Co-Chair Pays $1M, Excluded From Medicare In Fraud Settlement

March 5, 2015

A former National Quality Forum Committee Safe Practices Co-Chair landed in hot water under the False Claims Act for receiving compensation to use his influence and position to influence safety practices standards. Patient safety consultant Dr. Charles Denham, will pay $1 million to settle Justice Department allegations that he violated the False Claims Act by soliciting and accepting kickbacks while he co-chaired the Safe Practices Committee 2009 and 2010, according to a Justice Department announcement. The consulting company Health Care Concepts Inc. and the research organization Texas Medical Institute of Technology, operated by Denham both also are parties to the settlement.

With physicians and other health care organizations increasingly stepping up involvement in credentialing organizations and government advisory and other task forces, the enforcement action highlights another area where health care organizations and their people need to be careful to avoid violations of the False Claims Act or other laws. The settlement illustrates both the need for health care providers participating in HHS or other government advisory or other consulting roles to carefully evaluate their compensation and other arrangements for illegal remuneration or other prohibited elements in light of the continuing emphasis on and success of the Departments of Health & Human Services (HHS) and Justice in investigating and prosecuting arrangements they view as health care fraud under the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative announced in 2009.

The charges against Denham resolved by the settlement stem from payments he and his companies received while he co-chaired the Safe Practices Committee. The Safe Practices Committee reviews, endorses and recommends standardized healthcare performance measures and practices. The settlement resolves allegations that, under agreements entered into in 2008, Denham received monthly payments from CareFusion Corporation while serving as the co-chair of the Safe Practices Committee. The Justice Department charged that Denham did not disclose to the committee, or any other individual or component of the National Quality Forum, that he was receiving payments from CareFusion while co-chairing the Committee and that Denham solicited and received these payments in exchange for influencing the recommendations of the National Quality Forum and for recommending, promoting and/or arranging for the purchase of CareFusion’s product, ChloraPrep, in violation of the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute. The United States alleged that this conduct caused the submission of false or fraudulent claims for ChloraPrep to federal health care programs.

In addition to paying $1 million to the United States, Dr. Denham and his two businesses will be excluded from Medicare, Medicaid and all federal health programs as part of the settlement.

The settlement highlights another example of the widespread success HHS, the Justice Department and other agencies participating in the HEAT initiative in using the False Claims Act against doctors, hospitals and other health care providers and organizations. Since January 2009, the Justice Department reports recovery of more than $23.8 billion through False Claims Act cases, with more than $15.2 billion of that amount recovered in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs. With HHS and the Justice Department claiming it recovers an average return of $8 for each $1 invested in health care fraud enforcement, the enforcement initiative is a key player in Federal efforts to control and reduce federal health care expenditures. The Obama Administration tout the success of these efforts to fuel Congressional and public support for continuation and expansion of these and other health care fraud enforcement efforts by HHS, the Justice Department and other agencies.

“Kickback schemes undermine the integrity of medical decisions, subvert the health marketplace and waste taxpayer dollars,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Doctors and other health care professionals who accept illegal inducements undermine the public’s trust in federal health care programs and will continue to be the focus of our enforcement efforts

Given the success of the programs and the HEAT agencies commitment to continuing their heavy-handed enforcement efforts, physicians, hospitals, skilled nursing, home health, durable medical equipment, and other health care providers and their leaders should stay ever diligent in their efforts to maintain compliance and other necessary defenses in anticipation of government scrutiny of their operations and activities. As part of these efforts, health care providers and organizations serving on advisory task forces or committees to government agencies or to credentialing or standard settling organizations that provide input on regulatory, standard setting or other activities need to use special care to ensure that any potential conflicts of interest are properly identified and disclosed and that the arrangements otherwise are structured and conducted to avoid violations of both the Anti-Kickback and other health care fraud laws and lobbying, conflict of interest and other laws, regulations and policies applicable to those activities.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section, Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law, and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 26 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, Department of Labor, IRS, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Other Helpful Resources & Other Information

Examples of some of these recent health care related publications include:

1 Comment | Academic medicine, Accreditation, ADA, ASC, Corporate Compliance, Disability Discrimination, Discrimination, DME, Doctor, Durable Medical Equipment, Employer, Employment, Employment law, Federal Health Center, Health Care, Health Care Provider, Home Health, Hospital, Hospital, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Fee Schedule, Mental Heatlh, OCR, Physician, Rehabilitation Act, Veterans Health | Tagged: Anti-Kickback, Health Care Fraud, HEAT, HHS, Illegal Remuneration, Medicare Exclusion, National Quality Forum, Physician | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

State Exchange Problems Added ACA Threat Regardless of SCOTUS Decision In King v. Burwell

March 3, 2015

While most Americans are familiar with the well-publicized issues and higher than projected premium costs of coverage offered to Americans enrolling in health care coverage through the federal healthcare marketplace Healthcare.gov created under the health care reforms of the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (ACA), many Americans are just beginning to recognize the growing problems and concerns emerging with state exchanges in those states that elected to enact their own exchange. As the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments in the challenge to the payment of ACA subsidies to individuals in states that elected not to adopt a state-run health care exchangeto pay for coverage purchased through the federal healthcare.gov marketplace in King v. Burwell on Wednesday, March 4, 2015, the growing evidence of rapidly emerging funding and other challenges affecting state-run exchanges raise concerns about the solvency and reliability of coverage promised and purchased through those state-run exchanges. These state exchange funding difficulties create concerns not only for state lawmakers, but also for the health care providers and patients that are relying upon adequate funding to ensure that patients can receive promised care and coverage and the health care providers caring for these patients will receive promised payment for these services.

During the Congressional debates leading up to the enactment of ACA, for instance, ACA advocates touted the Massachusetts health care mandates and reform law of Massachusetts as part of the model for ACA and evidence of the potential benefits offered by enactment of ACA. Now Massachusetts officials are blaming ACA for serious underfunding and other problems in their state’s health care connector.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker recently cited the Health Connector and its challenges in enrolling Massachusetts residents in health insurance plans as part of the Affordable Care Act that forced the state to temporarily transition hundreds of thousands of state residents into the commonwealth’s Medicaid program as a primary reason for the state’s projected $1.5 billion budget deficit. He now has asked for the resignations of four Massachusetts Health Connector board members: MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, Covered California actuarial consultant John Bertko; Massachusetts Nonprofit Network CEO Rick Jakious and Spring Insurance Group CEO George Conser.

The Massachusetts experience is not unique. Other states also are experiencing significant funding and other problems dealing with the ACA mandates and implementation. See, e.g., Funding Woes Imperil Future of State Run Exchanges; State Insurance Exchanges Face Challenges In Offering Standardized Choices Alongside Innovative Value-Based Insurance.

This mounting evidence of serious cost, financing and other concerns in state-run exchanges creates new reason for concern about the future of ACA’s health care reforms even for those citizens of states whose eligibility for subsidies is not challenged by the King v. Burwell Supreme Court challenge. These state exchange funding difficulties create concerns not only for state lawmakers, but also for the health care providers and patients that are relying upon adequate funding to ensure that patients can receive promised care and coverage and the health care providers caring for these patients will receive promised payment for these services.These and other budget overruns and operational challenges raise serious questions about the ability of the federal government or the states to fund the promises currently made by ACA in its present form. Congress and state governments almost certainly will be forced to deal with these broader challenges regardless of the outcome of King v. Burwell. As American leaders continue to struggle to deal with these and other mounting problems impacting the U.S. health care system, the input of individual Americans and businesses and community leaders is more critical than ever. Get involved in helping to shape improvements and solutions to the U.S. health care system and the Americans it cares for by sharing your ideas and input through the Coalition For Responsible Health Care Policy and exchanging information and ideas for helping American families deal with their family member’s illnesses, disabilities and other healthcare challenges through Project COPE: Coalition for Patient Empowerment here.

About Project COPE: The Coalition On Patient Empowerment & Coalition on Responsible Health Policy

Do you have ideas or experiences to share about medical debit, ACA or other health care challenges? Have ideas for helping improve ACA and other health care policies impacting the US health care system, helping Americans cope with these and other health care challenges or other health care matters? Know other helpful resources or experiences that you are willing to share? Are you concerned about health care coverage or other health care and disability issues or policy concerns? Join the discussion and share your input by joining Project COPE: Coalition for Patient Empowerment here.

The Coalition and its Project COPE arise and operate on the belief that health care reform and policy must be patient focused, patient centric and patient empowering. The best opportunity to improve access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans is for every American, and every employer, insurer, and community organization to seize the opportunity to be good Samaritans. The government, health care providers, insurers and community organizations can help by providing education and resources to make understanding and dealing with the realities of illness, disability or aging easier for a patient and their family, the affected employers and others. At the end of the day, however, caring for people requires the human touch. Americans can best improve health care by not waiting for someone else to step up: Step up and help bridge the gap when you or your organization can. Speak up to help communicate and facilitate when you can. Building health care neighborhoods filled with good neighbors throughout the community is the key.

We also encourage you and others to help develop real meaningful improvements by joining Project COPE: Coalition for Patient Empowerment here by sharing ideas, tools and other solutions and other resources. The Coalition For Responsible Health Care Policy provides a resource that concerned Americans can use to share, monitor and discuss the Health Care Reform law and other health care, insurance and related laws, regulations, policies and practices and options for promoting access to quality, affordable healthcare through the design, administration and enforcement of these regulations.

You also may be interested in one or more of the following other recent articles published on the Coalition for Responsible Health Care Reform electronic publication available here, our electronic Solutions Law Press Health Care Update publication available here, or our HR & Benefits Update electronic publication available here such as:

You also can find out about how you can arrange for training for you, your employees or other communities to participate in training on “Building Your Family’s Health Care Toolkit,” using the “PlayForLife” resources to organize low-cost wellness programs in your workplace, school, church or other communities, and other process improvement, compliance and other training and other resources for health care providers, employers, health plans, community leaders and others here.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section, Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law, and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 26 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, Department of Labor, IRS, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include employers and their health and other employee benefit plans, public and private health care providers, health insurers, plan fiduciaries and service providers, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Other Helpful Resources & Other Information

Examples of some of these recent health care related publications include:

Health Care Employer’s Discrimination Triggers Medicare, EEOC Prosecutions

March 2, 2015

Health care employers and organizations should review and tighten their employment and other discrimination policies and risk management in light of recent employment discrimination enforcement actions targeting health care organization staffing decisions by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

OCR Race Discrimination Medicare Action

A new OCR Voluntary Resolution Agreement with Shiawassee County Medical Facility reminds health care providers of the frequently underappreciated Medicare/Medicaid program participation risks of certain types of employment discrimination to be careful not to allow patient preferences to lead them into the trap of violating the prohibition against race, color, and national origin under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or other federal nondiscrimination laws when making patient staffing assignments.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in the administration of any federally-funded program based on race, color, or national origin. OCR’s longstanding “Guidelines for Compliance of Hospitals with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” make clear that OCR interprets Title VI prohibits assignment of hospital staff based on the racial preference of the patient.

A newly announced OCR investigation and Resolution Agreement Shiawassee County Medical Care Facility, a 136-bed Medicare and Medicaid certified skilled nursing facility, illustrates the need for Medicare and Medicaid certified health care providers of all types to ensure their compliance with Title VI and, in particular, to refrain from making any staff assignments based on racial considerations.

The Resolution Agreement between OCR and Shiawassee, a 136-bed Medicare and Medicaid certified skilled nursing facility, resolved charges that the facility violated Title VI by giving a nursing staff instruction to not assign African-American staff to a Caucasian Resident. Based on an investigation, OCR found Shiawassee needed to change its policies and procedures to bring them into full compliance with Title VI. To implement fully the prohibition against consideration of race in staff assignments, Shiawassee signed a with OCR which calls for the appointment of a Title VI Coordinator to oversee Shiawassee’s overall compliance with Title VI including special responsibilities for the investigation and adjudication of any Title VI complaints filed internally with Shiawassee. In addition, Shiawassee must train its workforce on Title VI, and submit reports to OCR regarding compliance.

The Shiawassee charges and Resolution agreement follow a similar Agreement in August 2014 between OCR and Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Michigan , which also resolved OCR charges arising from that facilities staff assignment based on a patient’s racial preference. Read the Hurley Agreement here.

Phoenix EEOC ADA Discrimination Action

The HHS against Shiawassee enforcement action coincides with an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announcement of its filing of disability discrimination lawsuit under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) against another health care provider, ValleyLife of Phoenix, Arizona. EEOC charges that ValleyLife engaged in illegal disability discrimination in violation of the ADA when it allegedly fired employees with disabilities instead of providing them with reasonable accommodations when their eligibility for family leave ended under the Family & Medical Leave Act ended and allegedly failed to keep employees’ medical records confidential. See EEOC v. ValleyLife, Civil Action No. 2:15-cv-00340-GMS (N.Az).

In EEOC v. ValleyLife, the EEOC charges that ValleyLife fired employees with disabilities rather than provide them with reasonable accommodations due to its inflexible leave policy. The policy compelled the termination of employees who had exhausted their paid time off and/or any unpaid leave to which they were eligible under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). According to the EEOC, ValleyLife fired supervisor, Glenn Stephens, due to his need for further surgery when his FMLA leave eligibility ended. EEOC claims this termination violated the ADA because ValleyLife did not engage in any interactive process to determine whether any accommodations (including additional leave) were possible. Stephens had worked for ValleyLife for over ten years at the time of his termination. The EEOC contends that ValleyLife’s failure to offer extended leave or other accommodation to Stephens when his leave eligibility ended violated the ADA, which protects workers from discrimination based upon disability and requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental impairments of disabled employees unless doing so would cause an undue hardship.

The suit also alleges that ValleyLife commingled medical records in employee personnel files and failed to maintain these medical records confidential in violation of the medical record confidentiality requirements of the ADA, which requires employees’ to keep medical documents confidential and separate from other personnel records.

The lawsuit seeks lost wages and compensatory and punitive damages for the alleged victims, as well as appropriate injunctive relief to prevent discriminatory practices in the future.

Prepare Employment Discrimination Defenses

The OCR action against Shiawassee and the EEOC suit against ValleyLife remind health industry employers of the need to use care to monitor and manage employment discrimination risks. Health care organizations should avoid the temptation to assume that their organizations can rely upon patient preferences or other common industry concerns to defend against claims of disability, race or other discrimination. Instead, health care organizations should review and update their policies and practices to ensure that they properly comply with applicable employment and other federal and state disability discrimination law and are operationalized in a manner to create and keep appropriate documentation to defend staffing decisions against potential claims of illegal discrimination under the ADA, Civil Rights, or other laws that could adversely impact their organization’s eligibility to participate in Medicare, Medicaid or other federal programs, trigger judgments or penalties, or both.

Health care organizations also need to exercise care to ensure that their patient access, care and other policies also comply and are administered to withstand scrutiny under Medicare terms of participation, the ADA, the Civil Rights Act and other federal discrimination laws. These health industry employers should both evaluate their existing policies and practices, as well as their processes for conducting and documenting investigations and other activities associated with the administration of FMLA or other disability accommodation, patient and other staffing and other activities to position their organization to identify potential exposures and position themselves to defend their decisions against OCR, EEOC or other government agency investigations, private plaintiff claims or both.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section, Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law, and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 26 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, Department of Labor, IRS, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Other Helpful Resources & Other Information

Examples of some of these recent health care related publications include:

Leave a Comment » | Academic medicine, Accreditation, ADA, ASC, Corporate Compliance, Disability Discrimination, Discrimination, DME, Doctor, Durable Medical Equipment, Employer, Employment, Employment law, Federal Health Center, Health Care, Health Care Provider, Home Health, Hospital, Hospital, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Fee Schedule, Mental Heatlh, OCR, Physician, Rehabilitation Act, Veterans Health | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Health Care Providers, Provide ACO, Reimbursement Reform Input To HHS

March 2, 2015

Physicians, nurses, hospitals and other health care providers, patients and others concerned about health care reimbursement and other health care reforms in the United States should sign up and participate in the new Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network (“Network”) the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is creating to help shape ongoing reform of the US health care delivery system to promote better care, smarter spending, and healthier people through the expansion of new health care payment models and other reforms. HHS is inviting private payers, employers, providers, patients, states, consumer groups, consumers, and other partners within the health care community to register here to participate in the Network activities including kickoff event scheduled for Wednesday, March 25, 2015.

HHS hopes cooperation through the Network will help the entire U.S. health care system match and exceed the following HHS goals for Medicare:

Tying 30 percent of payments to quality or value through alternative payment models, such as Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) or bundled payment arrangements by the end of 2016, and
Tying 50 percent of payments to alternative payment models by the end of 2018. The Network will also support the broader goal of tying the vast majority of payments in the health care system to quality or value.

As HHS moves forward to promote ACOs and other reforms, it is particularly important that providers and patients provide feedback and input about the goals and ideas HHS is promoting as solutions for “improving” health care. While HHS often touts consolidation of care into ACOs and other reimbursement strategies using government generated standards of quality as the best means of improving quality and cost-effectiveness, many patients, providers and others worry that HHS ACO and other reimbursement reforms as presently implemented or contemplated by HHS cut costs at the expense of patients by denying reimbursement or other access for effective care options based on cost or ignore other patient needs in the name of cost savings. Active, consistent participation in these and other opportunities for input is critical for those concerned about these and other issues to question and shape the goals, assumptions and actions HHS, Congress and others take to change the U.S. health care system.

HHS says most Network meetings will occur virtually by teleconference or webinar. In-person meetings will occur in the Washington D.C. area. HHS plans to hold the first live streaming of the kickoff event on Wednesday, March 25, 2015. HHS will share details through e-mails to those registered online to participate in the network. Individuals and organizations concerned about ACO and other HHS-lead health care reforms are urged to register and participate in the Network as one of the ways to help monitor and shape health care reform as lead by HHS.

About Project COPE: The Coalition On Patient Empowerment & Coalition on Responsible Health Policy

Do you have feedback or other experiences to share about medical debit, ACA or other health care challenges? Have ideas for helping improve our system, helping Americans cope with these and other health care challenges or other health care matters? Know other helpful resources or experiences that you are willing to share? Are you concerned about health care coverage or other health care and disability issues or policy concerns? Join the discussion and share your input by joining Project COPE: Coalition for Patient Empowerment here.

The Coalition and its Project COPE are founded and operate based on the belief that health care reform and policy must be patient focused, patient centric and patient empowering. The best opportunity to improve access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans is for every American, and every employer, insurer, and community organization to seize the opportunity to be good Samaritans. The government, health care providers, insurers and community organizations can help by providing education and resources to make understanding and dealing with the realities of illness, disability or aging easier for a patient and their family, the affected employers and others. At the end of the day, however, caring for people requires the human touch. Americans can best improve health care by not waiting for someone else to step up: Step up and help bridge the gap when you or your organization can. Speak up to help communicate and facilitate when you can. Building health care neighborhoods filled with good neighbors throughout the community is the key.

Other Helpful Resources & Other Information

Examples of some of these recent health care related publications include:

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 26 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Leave a Comment » | Academic medicine, Affordable Care Act, Ambulatory care, Anti-KickBack, ASC, Border Health, Centers For Disease Control, Conditions of Participation, Consumer Driven Health Care, Disease Management, DME, Doctor, Durable Medical Equipment, Electronic Medical Records, Employer, Evidence Based Medicine, false claims act, FDA, Federal Health Center, Health Care, Health Care Finance, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Health Care Quality, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance Exchange, Health IT, Health Plan, Health Policy, Home Health, Hospital, Hospital, Indian Health, Inpatient Rehabilitation, Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility, Meaningful Use, Medicaid, Medical Licensure, Medical Malpractice, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Fee Schedule, Medicare Fee Schedule, Medicare Prescription Drug Program, OIG, Outcomes Data, Patient Empowerment, Pharmacy, Physician, Prospective Payment, Public Policy, Rural Health Care, Stark, Telemedicine | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Extension for EPs participating in PQRS via EHR and QCDR

February 26, 2015

CMS Announces Extension for EPs participating in PQRS via EHR and QCDR (QRDA III format)

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is pleased to announce that the submission deadlines for the PQRS reporting methods below have been extended. All other submission timeframes for other PQRS reporting methods remain the same. The revised submission timeframes are:

Reporting Method

Submission Period

Submission Deadline Time

(All Times are Eastern)

EHR Direct or Data Submission Vendor that is certified EHR technology (CEHRT)

1/1/15 – 3/20/15

8:00 p.m.

Qualified clinical data registries (QCDRs) (using QRDA III format)reporting for PQRS and the clinical quality measure (CQM) component of meaningful use for the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program

1/1/15 – 3/20/15

8:00 p.m.

An Individuals Authorized Access to CMS Computer Services (IACS) account with the “PQRS Submitter Role” is required for these PQRS data submission methods. Please see the IACS Quick Reference Guides for specifics.

PQRS provides an incentive payment to individual eligible professionals (EPs) and group practices that satisfactorily participate or satisfactorily report data on quality measures for covered Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) services. Additionally, those who do not meet the 2014 PQRS reporting requirements will be subject to a negative payment adjustment on all Medicare Part B PFS services rendered in 2016.

Note: The deadline listed above doesapply to Individual Eligible Professionals and Group Practices participating in other CMS programs such as the Medicare EHR Incentive Program and Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative that are utilizing the reporting methods listed above. Additionally, CMS has extended the deadline for EPs wishing to attest to meaningful use for the EHR reporting period in 2014 for the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program to March 20, 2015. Please be on the lookout for a separate listserv with information regarding the attestation extension.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has sent this update. To contact Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) go to our contact us page.

ntact subscriberhelp.govdelivery.com.

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

February 26, 2015

CMS Announces Extension for EPs participating in PQRS via EHR and QCDR (QRDA IIIformat)

Reporting Method

Submission Period

Submission Deadline Time

(All Times are Eastern)

EHR Direct or Data Submission Vendor that is certified EHR technology (CEHRT)

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has sent this update. To contact Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) go to our contact us page.

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Former Houston Area DME Owner To Serve 7+ Years, Pay $1.6 M In Restitution For Health Care Fraud

February 9, 2015

On February 2, 2015, U.S. District Judge Michael Schneider sentenced former Ivy Health Care Supply owner Vivian Yusuf to 7 years and 3 months in jail and ordered her to pay $1.6 million in restitution for her September 17, 2014 guilty plea to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

In March 2011, Yusuf was indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Investigators believe that Yusuf and her co-conspirators billed Medicare for more than $3.4 million for durable medical equipment (DME) that was neither medically necessary nor prescribed by a physician.

The guilty plea stemmed from Yusuf’s January 12, 2012 indictment for conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, and aggravated identity theft for acts committed when she owned and operated Ivy Health Care Supply, a Houston-area durable medical equipment (DME) company based in Stafford, Texas.

According to information presented in court, from June 2007 to May 2009, Yusuf and Aghaegbuna “Ike” Odelugo, James Reese, and others unlawfully submitted false and fraudulent claims to Medicare of more than $3.4 million and defrauded Medicare of more than $1.6 million by marketing of power wheelchairs and accessories, as well as “ortho kits,” which primarily consisted of a bag of orthotic items, including braces, wraps, and supports, and a heat lamp or heat pad. As part of the scheme, the defendant and her co-conspirators illegally obtained protected health information, including names, dates of birth, and Medicare numbers from elderly individuals. Yusuf and her co-conspirators supplied approximately 790 beneficiaries located primarily in Texas and Louisiana with kits and power wheelchairs that the beneficiaries did not want and not prescribed or otherwise authorized by a physician. In some instances, physicians’ signatures were forged and false claims were submitted to Medicare in the names of Medicare beneficiaries who were deceased.

A fugitive for several years before her arrest June 3, 2014 at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) once listed her on its “Most Wanted List.”

According to OIG, Odelugo and Reese were indicted for their involvement in similar health care fraud schemes. Odelugo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, and money laundering and was sentenced to 72 months in federal prison. The loss to Medicare as a result of Odelugo’s scheme was approximately $9.9 million. Reese pleaded guilty to health care fraud and tax evasion and was sentenced to 180 months in federal prison. The loss to Medicare as a result of Reese’s scheme was approximately $8.6 million.

In the face of these continuing investigations and prosecutions, health care providers should continue to diligently work to comply with the False Claims Act and other federal and state health care fraud laws by tightening their internal controls and other compliance programs. As a key element of these efforts, health care providers should ensure that their human resources and other management carefully monitor employee, contractor and vendor complaints, concerns and other communications for potential signs of compliance concerns, retaliation or other indicators of the need to intervene to correct potential violations or other risks.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 26 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Community Health Systems Professional Services Corporation & 3 Affiliated NM Hospitals Agree to $75 Million False Claims Act Settlement Use New State Ebola Protocol Table In Ebola Prevention & Management Planning
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Congress Sends Bill To Fast Track FDA Ebola Treatment Review & HHS Declaration Gives Ebola Treatment Manufacturers Special Immunity
Former Center Texas Medical Center CFO Faces 5 Years After Guilty Plea To EHR Incentive Fraud Reminder To Manage Incentive Compliance
Preparing Privacy Compliance For Emergencies-Ebola Crisis Prompts HHS OCR To Share Guidance On HIPAA Privacy in Emergency Situations
IRS Issues Ebola-Related Tax Relief
Columbia to Pay $9 Million Plus To Settle DOJ/HHS False Claims Charges For Submitting Inaccurate Cost Reports and Mischarging Federal Grants
OIG Warns Pharma Manufacturers to Prevent Copayment Coupon Use for Part D Drug Purchases
10/10 Kidney Foundation Professional Symposium Offers 7.5 Hours CME/CEUs
Parkview Hospital To Pay $800K To Settle HIPAA Charges After Retiring Physician Blows The Whistle
Whistleblower To Get $17M+ of Omnicare $124M False Claims Settlement
Health Care & Other HIPAA Covered Entities Should Review New Reports As Part of HIPAA Risk Management Efforts
CMS Proposes Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (DMEPOS) Pre-Authorization Rule
Medicare Fraud Strike Force Nails 90 Individuals For Almost $260 Million In False Billing Including 16 Doctors
Columbia to Pay $9 Million Plus To Settle DOJ/HHS False Claims Charges For Submitting Inaccurate Cost Reports and Mischarging Federal Grants
OIG Warns Pharma Manufacturers to Prevent Copayment Coupon Use for Part D Drug Purchases
Parkview Hospital To Pay $800K To Settle HIPAA Charges After Retiring Physician Blows The Whistle
Whistleblower To Get $17M+ of Omnicare $124M False Claims Settlement
Health Care & Other HIPAA Covered Entities Should Review New Reports As Part of HIPAA Risk Management Efforts
CMS Proposes Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (DMEPOS) Pre-Authorization Rule
Encrypt Mobile Devices & Clean Up Management Documentation Key HIPAA Compliance Messages In New HIPAA Settlements
Small Smiles Dental Centers Excluded As Federal Health Program Provider For 5 Years
Latest OCR Resolution Agreement Hits Public Health Department, Shows Needs To Stay Up-To-Date
NLRB Helps Union Force Another Health Care Employer To Recognize & Bargain With Union
Federal Health Care Fraud Enforcement Recouped Record $4.3 Billion in FY 2013
Former Houston Texas Physician Gets 70 Month Prison Sentence For Fraud Conviction
Euless Healthcare Corporation Owner, Associates Face Conspiracy And Health Care Fraud Charges For Alleged Submission Of $700,000+ In Fraudulent Health Care Claims
Former Manager 9th Employee Sentenced For Involvement In Maxim Medicare False Claims Action
Medical Identity Theft/Fraud Convictions Highlight Need For Health Care Providers To Safeguard Health Information, Guard Against Fraud Schemes
Detroit-Area Foot Doctor Pleads Guilty to Medicare Fraud Scheme
Merck To Pay $950 Million To Settle Vioxx® Off-Label Marketing Charges
Texas Physicians Get New Option For Resolving Some Medical Board Complaint
Broad-Reaching Prosecution Of Individuals Participating In Operations Of Companies Convicted Of Fraud Shows Risks Of Participation
Hospitals Can Expect CMS To Add Hospital Incident Reporting To Surveys In Response To OIG Report
Quality, Recordkeeping & Unprofessional Conduct Lead Reasons For Medical Board Discipline of Physicians
DEA Cautions Practitioners Must Restrict Delegation of Controlled Substance Prescribing Functions, Urges Adoption of Written Policies & Agreements
If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns, please be sure that we have your current contact information – including your preferred e-mail – by creating or updating your profile here. For important information concerning this communication click here.THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMER IS INCLUDED TO COMPLY WITH AND IN RESPONSE TO U.S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT CIRCULAR 230 REGULATIONS. ANY STATEMENTS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE NOT INTENDED OR WRITTEN BY THE WRITER TO BE USED, AND NOTHING CONTAINED HEREIN CAN BE USED BY YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON, FOR THE PURPOSE OF (1) AVOIDING PENALTIES THAT MAY BE IMPOSED UNDER FEDERAL TAX LAW, OR (2) PROMOTING, MARKETING OR RECOMMENDING TO ANOTHER PARTY ANY TAX-RELATED TRANSACTION OR MATTER ADDRESSED HEREIN.
©2015 Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, P.C. Non-exclusive license to republish granted to Solutions Law Press. All other rights reserved.

Leave a Comment » | Durable Medical Equipment, false claims act, Federal Health Center, Health Care, Health Care Finance, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Money Laundering, Uncategorized | Tagged: false claims act, Health Care Fraud, OIG | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Community Health Systems Professional Services Corporation & 3 Affiliated NM Hospitals Agree to $75 Million False Claims Act Settlement

February 3, 2015

Franklin, Tennessee based Community Health Systems Professional Services Corporation (CHSPSC) and three of its New Mexico affiliate hospitals- Eastern New Mexico Medical Center in Chaves County, Mimbres Memorial Hospital and Nursing Home in Luna County and Alta Vista Regional Medical Center in San Miguel County (collectively CHS) will pay the United States $75 million to settle Justice Department allegations that CHS violated the False Claims Act by illegally donating funds to county governments to use to fund the 25 percent “matching share” of the now discontinued New Mexico Sole Community Provider (SCP) program. The Justice Department action and resulting settlement highlight both the rising role of whistleblowers in helping Federal and state officials uncover potential False Claims Act or other health care fraud allegations and the Federal government’s continuing commitment to investigate and prosecute health care fraud charges against hospitals and other health care providers.

The Justice Department announced on February 3, 2015 that CHS had agreed to settle charges made by the Justice Department in United States ex rel. Baker v. Community Health Systems Professional Services Corporation, et al., Civ. Action No. 05-279 (D. N.M.). , that CHS violated the False Claims Act by providing illegal donations to New Mexico to use to pay its required portion of the SCP funding.

The New Mexico SCP program provided supplemental Medicaid funds to hospitals in mostly rural communities using a mix of federal and state funding. Under the program, the federal government reimbursed the state of New Mexico for approximately 75 percent of its health care expenditures under the SCP program provided that New Mexico provide state or county funds, and not impermissible “donations” from private hospitals, to fund the remaining 25 percent “matching” share of SCP program payments. Congress enacted the prohibition against the use of private hospital funds to fund the state’s required matching share of SCP program payments to curb possible abuses and ensure that states have sufficient incentive to curb rising Medicaid costs.

According to the Justice Department, CHS violated the False Claims Act from August 1, 2000 to December 31, 2010, by knowingly causing the state of New Mexico to present false claims to the United States for payments made to CHS under the SCP program by making improper donations to Chaves, Luna and San Miguel counties, which were then used by the counties, and later the state, to obtain federal matching payments. The government alleged that CHS concealed the true nature of these donations to avoid detection by federal and state authorities. The Justice Department additionally claimed that as a result of its scheme, CHS received SCP payments which were funded by the United States in the amount of three times CHS’ “donations.”

The prosecution leading to the settlement provides yet another example of the role of whistleblowers in helping the governing identify and prosecute fraud. The False Claims Act qui tam rules allow individuals to bring a lawsuit on behalf of the government and to share in the proceeds of the suit. The act also permits the government to intervene in and take over the lawsuit, as it did in this case as to some of Baker’s allegations. The United States did not intervene in Baker’s allegations as to SCP payments made to two other affiliated New Mexico hospitals, Carlsbad Medical Center and Lea Regional Medical Center. Today’s settlement also resolves these other allegations. Baker will receive $18,671,561 as his share of the government’s recovery.

In addition, the action and its settlement also affirms the Federal government’s continuing commitment to find and prosecute health care providers that it perceives violate the False Claims Act or other Federal health care fraud laws.

“Congress expressly intended that states and counties use their own money when seeking federal matching funds in order to encourage them to join the federal government in ensuring that Medicaid funds are spent on the needs of beneficiaries,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division Joyce R. Branda. “When private hospitals violate the rules against hospital donations funding the state share, that important protection of the Medicaid program is destroyed.”

“Hospitals that make provider donations with the expectation that they will receive a windfall from the Medicaid program threaten the integrity of the Medicaid program and will be held accountable,” said Special Agent in Charge Mike Fields for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Dallas region.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 26 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Use New State Ebola Protocol Table In Ebola Prevention & Management Planning
Unpatched and Unsupported Software Triggers Latest HIPAA Security Breach Resolution Agreement
Congress Sends Bill To Fast Track FDA Ebola Treatment Review & HHS Declaration Gives Ebola Treatment Manufacturers Special Immunity
Former Center Texas Medical Center CFO Faces 5 Years After Guilty Plea To EHR Incentive Fraud Reminder To Manage Incentive Compliance
Preparing Privacy Compliance For Emergencies-Ebola Crisis Prompts HHS OCR To Share Guidance On HIPAA Privacy in Emergency Situations
IRS Issues Ebola-Related Tax Relief
Columbia to Pay $9 Million Plus To Settle DOJ/HHS False Claims Charges For Submitting Inaccurate Cost Reports and Mischarging Federal Grants
OIG Warns Pharma Manufacturers to Prevent Copayment Coupon Use for Part D Drug Purchases
10/10 Kidney Foundation Professional Symposium Offers 7.5 Hours CME/CEUs
Parkview Hospital To Pay $800K To Settle HIPAA Charges After Retiring Physician Blows The Whistle
Whistleblower To Get $17M+ of Omnicare $124M False Claims Settlement
Health Care & Other HIPAA Covered Entities Should Review New Reports As Part of HIPAA Risk Management Efforts
CMS Proposes Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (DMEPOS) Pre-Authorization Rule
Medicare Fraud Strike Force Nails 90 Individuals For Almost $260 Million In False Billing Including 16 Doctors
Columbia to Pay $9 Million Plus To Settle DOJ/HHS False Claims Charges For Submitting Inaccurate Cost Reports and Mischarging Federal Grants
OIG Warns Pharma Manufacturers to Prevent Copayment Coupon Use for Part D Drug Purchases
Parkview Hospital To Pay $800K To Settle HIPAA Charges After Retiring Physician Blows The Whistle
Whistleblower To Get $17M+ of Omnicare $124M False Claims Settlement
Health Care & Other HIPAA Covered Entities Should Review New Reports As Part of HIPAA Risk Management Efforts
CMS Proposes Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (DMEPOS) Pre-Authorization Rule
Encrypt Mobile Devices & Clean Up Management Documentation Key HIPAA Compliance Messages In New HIPAA Settlements
Small Smiles Dental Centers Excluded As Federal Health Program Provider For 5 Years
Latest OCR Resolution Agreement Hits Public Health Department, Shows Needs To Stay Up-To-Date
NLRB Helps Union Force Another Health Care Employer To Recognize & Bargain With Union
Federal Health Care Fraud Enforcement Recouped Record $4.3 Billion in FY 2013
Former Houston Texas Physician Gets 70 Month Prison Sentence For Fraud Conviction
Euless Healthcare Corporation Owner, Associates Face Conspiracy And Health Care Fraud Charges For Alleged Submission Of $700,000+ In Fraudulent Health Care Claims
Former Manager 9th Employee Sentenced For Involvement In Maxim Medicare False Claims Action
Medical Identity Theft/Fraud Convictions Highlight Need For Health Care Providers To Safeguard Health Information, Guard Against Fraud Schemes
Detroit-Area Foot Doctor Pleads Guilty to Medicare Fraud Scheme
Merck To Pay $950 Million To Settle Vioxx® Off-Label Marketing Charges
Texas Physicians Get New Option For Resolving Some Medical Board Complaint
Broad-Reaching Prosecution Of Individuals Participating In Operations Of Companies Convicted Of Fraud Shows Risks Of Participation
Hospitals Can Expect CMS To Add Hospital Incident Reporting To Surveys In Response To OIG Report
Quality, Recordkeeping & Unprofessional Conduct Lead Reasons For Medical Board Discipline of Physicians
DEA Cautions Practitioners Must Restrict Delegation of Controlled Substance Prescribing Functions, Urges Adoption of Written Policies & Agreements
If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns, please be sure that we have your current contact information – including your preferred e-mail – by creating or updating your profile here. For important information concerning this communication click here.
THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMER IS INCLUDED TO COMPLY WITH AND IN RESPONSE TO U.S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT CIRCULAR 230 REGULATIONS. ANY STATEMENTS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE NOT INTENDED OR WRITTEN BY THE WRITER TO BE USED, AND NOTHING CONTAINED HEREIN CAN BE USED BY YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON, FOR THE PURPOSE OF (1) AVOIDING PENALTIES THAT MAY BE IMPOSED UNDER FEDERAL TAX LAW, OR (2) PROMOTING, MARKETING OR RECOMMENDING TO ANOTHER PARTY ANY TAX-RELATED TRANSACTION OR MATTER ADDRESSED HEREIN.

©2015 Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, P.C. Non-exclusive license to republish granted to Solutions Law Press. All other rights reserved.

Leave a Comment » | Anti-KickBack, false claims act, Federal Health Center, Health Care Finance, Health Care Provider, Uncategorized | Tagged: false claims act, Health Care Fraud, OIG | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Use New State Ebola Protocol Table In Ebola Prevention & Management Planning

January 10, 2015

Health care providers, public health, school, and other community organizations, employers and other business leaders and others concerned about continuing Ebola and other pandemic prevention and containment should check out the new table of State Ebola Protocols Table compiled by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to help law and policy makers prepare for and respond to Ebola-related situations As part of continuing Federal efforts to make up for lost time on helping U.S. health care providers and communities prepare to prevent and respond to Ebola outbreak risks since the death of Liberian Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan at a in Dallas hospital last year alerted Americans to the risks and need for tighter preparations.

While the Dallas hospital that treated Mr. Duncan paid a settlement to his family and faced other widespread criticism and negative publicity, it then has become clear that misinformation provided by the patient, the original presentation of the patient with flu-like symptoms, the Obama Administration’s reluctance to adopt policies or communications that might interfere with its pro-immigration political agenda, the CDC’s failure to maintain and communicate the most current health care information to health care providers and communities, the CDC’s academic rather than operational emphasis, EMTALA mandates that forced the hospital to triage the patient, Medicaid and other insurance payment protocols that would have as medically unnecessary screening tests in the absence of more clear risk factors, federal licensing restrictions on the use of testing and a host of other limits and deficiencies in the Federal government’s preparations and response to Ebola and other communication risks, left Texas Health Resources and other U.S. health care providers, as well as U.S schools, public service agencies, employers and others at a great disadvantage in their efforts to deal with the outbreak. After denying the seriousness of Ebola risk concerns for several weeks, the diagnosis with Ebola of health care providers that treated Mr. Duncan and subsequent death and diagnosis resulted in the CDC and other federal and state agencies stepping up their Ebola preparation and guidelines. In keeping with this ongoing commitment, CDC says the CDC now will continue to update the State guidelines table as states continue to modify their Ebola response protocols.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related developments or other risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 26 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMER IS INCLUDED TO COMPLY WITH AND IN RESPONSE TO U.S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT CIRCULAR 230 REGULATIONS. ANY STATEMENTS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE NOT INTENDED OR WRITTEN BY THE WRITER TO BE USED, AND NOTHING CONTAINED HEREIN CAN BE USED BY YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON, FOR THE PURPOSE OF (1) AVOIDING PENALTIES THAT MAY BE IMPOSED UNDER FEDERAL TAX LAW, OR (2) PROMOTING, MARKETING OR RECOMMENDING TO ANOTHER PARTY ANY TAX-RELATED TRANSACTION OR MATTER ADDRESSED HEREIN.

Leave a Comment » | Centers For Disease Control, Childrens Health Insurance Program, Disability Discrimination, DME, Doctor, Durable Medical Equipment, E-Prescribing, Employee Benefits, FDA, Health Care, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Health Care Quality, Health Plan, Health Plans, HIPAA, HITECH Act, Hospital, Inpatient Rehabilitation, Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility, Licensing, Medical Licensure, Medical Malpractice, OIG, Pandemic, Patient Empowerment, Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs, Privacy, Prospective Payment, Public Policy, Substance Abuse | Tagged: controlled substance, DEA, DOJ, Drug Testing, drugs, false claims act, Grants, Health Care, Health Care Compliance, Health Care Fraud, Health Plans, HEAT, HIPAA, licensure, Medicaid, Medical Board, pain management, pharmacist, pharmacy, physical therapy, Physician | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Unpatched and Unsupported Software Triggers Latest HIPAA Security Breach Resolution Agreement

December 11, 2014

Health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses (covered entities) and their business associates need to watch for and protect protected health information (PHI) against security exposures from unpatched or unsupported software and other weaknesses in their data security protections as part of their compliance obligations under the Security Rules of the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA).

The need to monitor and address data security threats associated with unpatched or unsupported software is demonstrated by the December 9, 2014 announcement by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) that Anchorage Community Mental Health Services (ACMHS) will pay $150,000 and adopt a corrective action plan to correct deficiencies in its HIPAA compliance program resulting from unpatched and unsupported software.

OCR opened an investigation against the five-facility, nonprofit provider of behavioral health care services to children, adults, and families in Anchorage, Alaska after receiving notification from ACMHS of a breach of unsecured electronic protected health information (ePHI) affecting 2,743 individuals due to malware compromising the security of its information technology resources.

According to the OCR announcement of the ACMHS Resolution Agreement with OCR, OCR’s investigation revealed that ACMHS had adopted sample Security Rule policies and procedures in 2005, but failed to follow these procedures. Moreover, OCR found that the reported security incident directly resulted of ACMHS failing to identify and address basic risks, such as not regularly updating their IT resources with available patches and running outdated, unsupported software.

“Successful HIPAA compliance requires a common sense approach to assessing and addressing the risks to ePHI on a regular basis,” said OCR Director Jocelyn Samuels. “This includes reviewing systems for unpatched vulnerabilities and unsupported software that can leave patient information susceptible to malware and other risks.”

In an effort to promote awareness of the need to assess and monitor the security of ePHI by covered entities and business associates, OCR continues to encourage covered entities and business associates to conduct regular documented evaluations of the adequacy of their ePHI safeguards and systems. To aid in this process, OCR and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology have created a Security Rule Risk Assessment Tool available here to assist organizations that handle PHI in conducting a regular review of the administrative, physical and technical safeguards they have in place to protect the security of the information. Since OCR points to the Tool as a resource, covered entities and business associates should anticipate that their failure to identify and address any deficiencies in the areas identified by the tools as a potentially serious compliance issue. As a result, covered entities and business associates likely will want to take steps to ensure that their records include documented review of the adequacy of the security safeguards identified in the Tool. At the same time, covered entities and their business associates should not assume that the Tool adequately covers all potential HIPAA Security Rule exposures. OCR has made clear in this and other Resolution Agreements that HIPAA’s Security Rule requires ongoing monitoring and assessment of the adequacy of security in response to changes in software or system, emerging threats and other developments.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 26 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Congress Sends Bill To Fast Track FDA Ebola Treatment Review & HHS Declaration Gives Ebola Treatment Manufacturers Special Immunity

December 11, 2014

As part of Washington’s late response to the Ebola outbreak crisis, the House and Senate in the past week have passed legislation that if signed by the President as expected will add Ebola and other filoviruses to the list of diseases eligible for fast track review by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the FDA Priority Review Voucher Program (Program).

The FDA Program awards vouchers to sponsors of human drug applications that are approved to prevent or treat designated tropical diseases. A voucher entitles the holder to have a future human drug application acted upon by the FDA within six months.

The House on December 3, 2014 and the Senate on December 10, 2014 respectively passed the “FDA Priority Review Voucher Program Act,” (S.B. 2917/H.B. 5729) (the “Bill”) that will amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to add Ebola and other filoviruses to the list of diseases covered by the Program. The Bill also seeks to expedite FDA approval of Ebola and other designated disease treatments by:

Changing the process by which infectious diseases that do not significantly impact developed nations and disproportionately affect poor and marginalized populations can be designated as tropical diseases from rulemaking to order of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Allowing priority review vouchers to be transferred between sponsors of human drug applications any number of times.
Reducing from 365 days to 90 days the advance notice required before submitting a human drug application subject to a priority review voucher.

Congress sent the Bill to the President just one day after Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell today announced a declaration under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act HHS says it hopes will “facilitate the development and availability of experimental Ebola vaccines in hopes of helping combat the current epidemic in West Africa and help prevent future outbreaks there.”

Fighting the disease in Africa has been the primary focus of the Obama Administration’s Ebola response. The December 9, 2014 HHS declaration provides immunity under United States law against legal claims related to the manufacturing, testing, development, distribution, and administration of three vaccines for Ebola virus disease. It does not, generally, provide immunity for a claim brought in a court outside the United States.

For many years, the U.S. has encouraged vaccine development by managing liability and compensation, starting with the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. The PREP Act was designed to facilitate the development of medical countermeasures to respond to urgent public health needs, including the development of critical vaccines like those to prevent the spread of Ebola. This U.S. declaration under the PREP act is part of a global dialogue to address these issues in the U.S., and other countries where the vaccine is being developed, manufactured and potentially used.

“My strong hope in issuing this PREP Act declaration in the United States is that other nations will also enact appropriate liability protection and compensation legislation,” said Secretary Burwell. “As a global community, we must ensure that legitimate concerns about liability do not hold back the possibility of developing an Ebola vaccine, an essential strategy in our global response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.”

HHS hopes the PREP Act declaration will strengthen the incentive to conduct research and spur development, manufacturing, and the potential use of the vaccines in large scale vaccination campaigns in West Africa. The PREP Act declaration provides legal protection under U.S. law for three vaccine candidates:

the GlaxoSmithKline’s Recombinant Replication Deficient Chimpanzee Adenovirus Type 3-Vectored Ebola Zaire Vaccine known as ChAd3-EBO-Z;
the BPSC1001 vaccine, known as rVSV-ZEBOV-GP, made by BioProtection Services Corporation, a subsidiary of Newlink Genetics; and
the Ad26.ZEBOV/MVA-BN-Filo vaccine manufactured by Janssen Corporation, subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson/Bavarian Nordic.

Similar PREP Act declarations have been issued, revised or renewed 14 times since the Act was signed in 2005. Past declarations have covered vaccines used in H5N1 pandemic influenza clinical trials in 2008, products related to the H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009, and the development and manufacturing of antitoxins to treat botulism in 2008. For more information about the PREP Act, see here .

The Bill and the HHS PREP Act declaration are the latest efforts to provide what many health care providers see as a long overdue response to the Ebola outbreak in the wake of the diagnosis and subsequent death of an Ebola patient in Dallas lead to his death and the infection of nurses involved in his treatment, and a small number of other Ebola victims in the United States raised national awareness and concern.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

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Former Center Texas Medical Center CFO Faces 5 Years After Guilty Plea To EHR Incentive Fraud Reminder To Manage Incentive Compliance

November 18, 2014

The prosecution and resulting November 12, 2014 guilty plea of former Shelby Regional Medical Center Chief Financial Officer Joe White to making false statements when applying for electronic health record (EHR) incentives highlights another growing fraud exposure risk that health care organizations and their leaders need to manage arising from applications or other claims made in seeking EHR or other incentives or grants.

White presently faces sentencing to up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to making a false statement in an application for EHR incentives he signed on behalf of Center, Texas-based Shelby Regional Medical Center. White plead guilty to the charge before U.S. Magistrate Judge John D. Love on November 12, 2014.

The charges against White stemmed from an application he made on behalf of the medical center for EHR incentives. According to information presented by the U.S. Department of Justice in court, White was the Chief Financial Officer for the medical center owned and operated by Dr. Taqriq Mahmood. White oversaw the implementation of EHRs for the hospital and was responsible for attesting to the meaningful use of electronic health records in order to qualify to receive incentive payments under Medicare’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program.　 The Justice Department charged that on November 20, 2012, White knowingly made a false statement to Medicare falsely representing that the hospital was a meaningful user of electronic health records, when the hospital did not meet the meaningful use requirements.　 As a result, the medical center received $785,655.00 in EHR incentives from Medicare.　 A federal grand jury indicted White on February 6, 2014. He faces up to five years in prison when sentenced. The sentencing date is not set yet.
White’s prosecution and guilty plea is one of several actions that highlight the growing exposure that health care organizations and their leaders face to criminal and civil prosecution for fraud or other misconduct in seeking or collecting federal incentives or grants.

Federal and state officials responsible for administering the massive influx of grants and incentives to health care providers and others authorized under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Stimulus Bill and other legislation now are auditing and investigating fraud or other compliance concerns and acting aggressively to prosecute organizations and individuals criminally, civilly or both for fraudulent or other abuse of the rules. The White criminal conviction, for instance, follows the October, 2014 civil complaint and simultaneous settlement of theFalse Claims Act civil suit, US ex rel. v. Columbia U. and ICAP complaint-in-intervention and its resolution through the simultaneously filed US ex rel. v. Columbia U. and ICAP stipulation and order (“Settlement”) involving the Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New York (“Columbia University”), and ICAP (formerly known as the International Center For Aids Care And Treatment Programs) (collectively, “Columbia”). In that suit, federal officials charged Columbia University with improperly defrauding the federal government in violation of the False Claims Act in federal grants that Columbia University obtained to fund ICAP’s AIDS- and HIV-related work. The United States’ Complaint-in-Intervention (the “Complaint”) alleged that Columbia University, as the grant administrator on behalf of ICAP, received millions of dollars in federal grants and, pursuant to the rules applicable to such grants, was required for nearly 200 of ICAP’s employees located in New York City to use a suitable means of verifying that the employees had actually performed the work charged to a particular grant. The Complaint alleges that Columbia was well aware that this was not being done, yet continued wrongly to charge many federal grants for work that was not devoted to the projects they funded. According to the Justice Department, Colombia failed to ensure that these reports were created or verified by the more than 200 individuals for which grant monies were sought. Instead, Columbia’s Finance Department provided information for these reports even though the employees of that department had limited or no knowledge of which grants the individuals actually worked on. In addition, the lawsuit charged that the effort reports were certified as correct by the principal investigators on the grants without using suitable means to verify the accuracy of the reports. Instead of taking the appropriate steps to determine whether the reports were accurate, the principal investigators would certify large batches of the reports, without making any inquiry into whether the allocation of work among the grants was accurate. Moreover, ICAP’s management was well aware of the inaccuracies of the effort reporting system. According to the complaint, these omissions resulted in Columbia charging grants for work that was not performed on the project being funded by that grant. For instance, an ICAP Finance Analyst stated that he spent approximately 15-20% of his time on MCAP in fiscal year 2010, but his effort report falsely listed his MCAP effort, and related salary charges, as 85%. Likewise, in fiscal year 2010, an ICAP Subcontracts Manager’s effort report listed her effort as 100% MCAP, but the Subcontracts Manager actually worked on three other grants, in addition to MCAP, that year. The time submitted for many other employees was similarly mischarged. The complaint also charged that ICAP also charged federal grants for time spent on activities that are not chargeable to any federal grants, such as competitive grant proposal writing. For example, an ICAP Grants Manager spent a significant amount of her time writing competitive grant proposals, but her effort report showed that all of her time was charged to grants, with as much as 92% of her time charged to MCAP in some years.

In the Settlement, Columbia admitted failing to use a suitable means of verifying whether the salary and wage charges that ICAP applied to specific federal grants were based on an employee’s actual effort for that grant. Columbia also admitted that as a result, certain effort reports contained inaccurate information, and for a number of years ICAP mischarged certain federal grants for work that was not allocable to those agreements. Columbia also agreed to pay $9,020,073 to resolve the Government’s claims.

The White criminal prosecution and conviction and the Colombia civil prosecution and settlement are two of a growing list of reminders to health care, educational and other organizations receiving Department of Health & Human Services or other federal grants or incentives as a critical reminder to review and tighten as necessary their federal grant and other incentive program compliance and documentation to ensure that it can withstand an audit or other scrutiny by federal officials.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 24 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Preparing Privacy Compliance For Emergencies-Ebola Crisis Prompts HHS OCR To Share Guidance On HIPAA Privacy in Emergency Situations

November 11, 2014

The recent US Ebola scare provided an important reminder to health care providers, health insurers and health plans, health care clearinghouses, employers and others of the importance of understanding and preparing to deal with health care privacy and other challenges arising from epidemics and other emergencies. In response to the recent Ebola and other contagious disease outbreaks and just as U.S. health care and other business leaders are working to prepare for the biggest contagious disease time of the year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is reminding health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses (Covered Entities) and their business associates that the privacy rules of the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) requiring Covered Entities and their business associates to limit the use, access and disclosure of patient’s protected health information (PHI) continue to apply during emergency situations and help them understand when HIPAA allows them to share PHI in emergency situations in a new notice titled “HIPAA Privacy in Emergency Situations” (Guidance) published November 10, 2014. A business associate of a covered entity (including a business associate that is a subcontractor) also must continue to comply with HIPAA and may only make disclosures permitted by the Privacy Rule on behalf of a Covered Entity or another business associate to the extent authorized by its business associate agreement and consistent with HIPAA’s requirements.

Sharing Patient Information

The Guidance begins by reminding Covered Entities and their business associates that HIPAA’s Privacy Rule continues to apply in emergency situations and requires Covered Entities protect and prohibits their use, access or disclosure of patient’s protected health information except as allowed by HIPAA unless the patient authorizes the Covered Entity to disclose the PHI in accordance with HIPAA’s requirements for authorization set forth in 45 CFR 164.508.

The Guidance then goes on to discuss the following circumstances that the HIPAA Privacy Rule might allow Covered Entities to share PHI without getting patient authorization, subject to the reminder that in many cases, HIPAA will require that the Covered Entity limit the disclosure to the minimum necessary disclosure necessary for the allowable purpose and require other conditions to be fulfilled:

Treatment.

Under the Privacy Rule, covered entities may disclose, without a patient’s authorization, protected health information about the patient as necessary to treat the patient or to treat a different patient. Treatment includes the coordination or management of health care and related services by one or more health care providers and others, consultation between providers, and the referral of patients for treatment. See 45 CFR §§ 164.502(a)(1)(ii), 164.506(c), and the definition of “treatment” at 164.501.

Public Health Activities.

The HIPAA Privacy Rule recognizes the legitimate need for public health authorities and others responsible for ensuring public health and safety to have access to protected health information that is necessary to carry out their public health mission. Therefore, the Privacy Rule permits covered entities to disclose needed protected health information without individual authorization:

To Or At The Direction Of A Public Health Authority.

The HIPAA Privacy Rule allows Covered Entities to share protected health information with Public Health Authorities authorized by law to collect or receive such information for the purpose of preventing or controlling disease, injury or disability like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or a state or local health department. This would include, for example, the reporting of disease or injury; reporting vital events, such as births or deaths; and conducting public health surveillance, investigations, or interventions. A “public health authority” is an agency or authority of the United States government, a State, a territory, a political subdivision of a State or territory, or Indian tribe that is responsible for public health matters as part of its official mandate, as well as a person or entity acting under a grant of authority from, or under a contract with, a public health agency. See 45 CFR §§ 164.501 and 164.512(b)(1)(i). For example, a covered entity may disclose to the CDC protected health information on an ongoing basis as needed to report all prior and prospective cases of patients exposed to or suspected or confirmed to have Ebola virus disease.

The HIPAA Privacy Rule also allows Covered Entities to share information at the direction of a public health authority:

To a foreign government agency that is acting in collaboration with the public health authority. See 45 CFR 164.512(b)(1)(i); and
To persons at risk of contracting or spreading a disease or condition if other law, such as state law, authorizes the covered entity to notify such persons as necessary to prevent or control the spread of the disease or otherwise to carry out public health interventions or investigations. See 45 CFR 164.512(b)(1)(iv)

Disclosures to Family, Friends, and Others Involved in an Individual’s Care and for Notification.

The HIPAA Privacy Rule allows a Covered Entity to share protected health information:

With a patient’s family members, relatives, friends, or other persons identified by the patient as involved in the patient’s care;
About a patient as necessary to identify, locate, and notify family members, guardians, or anyone else responsible for the patient’s care, of the patient’s location, general condition, or death including where necessary to notify family members and others, the police, the press, or the public at large. See 45 CFR 164.510(b).

The Guidance reminds Covered Entities, however, that the Privacy Rule requires the Covered Entity to get verbal permission from individuals or otherwise be able to reasonably infer that the patient does not object, when possible. If the individual is incapacitated or not available, the Guidance states Covered Entities may share information for these purposes if, in their professional judgment, doing so is in the patient’s best interest.

The Guidance also confirms that Covered Entities may share protected health information with disaster relief organizations authorized by law or by their charters to assist in disaster relief efforts like the American Red Cross for the purpose of coordinating the notification of family members or other persons involved in the patient’s care, of the patient’s location, general condition, or death. It is unnecessary to obtain a patient’s permission to share the information in this situation if doing so would interfere with the organization’s ability to respond to the emergency.

Imminent Danger

The Guidance also states that Covered Entities that are health care providers may share patient information with anyone as necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health and safety of a person or the public – consistent with applicable law (such as state statutes, regulations, or case law) and the provider’s standards of ethical conduct. See 45 CFR 164.512(j).

Disclosures to the Media & Others Not Involved in the Care of the Patient/Notification

The Guidance also reminds Covered Entities of the importance of closely adhering to HIPAA’s rules when responding to information requests from the medial or others not involved in the care of a patient. The Guidance states that when the media or other other party not involved un the patient’s care asks the Covered Entity for information about a particular patient by name, a hospital or other health care facility may release limited facility directory information to acknowledge an individual is a patient at the facility and provide basic information about the patient’s condition in general terms (e.g., critical or stable, deceased, or treated and released) if the patient has not objected to or restricted the release of such information or, if the patient is incapacitated, if the disclosure is believed to be in the best interest of the patient and is consistent with any prior expressed preferences of the patient. See 45 CFR 164.510(a). In general, except in the limited circumstances authorized in the HIPAA Privacy Rule, affirmative reporting to the media or the public at large about an identifiable patient, or the disclosure to the public or media of specific information about treatment of an identifiable patient, such as specific tests, test results or details of a patient’s illness, may not be done without the patient’s written authorization (or the written authorization of a personal representative who is a person legally authorized to make health care decisions for the patient).

Minimum Necessary Restriction Requirement

The Guidance cautions Covered Entities and their business associates that for most disclosures, a Covered Entity generally must make reasonable efforts to limit the information disclosed to that which is the “minimum necessary” to accomplish the purpose. However, this minimum necessary requirement does not apply to disclosures to health care providers for treatment purposes.

Covered Entities may rely on representations from a public health authority or other public official that the requested information is the minimum necessary when making disclosures in response to request from those parties. For example, a covered entity may rely on representations from the CDC that the protected health information requested by the CDC about all patients exposed to or suspected or confirmed to have Ebola virus disease is the minimum necessary for the public health purpose.

Required Internal Restrictions On Use, Access & Disclosure

Internally, covered entities should continue to apply their role-based access policies to limit access to protected health information to only those workforce members who need it to carry out their duties. See 45 CFR §§ 164.502(b), 164.514(d).

Safeguarding Patient Information

Beyond limiting the use, access and disclosure of PHI, the Guidance also reminds Covered Entities and their business associates that even in emergency situations, HIPAA continues to require them to implement reasonable safeguards to protect patient information against intentional or unintentional impermissible uses and disclosures as well as to apply the administrative, physical, and technical safeguards of the HIPAA Security Rule to electronic PHI.

Limited Waiver

Although HHS has yet to take steps to trigger a limited waiver, the Guidance also reminds Covered Entities and their business associates that HHS has the power to do so, the effect of a limited waiver and the circumstances under which HHS could elect to apply a limited waiver to waive sanctions against a hospital for certain specific types of HIPAA violations while the waiver is in effect.

As the Guidance notes, the HIPAA Privacy Rule is not suspended during a public health or other emergency. Rather, the limited waiver rules only operates to permit the Secretary of HHS to waive certain provisions of the Privacy Rule under the Project Bioshield Act of 2004 (PL 108-276) and section 1135(b)(7) of the Social Security Act. The limited waiver only applies when the President declares an emergency or disaster and HHS declares a public health emergency. When and if these requirements are met, HHS may waive sanctions and penalties against a Covered Entity that is a hospital for failing to comply with the following HIPAA Privacy Rule provisions:

The requirements to obtain a patient’s agreement to speak with family members or friends involved in the patient’s care. See 45 CFR 164.510(b).
The requirement to honor a request to opt out of the facility directory. See 45 CFR 164.510(a).
The requirement to distribute a notice of privacy practices. See 45 CFR 164.520.
The patient’s right to request privacy restrictions. See 45 CFR 164.522(a).
The patient’s right to request confidential communications. See 45 CFR 164.522(b).

If the Secretary issues such a waiver, Covered Entities and their business associates should keep in mind the waiver only applies to the list violations and only applies:

For so long as the waiver remains in effect;
In the emergency area and for the emergency period identified in the public health emergency declaration
To hospitals that have instituted a disaster protocol; and
For up to 72 hours from the time the hospital implements its disaster protocol.

When the Presidential or Secretarial declaration terminates, a hospital must then comply with all the requirements of the Privacy Rule for any patient still under its care, even if 72 hours has not elapsed since implementation of its disaster protocol.

Not Necessarily Just About HIPAA

HIPAA is not necessarily the only law that Covered Entities, business associates or others need to consider when deciding what to disclose during an emergency or otherwise. The HIPAA Privacy Rule applies to disclosures made by and Covered Entities, business associates employees, volunteers, and other members of a Covered Entity’s or Business Associate’s workforce. The Privacy Rule does not apply to disclosures made by entities or other persons who are not Covered Entities.

Beyond HIPAA, Covered Entities, their business associates or members of their workforce, employers, and other organizations also need to consider whether other federal or state laws, ethical rules, contracts or policies may restrict use or disclosure, safeguard, or take other steps to protect PHI or other information. For instance, other federal laws, state law, professional ethical rules, contracts, facility policies or procedures, or other restrictions often apply to health care provides, insurers, brokers, employers or others. Employers, health care organizations, insurers and others also need to be concerned about potential discrimination, common law and statutory privacy, retaliation, defamation and other exposures.

Prepare For Compliance Now

The recent experiences of various health care organizations intimately involved in caring for the Ebola patients highlights the importance of anticipating, preparing and conducting training, and having your workforce practice to prepare to deal with the special challenges of dealing with HIPAA and other legal responsibilities in advance of emergency events. When preparing for these events, Covered Entities and business associates need to take into account the need to comply operationally as well as to document and retain records of compliance. They should both should anticipate and prepare to respond to both typical inquiries as well as those from the media, public and others. They also should consider how various types of emergencies could create new privacy or security risks. For instance, in certain emergency situations, recordkeeping or other systems could be disrupted, impacting the ability retain and subsequently produce required documentation. Furthermore, Covered Entities also should prepare to manage the patient and public relations aspects of these events including adverse impressions that often arise when the media or others are disappointed at being denied information because of compliance obligations, from breaches or perceived breaches, or other similar events.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 26 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. The scribe for the American Bar Association (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meeting with the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers, banks and other financial institutions, and others on risk management and compliance with HIPAA and other information privacy and data security rules, investigating and responding to known or suspected breaches, defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR and other federal or state agencies, reporting known or suspected violations, business associate and other contracting, commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns. Her clients include public and private health care providers, health insurers, health plans, technology and other vendors, and others. In addition to representing and advising these organizations, she also has conducted training on Privacy & The Pandemic for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans, as well as HIPAA, FACTA, PCI, medical confidentiality, insurance confidentiality and other privacy and data security compliance and risk management for Los Angeles County Health Department, ISSA, HIMMS, the ABA, SHRM, schools, medical societies, government and private health care and health plan organizations, their business associates, trade associations and others.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Leave a Comment » | Centers For Disease Control, Childrens Health Insurance Program, Disability Discrimination, DME, Doctor, Durable Medical Equipment, E-Prescribing, Employee Benefits, FDA, Health Care, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Health Care Quality, Health Plan, Health Plans, HIPAA, HITECH Act, Hospital, Hospital, Inpatient Rehabilitation, Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility, Licensing, Medical Licensure, Medical Malpractice, OIG, Pandemic, Patient Empowerment, Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs, Privacy, Prospective Payment, Public Policy, Substance Abuse | Tagged: controlled substance, DEA, DOJ, Drug Testing, drugs, false claims act, Grants, Health Care, Health Care Compliance, Health Care Fraud, Health Plans, HEAT, HIPAA, licensure, Medicaid, Medical Board, pain management, pharmacist, pharmacy, physical therapy, Physician | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

IRS Issues Ebola-Related Tax Relief

October 29, 2014

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has published the following tax rule relief under the Internal Revenue Code (Code)

Notice 2014-65 designates the Ebola virus outbreak occurring in the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone as a qualified disaster for purposes of section 139 of the Code. As a result of the designation of the EVD outbreak as a qualified disaster for purposes of § 139, payments of qualified disaster relief to assist victims affected by the EVD outbreak in the three countries (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone) are excludable from the recipients’ gross income.

Notice 2014-68 provides guidance on the treatment of leave-based donation programs to aid victims of the Ebola virus outbreak occurring in the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone for income and employment tax purposes where an employer allows employees to elect to forgo vacation, sick, or personal leave in exchange for cash payments an employer makes to organizations described in § 170(c) of the Code for the relief of victims of the EVD outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. This notice provides guidance on the treatment of these payments for income and employment tax purposes.

Notice 2014-65 and Notice 2014-68 will be published in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2014-47 on Nov. 17.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 24 years’ experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

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Parkview Hospital To Pay $800K To Settle HIPAA Charges After Retiring Physician Blows The Whistle

Whistleblower To Get $17M+ of Omnicare $124M False Claims Settlement

Health Care & Other HIPAA Covered Entities Should Review New Reports As Part of HIPAA Risk Management Efforts

CMS Proposes Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (DMEPOS) Pre-Authorization Rule

Medicare Fraud Strike Force Nails 90 Individuals For Almost $260 Million In False Billing Including 16 Doctors

Encrypt Mobile Devices & Clean Up Management Documentation Key HIPAA Compliance Messages In New HIPAA Settlements

Small Smiles Dental Centers Excluded As Federal Health Program Provider For 5 Years

Latest OCR Resolution Agreement Hits Public Health Department, Shows Needs To Stay Up-To-Date

Euless Healthcare Corporation Owner, Associates Face Conspiracy And Health Care Fraud Charges For Alleged Submission Of $700,000+ In Fraudulent Health Care Claims

Former Manager 9th Employee Sentenced For Involvement In Maxim Medicare False Claims Action

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Columbia to Pay $9 Million Plus To Settle DOJ/HHS False Claims Charges For Submitting Inaccurate Cost Reports and Mischarging Federal Grants

October 29, 2014

The US ex rel. v. Columbia U. and ICAP complaint-in-intervention civil False Claims Act lawsuit (lawsuit) and its resolution through the simultaneously filed US ex rel. v. Columbia U. and ICAP stipulation and order (“Settlement”) entered against the Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New York (“Columbia University”), and ICAP (formerly known as the International Center For Aids Care And Treatment Programs) (collectively, “Columbia”) that U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced October 28, 2014 reminds health care, education and other organizations receiving federal grant monies that their False Claims Act and other compliance programs must provide for appropriate management and recordkeeping of any federal grant programs participated in by their organizations. The lawsuit and settlement highlight the importance for health care, education and other organizations receiving or managing federal grants to establish appropriate controls to ensure that they can demonstrate the requisite compliance with grant requirements and other terms and conditions.

The settlement resolves a civil lawsuit jointly brought and simultaneously settled by DOJ and the Department of Health & Human Service against Colombia that charged Columbia with submitting false claims in connection with federal grants that Columbia University obtained to fund ICAP’s AIDS- and HIV-related work. The United States’ Complaint-in-Intervention (the “Complaint”) alleged that Columbia University, as the grant administrator on behalf of ICAP, received millions of dollars in federal grants and, pursuant to the rules applicable to such grants, was required for nearly 200 of ICAP’s employees located in New York City to use a suitable means of verifying that the employees had actually performed the work charged to a particular grant. The Complaint alleges that Columbia was well aware that this was not being done, yet continued wrongly to charge many federal grants for work that was not devoted to the projects they funded. The lawsuit seeks damages and penalties under the False Claims Act.

According to DOJ, the Colombia lawsuit and Settlement arose from Columbia’s participation in the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (“PEPFAR program”), a global HIV/AIDS program, targeting billions of dollars in new funding for prevention, treatment, and care services in the most affected countries of the world. Columbia received $125 million in PEPFAR funding through the Multi-Country Columbia Antiretroviral Program (“MCAP”) grant, and over the years obtained over 75 grants and many millions more from the federal government for HIV- and AIDs-related work performed by ICAP.

The grant rules among other things, required that grantees track the work performed by the recipient’s employees and, with limited exceptions, charge grants only for work actually performed as a part of that grant. Columbia claimed to accomplish this by producing effort reports for ICAP’s New York City-based employees purportedly detailing the employees’ distribution of work across federal, state, and private grants, as well as Columbia-sponsored projects. These reports were used to determine how much a given grant was charged for work performed by individual employees.

For nearly 200 individuals, however, DOJ and the Justice Department charged Colombia failed to ensure that these reports were created or verified by the individuals to whom they applied. Instead, Columbia’s Finance Department provided information for these reports even though the employees of that department had limited or no knowledge of which grants the individuals actually worked on. In addition, the lawsuit charged that the effort reports were certified as correct by the principal investigators on the grants without using suitable means to verify the accuracy of the reports. Instead of taking the appropriate steps to determine whether the reports were accurate, the principal investigators would certify large batches of the reports, without making any inquiry into whether the allocation of work among the grants was accurate. Moreover, ICAP’s management was well aware of the inaccuracies of the effort reporting system.

According to the complaint, these omissions resulted in Columbia charging grants for work that was not performed on the project being funded by that grant. For instance, an ICAP Finance Analyst stated that he spent approximately 15-20% of his time on MCAP in fiscal year 2010, but his effort report falsely listed his MCAP effort, and related salary charges, as 85%. Likewise, in fiscal year 2010, an ICAP Subcontracts Manager’s effort report listed her effort as 100% MCAP, but the Subcontracts Manager actually worked on three other grants, in addition to MCAP, that year. The time submitted for many other employees was similarly mischarged.

The complaint also charged that ICAP also charged federal grants for time spent on activities that are not chargeable to any federal grants, such as competitive grant proposal writing. For example, an ICAP Grants Manager spent a significant amount of her time writing competitive grant proposals, but her effort report showed that all of her time was charged to grants, with as much as 92% of her time charged to MCAP in some years.

Health care, educational and other organizations receiving HHS or other federal grants should heed the lawsuit and settlement as a reminder to review and tighten as necessary their federal grant program compliance and documentation to ensure that it can withstand an audit or other scrutiny by federal officials.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 24 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

OIG Warns Pharma Manufacturers to Prevent Copayment Coupon Use for Part D Drug Purchases

September 19, 2014

Pharmaceutical manufacturers risk sanctions unless they take appropriate steps to ensure that their copayment coupons intended to reduce patient out-of-pocket costs for purchase for specific brand name drugs do not induce improperly the purchase drugs paid for by Medicare Part D or other Federal health care programs items or services.

The warning from the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) appears in OEI-05-12-00540 Study Results and accompanying Special Advisory Bulletin published warns pharmaceutical manufacturers they may be liable under the anti-kickback statute if they offer coupons to induce the purchase of drugs paid for by Federal health care programs, including Medicare Part D.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers often offer copayment coupons to reduce or eliminate the cost of patients’ out of pocket copayments for specific brand name drugs.

The anti-kickback statute prohibits the knowing and willful offer or payment of remuneration to a person to induce the purchase of any item or service for which payment may be made by a Federal health care program.

According to OIG, the use of coupons by Medicare beneficiaries could impose significant costs on the Part D program because many coupons encourage beneficiaries to choose more expensive brand name drugs over less expensive alternative drugs.

OIG’s warning comes in conjunction with its announcement of findings an OIG study about the safeguards pharmaceutical manufacturers employ to prevent their copayment coupons from being used for drugs paid for by Part D and to identify vulnerabilities in those safeguards which OIG reports revealed that pharmaceutical manufacturers’ current safeguards may not prevent all copayment coupons from being used for drugs paid for by Part D.

According to the OIG, all surveyed manufacturers provide notices directed to beneficiaries and pharmacists that coupons may not be used in Federal health care programs. Most surveyed manufacturers use pharmacy claims edits to prevent coupons from being processed for drugs covered by Part D. Despite these actions, OIG reports most of these edits may not prevent all coupons from being processed for Part D covered drugs. Finally, Part D plans and other entities cannot identify coupons within pharmacy claims.

In light of these findings, OIG’s Special Advisory Bulletin affirms that pharmaceutical manufacturers should act to ensure that their copayment coupons do not induce the purchase of Federal health care programs items or services, including drugs paid for by Medicare Part D. The guidance makes clear that OIG does not view the current practices of many manufacturers as sufficient controls.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 24 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

10/10 Kidney Foundation Professional Symposium Offers 7.5 Hours CME/CEUs

August 7, 2014

CKD 2014 Professional 10/10/14 Symposium Early registration ends September 1!
The Professional Symposium scheduled for Friday, October 10, 2014 from 8:00 am – 5:00 pm at the Magnolia Hotel in Dallas, Texas offers 7.5 CMEs/CEUs.

For more details or to register, see https://www.kidney.org//members/source/events/event.cfm?event=TX_141010&CFID=78291825&CFTOKEN=75745041.

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Parkview Hospital To Pay $800K To Settle HIPAA Charges After Retiring Physician Blows The Whistle

July 6, 2014

Health care providers, health plans, heath care clearinghouses and their business associates heed both the lesson about properly protecting protected health information and the more subtle lesson about the role of employees and other whistleblowers in bringing these violations to the attention of regulators contained in the latest Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) resolution agreement.

Late last month, the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights (HHS) announced that complaints of a retiring physician over the mishandling of her patient records by Parkview Health System, Inc. (Parkview) prompted the investigation that lead Parkview to agree to pay $800,000 to settle charges that it violated HIPAA’s Privacy Rule.

The resolution agreement settles charges lodged by HHS based on an OCR investigation into the retiring physician’s allegations that Parkview violated the HIPAA Privacy Rule by failing to properly safeguard the records when it returned them to the physician following her retirement.

As a covered entity under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, HIPAA requires that Parkview appropriately and reasonably safeguard all protected health information in its possession, from the time it is acquired through its disposition.

In an investigation prompted by the physician’s complaint, OCR found that Parkview breached this responsibility in its handling of certain physician patient records in helping the physician to transition to retirement.

According to OCR, in September 2008, Parkview took custody of medical records pertaining to approximately 5,000 to 8,000 patients while assisting the retiring physician to transition her patients to new providers, and while considering the possibility of purchasing some of the physician’s practice.

Subsequently on June 4, 2009, Parkview employees, with notice that the physician was not at home, left 71 cardboard boxes of these medical records unattended and accessible to unauthorized persons on the driveway of the physician’s home, within 20 feet of the public road and a short distance away from a heavily trafficked public shopping venue. OCR concluded this conduct violated the Privacy Rule.

To settle OCR’s charges that these actions violated HIPAA, OCR has agreed to pay the $800,000 resolution amount and to adopt and implement a corrective action plan requiring Parkview to revise their policies and procedures, train staff, and provide an implementation report to OCR.

The resolution agreement highlights the role that current or former physicians, employees or others can play in helping OCR to identify HIPAA violations. Health care providers and other covered entities and their business associates should take into account the likelihood that physicians on their own or other facility medical staffs, their employees and other participants in the care delivery system often may have and be motivated to report to government sensitive information about violations of HIPAA or other laws. Since HIPAA and most other laws prohibited covered entities from forbidding or retaliating against a person for objectiving to or reporting the concern and offer whistleblowers potential participation in the reporting and prosecution of violations, employees or other workforce members increasingly make the complaints bring violations to OCR and other regulators.

Whether from an internal employee complaint, a patient or competitor complaint or other source, HIPAA violations carry significant liability risks. The HITECH Act tightened certain rules applicable to the use, access or disclosure of protected health information by covered entities and their business associates. In addition, the HITECH Act added breach notification rules, extended direct responsibility for compliance with HIPAA to business associates, increased penalties for noncompliance with HIPAA and made other refinements to HIPAA’s medical privacy rules and made certain other changes. Furthermore, enforcement of HIPAA and the resulting penalties have increased since the HITECH Act took effect.

With OCR stepping up both audits and enforcement and penalties for violations higher than ever since the HITECH Act amended HIPAA, Covered Entities and business associates should act quickly to review and update their policies, practices and training to implement any adjustments needed to maintain compliance and manage other risks under these ever-evolving HIPAA standards.

When conducting these efforts, Covered Entities and business associates not only carefully watch for and react promptly to new OCR guidance and enforcement actions, but also document their commitment and ongoing compliance and risk management activities to help support their ability to show their organization maintains the necessary “culture of compliance” commitment needed to mitigate risks in the event of a breach or other HIPAA violation and take well-documented, reasonable steps to encourage their business associates to do the same. When carrying out these activities, most covered entities and business associates also will want to take steps to monitor potential responsibilities and exposures under other federal and state laws like the privacy and data security requirements that often apply to personal financial information, trade secrets or other sensitive data under applicable federal and state laws and judicial precedent.

For Help With Investigations, Policy Review & Updates Or Other Needs

If you need assistance in auditing or assessing, updating or defending your HIPAA, or other health or other employee benefit, labor and employment, compensation, privacy and data security, or other internal controls and practices, please contact the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer at cstamer@solutionslawyer.net or at (469)767-8872.

The Chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) RPTE Employee Benefits & Other Compensation Committee, a Council Representative on the ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits, Government Affairs Committee Legislative Chair for the Dallas Human Resources Management Association, and past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Interest Group, Ms. Stamer works, publishes and speaks extensively on HIPAA and other privacy and data security, health plan, health care and other human resources and workforce, employee benefits, compensation, internal controls and related matters.

For more than 23 years, Ms. Stamer has counseled, represented and trained employers and other employee benefit plan sponsors, plan administrators and fiduciaries, insurers and financial services providers, third party administrators, human resources and employee benefit information technology vendors and others privacy and data security, fiduciary responsibility, plan design and administration and other compliance, risk management and operations matters. She also is recognized for her publications, industry leadership, workshops and presentations on privacy and data security and other human resources, employee benefits and health care concerns. Her many highly regarded publications on privacy and data security concerns include “Privacy Invasions of Medical Care-An Emerging Perspective.” ERISA Litigation Manual. BNA, 2003-2009; “Privacy & Securities Standards-A Brief Nutshell.” BNA Tax Management and Compliance Journal. February 4, 2005; “Cybercrime and Identity Theft: Health Information Security beyond HIPAA.” ABA Health eSource. May, 2005 and many others. She also regularly conducts training on HIPAA and other privacy and data security compliance and other risk management matters for a broad range of organizations including the Association of State and Territorial Healthcare Organizations (ASTHO), the Los Angeles County Health Department, a multitude of health plans and their sponsors, health care providers, the American Bar Association, SHRM, the Society for Professional Benefits Administrators and many others. Her insights on these and other matters appear in the Bureau of National Affairs, Spencer Publications, the Wall Street Journal, the Dallas Business Journal, the Houston Business Journal, and many other national and local publications. For additional information about Ms. Stamer and her experience or to access other publications by Ms. Stamer see www.CynthiaStamer.com or contact Ms. Stamer directly.

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Whistleblower To Get $17M+ of Omnicare $124M False Claims Settlement

June 26, 2014

Former employee turned whistleblower Donald Gale will receive $17.24 million of the $124.24 million that the U.S.’ largest provider of pharmaceuticals and pharmacy services to nursing homes, Omnicare, Inc. has agreed to pay to settle charges that Omnicare violated the Anti-Kickback Statute by offering improper financial incentives to skilled nursing facilities in return for their continued selection of Omnicare to provide pharmaceuticals and pharmacy services to their residents. The settlement announced June 25, 2014 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) highlights the growing risks that health care organizations using aggressive marketing incentive programs face to whistleblower, Department of Justice and other investigations.

According to DOJ, the Omnicare settlement resolves allegations that “Omnicare provided improper discounts in return for the opportunity to provide medication to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries” in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute. The settlement resolves allegations initially brought by two whistleblowers that Omnicare submitted false claims by entering into below-cost contracts to supply prescription medication and other pharmaceutical drugs to skilled nursing facilities and their resident patients to induce the facilities to select Omnicare as their pharmacy provider. The facilities were participating providers under agreements with Medicare and Medicaid. In addition to the facilities’ own claims for reimbursement from Medicare for short-term rehabilitation treatment rendered to patients, Omnicare submitted additional claims for reimbursement to Medicare and Medicaid for drugs Omnicare supplied.

The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits offering, paying, soliciting or receiving remuneration to induce referrals of items or services covered by Medicare, Medicaid and other federally funded programs as a means of helping to ensure that the selection of health care providers and suppliers is not compromised by improper financial incentives and is instead based on the best interests of the patient. This settlement illustrates both the government’s emphasis on combating health care fraud and marks another achievement for the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative and the critical role that current or former employees or other whistleblowers often play in the successful investigation and prosecution of these cases.

The HEAT initiative announced in May 2009 by Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius makes heavy use of whistleblowers to uncover potential violations and then uses the False Claims Act and other expanded investigatory and enforcement tools granted by Congress to nail providers.

In conducting its war against health care fraud, Federal officials credited new tools created under the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act) with aiding their health care fraud investigation and enforcement efforts. Legal reforms and new resources granted under the Affordable Care Act and various other legal changes have beefed up the fraud detection and fighting powers of Federal health care fraud investigators and prosecutors. Examples of these new tools include:

Tough new rules and sentences for criminals
Enhanced screening and other enrollment requirements
Increased coordination of fraud prevention efforts
Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT)
New focus on compliance and prevention
Expanded overpayment recovery efforts
New durable medical equipment (DME) requirements
An additional $350 million over 10 years to ramp up anti-fraud efforts
Greater oversight of private insurance abuses
Senior Medicare Patrols

The continuing success of these and other federal health care fraud investigation and enforcement efforts continue to prove the need for health care providers and payers to strengthen their compliance practices and documentation to avoid getting caught in the ever tightening health care fraud dragnet. Since January 2009, the Justice Department has recovered a total of more than $19.5 billion through False Claims Act cases, with more than $13.9 billion of that amount recovered in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs. In announcing the settlement, Justice Department officials sent strong warnings to other health care providers and suppliers about the dangers of providing or accepting improper discounts or other improper incentives as part of their business marketing strategies. “Health care providers who seek to profit from providing illegal financial benefits will be held accountable,” said Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division Stuart F. Delery. “Schemes such as this one undermine the health care system and take advantage of elderly nursing home residents.” Meanwhile, Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said “Nursing homes should select their pharmacy provider based on the best quality, service and cost to the residents, not based on improper discounts to the nursing facility.”

Any quick look at the DOJ’s enforcement record shows its acting on these promises. For instance, in addition to the Omnicare settlement, DOJ also announced on June 25 the guilty plea of a physician and the sentencing on an ambulance company owner on health care fraud charges. See Huntersville Physician Pleads Guilty To Health Care Fraud and Tax Fraud and Agrees To Pay $6.2 Million to Settle Civil Fraud Claims; Ambulance Company Co-Owner Sentenced To 13 1/2 Years for Health Care Fraud Scheme.

Health Care Providers Must Act To Manage Risks

In response to the growing emphasis and effectiveness of Federal officials in investigating and taking action against health care providers and organizations, health care providers covered by federal false claims, referral, kickback and other health care fraud laws should consider auditing the adequacy of existing practices, tightening training, oversight and controls on billing and other regulated conduct, reaffirming their commitment to compliance to workforce members and constituents and taking other appropriate steps to help prevent, detect and timely redress health care fraud exposures within their organization and to position their organization to respond and defend against potential investigations or charges.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 24 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Health Care & Other HIPAA Covered Entities Should Review New Reports As Part of HIPAA Risk Management Efforts

June 11, 2014

Health care providers, health plans and insurers, health care clearinghouses (collectively “Covered Entities”), their business associates, and others concerned about medical privacy regulations or protections should check out two new reports to Congress about breach notifications reported and other compliance data under the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Reviewing this data can help Covered Entities and their business associates identify potential areas of exposures and enforcement that can be helpful to minimize their HIPAA liability as well as to expect OCR enforcement and audit inquiries.

Required by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, the two new reports discuss various details about HIPAA compliance for calendar years 2011 and 2012. They include the following:

Report to Congress on Breach Notifications, discussing the breach notification requirements and reports OCR received as a result of these breach notification requirements; and
Report to Congress on Compliance with the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules, summarizing complaints received by OCR of alleged violations of the provisions of Subtitle D of the HITECH Act, as well as of the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules at 45 CFR Parts 160 and 164 .
Covered entities and their business associates should review the finding reported as part of their compliance practices. Others concerned about medical or other privacy or data security regulations or events also may find the information in the reports of interest.

Under HIPAA, covered entities generally are prohibited from using, accessing or disclosing protected health information about individuals except as specifically allowed by HIPAA, In addition, HIPAA also requires Covered Entities to establish safeguards to protect protected health information against improper access, use or destruction, to afford certain rights to individuals who are the subjects of protected information, to obtain certain written assurances from service providers who are business associates before allowing those service providers to use, access or disclose protected health information when carrying out covered functions for the Covered Entity, and meet other requirements.

The HITECH Act tightened certain rules applicable to the use, access or disclosure of protected health information by covered entities and their business associates. In addition, the HITECH Act added breach notification rules, extended direct responsibility for compliance with HIPAA to business associates, increased penalties for noncompliance with HIPAA and made other refinements to HIPAA’s medical privacy rules and made certain other changes.

Enforcement of HIPAA and the resulting penalties have increased since the HITECH Act took effect.

Even if a Covered Entity or business associate completed the updates required to comply with the Omnibus Final Rule, however, recent supplemental guidance published by OCR means that most organizations now have even more work to do on HIPAA compliance. This includes the following supplemental guidance on its interpretation and enforcement of HIPAA against Covered Entities and business associates published by OCR since January 1, 2014 alone:

HIPAA Privacy Rule and Sharing Information Related to Mental Health published on
Spanish Language Model Notices of Privacy Practices published on 2/13/14
CLIA Program and HIPAA Privacy Rule; Patients’ Access to Test Reports published on 2/3/14; and
Proposed Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) published on 1/7/14.

Beyond this 2014 guidance, Covered Entities and their business associates also should look at enforcement actions and data as well as other guidance OCR issued during 2013 after publishing the Omnibus Final Rule such as:

For Help With Investigations, Policy Review & Updates Or Other Needs

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CMS Proposes Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (DMEPOS) Pre-Authorization Rule

May 28, 2014

July 28, 2014 is the deadline for concerned persons to comment on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed rule requiring prior authorization for certain durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS). The proposed rule available for review at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2014-05-28/pdf/2014-12245.pdf would establish a prior authorization process for certain durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) items that are frequently subject to unnecessary utilization and would add a contractor’s decision regarding prior authorization of coverage of DMEPOS items to the list of actions that are not initial determinations and therefore not appealable.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 24 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Medicare Fraud Strike Force Nails 90 Individuals For Almost $260 Million In False Billing Including 16 Doctors

May 13, 2014

27 Medical Professionals Charged with Health Care Fraud

A nationwide takedown by Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations in six cities today (May 13, 2014) resulted in charges against 90 individuals, including 27 doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, for alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $260 million in false billings, according to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The announcement reminds U.S. health care providers that the Obama Administration continues to target health care providers in its campaign against health care fraud.

The seventh coordinated national Medicare fraud takedown by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations team of the Health Care Fraud Prevention & Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), Federal officials filed charges that accuse the defendants of various health care fraud-related crimes, including conspiracy to commit health care fraud, violations of the anti-kickback statutes and money laundering. The charges are based on a variety of alleged fraud schemes involving various medical treatments and services, including home health care, mental health services, psychotherapy, physical and occupational therapy, durable medical equipment and pharmacy fraud.

Among the defendants charged were 27 medical professionals, including 16 doctors, who Federal officials charge included doctors billing for services that were never rendered, supply companies providing motorized wheelchairs that were never needed, and recruiters paying kickbacks to get Medicare billing numbers of patients. According to court documents, the defendants allegedly participated in schemes to submit claims to Medicare for treatments that were medically unnecessary and often never provided. In many cases, court documents allege that patient recruiters, Medicare beneficiaries and other co-conspirators were paid cash kickbacks in return for supplying beneficiary information to providers, so that the providers could then submit fraudulent bills to Medicare for services that were medically unnecessary or never performed. Collectively, the doctors, nurses, licensed medical professionals, health care company owners and others charged are accused of conspiring to submit approximately $260 million in fraudulent billings.

In Miami, a total of 50 defendants were charged today and yesterday for their alleged participation in various fraud schemes involving approximately $65.5 million in false billings for home health care and mental health services, and pharmacy fraud. In one case, two defendants were charged in connection with a $23 million pharmacy kickback and laundering scheme. Court documents allege that the defendants solicited kickbacks from a pharmacy owner for Medicare beneficiary information, which was used to bill for drugs that were never dispensed. The kickbacks were concealed as bi-weekly payments under a sham services contract and were laundered through shell entities owned by the defendants.

Eleven individuals were charged by the Houston Medicare Strike Force. Five Houston-area physicians were charged with conspiring to bill Medicare for medically unnecessary home health services. According to court documents, the defendant doctors were paid by two co-conspirators to sign off on home health care services that were not necessary and often never provided.

Eight defendants were charged in Los Angeles for their roles in schemes to defraud Medicare of approximately $32 million. In one case, a doctor was charged for causing almost $24 million in losses to Medicare through his own fraudulent billing and referrals for durable medical equipment, including over 1,000 expensive power wheelchairs, and home health services that were not medically necessary and often not provided.

In Detroit, seven defendants were charged for their roles in fraud schemes involving approximately $30 million in false claims for medically unnecessary services, including home health services, psychotherapy and infusion therapy. In one case, four individuals, including a doctor, were charged in a sophisticated $28 million fraud scheme, where the physician billed for expensive tests, physical therapy and injections that were not necessary and not provided. Court documents allege that when the physician’s billings raised red flags, he was put on payment review by Medicare. He was allegedly able to continue his scheme and evade detection by continuing to bill using the billing information of other Medicare providers, sometimes without their knowledge.

In Tampa, Florida, seven individuals were charged in a variety of schemes, ranging from fraudulent physical therapy billings to a scheme involving millions of dollars in physician services and tests that never occurred. In one case, five individuals were charged for their alleged roles in a $12 million health care fraud and money laundering scheme that involved billing Medicare using names of beneficiaries from Miami-Dade County for services purportedly provided in Tampa area clinics, 280 miles away. The defendants then allegedly laundered the proceeds through a number of transactions involving several shell entities.

In Brooklyn, New York, the Strike Force announced an indictment against Syed Imran Ahmed, M.D., in connection with his alleged $85 million scheme involving billings for surgeries that never occurred; Dr. Ahmed had been arrested last month and charged by complaint. Dr. Ahmed has charged with health care fraud and making false statements. In addition, the Brooklyn Strike Force charged six other individuals, including a physician and two billers who allegedly concocted a $14.4 million scheme in which they recruited elderly Medicare beneficiaries and billed Medicare for medically unnecessary vitamin infusions, diagnostic tests and physical and occupational therapy supposedly provided to these patients.

The cases announced today are being prosecuted and investigated by Medicare Fraud Strike Force teams comprised of attorneys from the Fraud Section of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and from the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of Florida, the Eastern District of Michigan, the Eastern District of New York, the Southern District of Texas, the Central District of California, the Middle District of Louisiana, the Northern District of Illinois and the Middle District of Florida; and agents from the FBI, HHS-OIG and state Medicaid Fraud Control Units.

The HEAT Strike Force is a joint initiative announced in May 2009 between the Department of Justice and HHS to focus their efforts to prevent and deter fraud and enforce current anti-fraud laws around the country. The joint Department of Justice and HHS Medicare Fraud Strike Force is a multi-agency team of federal, state and local investigators designed to combat Medicare fraud through the use of Medicare data analysis techniques and an increased focus on community policing. Almost 400 law enforcement agents from the FBI, HHS-OIG, multiple Medicaid Fraud Control Units and other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies participated in today’s takedown.

Since their inception in March 2007, Strike Force operations in nine locations have charged almost 1,900 defendants who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for almost $6 billion. Overall, since its inception, the Department of Justice’s Medicare Fraud Strike Force has charged nearly 1,900 individuals involved in approximately $6 billion of fraud. We are committed to using every tool at our disposal to prevent, deter, and prosecute health care fraud. In addition, CMS, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, has suspended enrollments of high-risk providers in five Strike force locations and has removed over 17,000 providers from the Medicare program since 2011.

“Medicare is a sacred compact with our nation’s seniors, and to protect it, we must remain aggressive in combating fraud,” said Attorney General Holder. “This nationwide Medicare Strike Force takedown represents another important step forward in our ongoing fight to safeguard taxpayer resources and to ensure the integrity of essential health care programs. Department of Justice will not tolerate these activities. And we will continue working alongside the Department of Health and Human Services – as well as federal, state, and local partners – to use every appropriate tool and available resource to find, stop, and punish those who seek to take advantage of their fellow citizens.”

Tough new rules and sentences for criminals
Enhanced screening and other enrollment requirements
Increased coordination of fraud prevention efforts
Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT)
New focus on compliance and prevention
Expanded overpayment recovery efforts
New durable medical equipment (DME) requirements
An additional $350 million over 10 years to ramp up anti-fraud efforts
Greater oversight of private insurance abuses
Senior Medicare Patrols

“The Affordable Care Act has given us additional tools to preserve Medicare and protect the tens of millions of Americans who rely on it each day,” said Secretary Sebelius. “By expanding our authority to suspend Medicare payments and reimbursements when fraud is suspected, the law allows us to better preserve the system and save taxpayer dollars. Today we’re sending a strong, clear message to anyone seeking to defraud Medicare: You will get caught and you will pay the price. We will protect a sacred trust and an earned guarantee.”

The continuing success of these and other federal health care fraud investigation and enforcement efforts continue to demonstrate the need for health care providers and payers to strengthen their compliance practices and documentation to avoid getting caught in the ever tightening health care fraud dragnet.

Health Care Providers Must Act To Manage Risks

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 24 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

6/30 Comment Deadline For Proposed Inpatient Rehab Payment and Quality Reporting Rules

May 6, 2014

On May 1, 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule outlining proposed fiscal year (FY) 2015 Medicare payment policies and rates for inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) and the IRF Quality Reporting Program (IRF QRP). The FY 2015 proposals are summarized below.

Changes to the payment rates under the IRF Prospective Payment System (PPS). We are proposing to update the IRF PPS payments for FY 2015 to reflect an estimated 2.1 percent increase factor (reflecting a 2.7 percent market basket, reduced by a 0.4 percent multi-factor productivity adjustment and a 0.2 percentage point reduction mandated by the Affordable Care Act). An additional 0.1 percent increase to aggregate payments due to updating the outlier threshold results in an overall update of 2.2 percent (or $160 million), relative to payments in FY 2014.
Facility-level adjustment updates. CMS is proposing to freeze the facility-level adjustment factors for FY 2015 and all subsequent years at the FY 2014 levels, while we continue to monitor the most current IRF data available and evaluate the effects of the FY 2014 changes. Additionally, we want to allow providers time to acclimate to the FY 2014 changes.
ICD-10-CM Conversion. The FY 2015 IRF PPS proposed rule discusses the transition from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM for all diagnosis codes used in the IRF PPS Grouper software and the software for evaluating IRFs’ compliance with the 60 percent rule. Using the General Equivalence Mappings (GEMs) tool, we have transitioned the following lists of diagnosis codes used in the IRF PPS: the List of Comorbidities, Codes That Meet Presumptive Compliance Criteria, and Impairment Group Codes That Meet Presumptive Compliance Criteria. Our intent was to keep the same meaning of the codes in transitioning from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM. We did not intend to add or delete conditions, or otherwise change the meaning of the code lists. We are addressing the conversion of ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM codes for the IRF PPS in this proposed rule, but in light of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA) (Pub. L. No. 113-93), the effective date of those changes would be the date when ICD-10-CM becomes the required medical data code set for use on Medicare claims and IRF-PAI submissions. Until that time, we will continue to require use of the ICD-9-CM codes for the IRF PPS.
Further Refinements to the Presumptive Methodology. In the FY 2014 IRF PPS final rule (78 FR 47860), we revised the list of ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes that are compared with a patient’s comorbidities in determining an IRF’s presumptive compliance with the 60 percent rule. However, a patient’s comorbidities are not the only aspect of a patient’s record that is evaluated in determining whether that patient should be counted towards an IRF’s presumptive compliance. In the FY 2014 IRF PPS final rule, we addressed only the comorbidity portion of the presumptive compliance determination, and did not address the IGC or Etiologic Diagnosis portions. In this proposed rule, CMS is proposing some additional revisions to the comorbidity, IGC, and Etiologic Diagnosis portions of the presumptive compliance determination to be consistent with the changes we implemented in the FY 2014 final rule.
Therapy Data Collection. CMS is proposing to add a new item to the inpatient rehabilitation facility-patient assessment instrument (IRF-PAI) that would require IRFs to record how much and what type of therapy (i.e., individual, group, co-treatment) patients receive in each therapy discipline (i.e., physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology), similar to what is currently reported on the minimum data set in the skilled nursing facility setting.
New IRF-PAI Item for Arthritis Diagnosis Codes. CMS is proposing to add an item to the IRF-PAI form in which providers could indicate that the prior treatment and severity requirements had been met for patients with arthritis conditions. The addition of this item would mitigate a potential increase in burden due to the changes in the presumptive compliance methodology finalized in the FY 2014 IRF PPS final rule (78 FR 47860 at 47887 through 47890) and the changes proposed in this year’s NPRM. For providers that fail the presumptive compliance test, the new IRF-PAI item would first be used to determine whether or not the inclusion of all of the arthritis cases indicated as meeting the severity and prior treatment requirements would be enough for the facility to comply with the 60 percent rule requirement. If so, instead of the Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) doing a medical review on all cases, the MAC could take a random sample of the arthritis cases to determine if the requirements were met by including these cases. Only in those instances where the facility did not meet the compliance requirements including the arthritis cases, would the MAC need to complete a medical review on all cases.
New Measure Proposals. CMS also is proposing to adopt two additional quality measures to the IRF QRP: NHSN Facility-Wide Inpatient Hospital-Onset Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Bacteremia Outcome Measure (NQF #1716), and NHSN Facility-Wide Inpatient Hospital-Onset Clostridium difficile Infection (CDI) Outcome Measure (NQF #1717).

CMS also is proposing various new policies including the following:

Reconsideration Process. CMS is proposing a formal reconsideration policy for the IRF QRP, which proposes to require that IRF providers follow specific procedures when submitting a request for CMS’ reconsideration of an initial IRF QRP provider compliance determination.
Extraordinary Circumstances Waiver Process. CMS is proposing to change the name of the previously finalized “Disaster Waiver” process to “Extraordinary Circumstances Exception/Extension.” We are also proposing to expand the process, previously finalized in the FY 2014 IRF PPS Final Rule, to allow IRF providers to request exceptions or extensions for other circumstances beyond their control, including those that are not classified as natural disasters.
CMS IRF QRP Thresholds and Data Validation. CMS is proposing a new Data Accuracy Validation policy, which will require randomly selected IRF providers to meet a proposed 90% data reliability threshold for required IRF-PAI quality indicator data items.

The proposed rule will be published in the Federal Register on May 7, 2014. CMS will accept comments on the proposed rule until June 30, 2014.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 24 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns.

Her insights on these and other related matters appear in the Health Care Compliance Association, Atlantic Information Service, Bureau of National Affairs, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insurance, the Dallas Morning News, Modern Health Care, Managed Healthcare, Health Leaders, and a many other national and local publications. You can get more information about her health industry experience here. If you need assistance responding to concerns about the matters discussed in this publication or other health care concerns, wish to obtain information about arranging for training or presentations by Ms. Stamer, wish to suggest a topic for a future program or update, or wish to request other information or materials, please contact Ms. Stamer via telephone at (214) 452-8297 or via e-mail here.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Leave a Comment » | ASC, Health Care, Health Care Finance, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Health Care Quality, Hospital, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Fee Schedule, Money Laundering, Physician, Reimbursement | Tagged: 2014, On May 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule outlining proposed fiscal year (FY) 2015 Medicare payment policies and rates for inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Encrypt Mobile Devices & Clean Up Management Documentation Key HIPAA Compliance Messages In New HIPAA Settlements

April 29, 2014

“Encrypt your laptops and other mobile devices” is only one of the key lessons leaders of health plans, health care providers, health care clearinghouses (“Covered Entities”) and their business associates should take away from the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR)’s April 22 announcement that Concentra Health Services (Concentra) and QCA Health Plan, Inc. of Arkansas (QCA) collectively are paying $1,975,220 under separate Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rule resolution agreements resulting from thefts of unencrypted laptops. Along with the importance of encryption, however, these Resolution Agreements also contain equally significant, more broadly applicable lessons to Covered Entities, business associates and their leaders about some of the specific processes, actions and documentation that OCR them to implement and be prepared to defend the adequacy of their HIPAA “culture of compliance” if they file a breach report or otherwise face a HIPAA audit or investigation from OCR.

Consequently, while confirming the adequacy of their organization’s existing encryption of laptops and mobile…

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Small Smiles Dental Centers Excluded As Federal Health Program Provider For 5 Years

April 4, 2014

Yesterday’s announcement of the exclusion of the operator and manager of the national dental chain, Small Smiles Dental Centers, from exclusion in Medicaid, Medicare and other federal health programs highlights the risks health care providers run by failing to comply with a Corporate Integrity Agreement.

Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced April 3, 2014 that the operator and manager of the Small Smiles Dental Centers, CSHM, LLC (formerly known as FORBA Holdings and Church Street Health Management (CSHM), has signed an Exclusion Agreement that bars CSHM from participating in Medicare, Medicaid, and all other Federal health care programs for 5 years. Small Smiles Dental Centers provides services primarily to children on Medicaid.

Mr. Levinson said that this exclusion “makes clear to the provider community that OIG closely monitors our CIAs, critically evaluates providers’ representations and certifications, and will pursue exclusion actions against providers that fail to abide by their integrity agreement obligations.”

According to the announcement, the exclusion is based on CSHM’s alleged material breaches of its Corporate Integrity Agreement (CIA) with the Office of Inspector General (OIG).

CSHM’s corporate predecessor entered into the CIA in 2010, as part of the resolution of a False Claims Act case involving allegations that the company had provided dental services to children on Medicaid that were medically unnecessary or failed to meet professionally recognized standards of care.

On March 7, 2014, OIG issued a Notice of Exclusion to CSHM based upon numerous material breaches of its obligations under the CIA. CSHM failed to report serious quality-of-care reportable events, take corrective action, or make appropriate notifications of those events to the State dental boards as required by the CIA, OIG found. CSHM also failed to implement and maintain key quality-related policies and procedures, comply with internal quality and compliance review requirements, properly maintain a log of compliance disclosures, and perform training as required by the CIA. Finally, CSHM submitted a false certification from its Compliance Officer regarding its compliance with CIA obligations.

This exclusion marks the culmination of a series of alleged failures by CSHM and its corporate predecessors to comply with its CIA. Under the CIA, an independent quality monitor conducted more than 90 site visits and reviews to monitor CSHM’s compliance. Since the 2010 settlement, OIG repeatedly cited CSHM and took actions to address those violations, promote improved compliance, and maintain access to care for an underserved population. These actions included imposing financial penalties and forcing the divestiture of one of the company’s clinics.

Despite these actions, CSHM remained in material breach of its CIA and OIG issued Notices of Intent to Exclude to the company in December 2013 and January 2014. In such cases, providers get the chance to show OIG that they have cured, or are in the process of curing, the material breaches. CSHM represented to OIG that it would cure the material breaches. However, through meetings with CSHM and its Board of Directors and review of its written submissions, OIG determined that CSHM had failed to cure the material breaches and proceeded with the exclusion.

CSHM disputed OIG’s determination that it was in material breach of the CIA. However, under the Exclusion Agreement, CSHM now has waived its objections to these findings.

To minimize immediate disruption of care to the hundreds of thousands of children treated at CSHM clinics and to enable an orderly, controlled shutdown of the company or divestiture of its assets, the exclusion takes effect September 30, 2014. CSHM waived its right to appeal this exclusion in any judicial forum.

Until the exclusion goes into effect on September 30, 2014, an independent monitor will continue to monitor the quality of care being provided to patients at CSHM clinics. CSHM is required to inform patients at least 30 days before closing a clinic. CSHM is also required to keep State Medicaid agencies abreast of developments and provide monthly status reports to OIG. Any divestiture of assets by CSHM must be through bona fide, arms-length transactions to an entity that is not related to or affiliated with CSHM.

Beyond the implications for Small Smiles Dental Centers, the announced exclusion carries important implications for other health care providers. First, of course, the exclusion means that Small Smiles Dental Centers and CSHM as excluded providers are ineligible for hiring by other providers participating in Medicare or other Federal Health Programs. Second, the exclusion also highlights the advisability for other providers covered by CIAs not only to see to comply with their CIA and in the event the OIG questions of the adequacy of that compliance to look for opportunities to work with OIG to rectify alleged concerns as cooperatively as possible unless a high degree of certainty that the provider can prove that OIG’s concerns are unfounded.

For More Information Or Assistance

Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law, Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 23 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters.

Throughout her career, Ms. Stamer has advised and represented health care providers and other health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies and to respond to health care, human resources, tax, privacy, safety, antitrust, civil rights, and other laws as well as with internal investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. A popular lecturer and widely published author on health industry concerns, Ms. Stamer continuously advises health industry clients about compliance and internal controls, workforce and medical staff performance, quality, governance, reimbursement, and other risk management and operational matters. Ms. Stamer also publishes and speaks extensively on health and managed care industry regulatory, staffing and human resources, compensation and benefits, technology, public policy, reimbursement and other operations and risk management concerns including a number of programs and publications on OCR Civil Rights rules and enforcement actions. Her insights on these and other related matters appear in the Health Care Compliance Association, Atlantic Information Service, Bureau of National Affairs, World At Work, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insurance, the Dallas Morning News, Modern Health Care, Managed Healthcare, Health Leaders, and a many other national and local publications. You can get more information about her health industry experience here. If you need assistance with these or other compliance concerns, wish to ask about arranging for compliance audit or training, or need legal representation on other matters please contact Ms. Stamer at (469) 767-8872 or via e-mail here.

Other Resources

If you found this update of interest, you also may be interested in reviewing some of the other updates and publications authored by Ms. Stamer available including:

About Solutions Law Press

Leave a Comment » | Academic medicine, Anti-KickBack, ASC, Childrens Health Insurance Program, Corporate Compliance, DME, Doctor, Durable Medical Equipment, false claims act, Federal Health Center, Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Health Care, Health Care Finance, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Health Care Quality, Home Health, Hospital, Hospital, Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, Mental Heatlh, Money Laundering, OIG, Pharmacy, Physician, Reimbursement, Stark | Tagged: DOJ, Federal Health Program Exclusion, Health Care, Health Care Fraud, Home Care, home health, Hospital, Medicare, Medicare Fraud, Minimum Wage, nurses, OIG, Overtime, Physician, Wage and Hour | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Latest OCR Resolution Agreement Hits Public Health Department, Shows Needs To Stay Up-To-Date

March 16, 2014

Health Department HIPAA Violations Cost County $250,000, Requires Sweeping HIPAA Reforms

Hear Update On Resolution Agreement & Other New HIPAA Developments At 3/18 North Texas Healthcare Professionals Association Meeting –

RSVP here by Noon on March 17, 2014

Skagit County, Washington will pay a $215,000 monetary settlement and work closely with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) to correct deficiencies in its HIPAA compliance program to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules by the Skagit County Public Health Department (Health Department) under a Resolution Agreement announced by OCR on March 7, 2014. The Resolution Agreement makes clear the need for health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses and their business associates to update and maintain their policies and practices in compliance with the constantly evolving OCR guidance and resolution agreements, as well as to timely investigate and report breaches. Interested persons are invited to hear a briefing on a series of new developments including this latest Resolution Agreement at the March 18, 2014 North Texas Healthcare Professionals Association Meeting.

OCR investigated the Health Department after receiving a breach report that unknown parties accessed money receipts with electronic protected health information (ePHI) of seven individuals after the ePHI had been inadvertently moved to a publicly accessible server maintained by the County.

OCR reports its investigation revealed a broader exposure of protected health information involved in the incident, which included the ePHI of 1,581 individuals. Many of the accessible files involved sensitive information, including protected health information about the testing and treatment of infectious diseases.

OCR’s investigation further uncovered general and widespread non-compliance by Skagit County with the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules.

Specifically, the Resolution Agreement between OCR and the Health Department states that OCR found the following conduct occurred (“Covered Conduct”).

From approximately September 14, 2011 until September 28, 2011, Skagit County disclosed the ePHI of 1,581 individuals in violation of the Privacy Rule by providing access to ePHI on its public web server;
From November 28, 2011 until present, Skagit County failed to provide notification as required by the Breach Notification Rule to all of the individuals for whom it knew or should have known that the privacy or security of the individual’s ePHI had been compromised as a result of the breach incident;
From April 20, 2005 until present, Skagit County failed to implement sufficient policies and procedures to prevent, detect, contain, and correct security violations;
From April 20, 2005 until June 1, 2012, Skagit County failed to implement and maintain in written or electronic form policies and procedures reasonably designed to ensure compliance with the Security Rule; and
From April 20, 2005 until present, Skagit County failed to provide security awareness and training to all workforce members, including its Information Security staff members, as necessary and appropriate for the workforce members to carry out their functions within Skagit County.

To resolve OCR’s allegations of these breaches, Skagit County agrees under the Resolution Agreement to pay HHS $215,000.00 and to ensure that the Health Department implements a series of corrective actions. Among other things, the Resolution Agreement requires that the Health Department:

Provide substitute Breach Notification to individuals not previously notified of the breach of their ePHI in accordance with the Resolution Agreement
Revise to the satisfaction of OCR and adopt revised accounting for disclosure, hybrid entity designations, policies on safeguarding PHI, including its sample business associate agreements;
Conduct an accurate and thorough assessment of the potential risks and vulnerabilities to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information (ePHI) held by the covered health care components of Skagit County as identified in its hybrid entity documentation approved by HHS and implement security measures sufficient to reduce the risks and vulnerabilities identified in the risk analysis to a reasonable and appropriate level.
Create and revise, as necessary, written policies and procedures for its covered health care components to comply with the Federal standards that govern the privacy, security, and breach notification of individually identifiable health information;
Comply with strict workforce training requirements;
Notify and OCR of the occurrence of some reported breaches, its investigation and corrective actions;
Provide a summary of the reported events and the status of any corrective and preventative action relating to all such Reportable Events; and
Provide OCR with an attestation signed by an officer of Skagit County attesting that he or she has reviewed the Annual Report, has made a reasonable inquiry regarding its content and believes that, upon such inquiry, the information is accurate and truthful.

In addition to bringing its policies and practices up to date with OCR regulations in effect at the time of the breach that resulted in the Resolution Agreement, the Health Department also will have to update its polic9ies and practices to meet changes to OCR’s HIPAA rules that have taken effect since the breach under the revised rules published by OCR in its Modifications to the HIPAA Privacy, Security, Enforcement, and Breach Notification Rules Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act; Other Modifications to the HIPAA Rules; Final Rule (Omnibus Final Rule) OCR published January 25, 2013 as well as a series of recently issued OCR rules such as the following:

Covered Entities & Business Associates Should Review & Tighten Practices in Response To Resolution Agreement & Other New Guidance

Other covered entities and their business associates should carefully evaluate and tighten their existing practices in response to the Resolution Agreement and other recent guidance. In the past, OCR officials have stated it expects that other health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses and their business associates will review resolution agreements like this one along with other emerging OCR guidance and update their practices as necessary to address concerns within their own organization that might be similar to those reflected in the applicable resolution agreement. The Resolution Agreement documents this expectation by specifically incorporating this requirement as part of its terms.

Hear Stamer’s Update On Resolution Agreement & Other New HIPAA Developments At 3/18 North Texas Healthcare Professionals Association Meeting

Scribe for the American Bar Association Annual Agency Meeting with OCR for the fourth year, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer will overview these and other HIPAA developments when she presents “Tutoring On OCR’s Latest HIPAA Homework” at the North Texas Healthcare Professionals Association Study Group Luncheon on Tuesday, March 18, 2014 from 11:30 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the offices of the Dallas Ft Worth Hospital Council, 250 Decker Drive, Irving, TX 75062-2706. A complimentary luncheon will be served to guests to who register in advance. There is no charge to particulate but space is limited. RSVP here by Noon on March 17, 2014.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 24 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

NLRB Helps Union Force Another Health Care Employer To Recognize & Bargain With Union

March 13, 2014

Hospitals, skilled nursing and other health care organizations need to be concerned about union organizing of their employees in light of the growing success of unions with the aid of the pro-union support and agenda of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) under the Obama Administration’s leadership. The Administration’s goal of telling health care providers what to do extends well beyond Medicare and Medicaid into their workforce and terms and conditions of employment.

On February 21, 2014, for instance, the Obama Administration helped the Service Employees International Union (the Union) force Holy Cross Youth and Family Services, Inc., d/b/a Kairos Healthcare (the Employer), a provider of drug and alcohol rehabilitation services, to recognize and bargain with the over terms and conditions of employees with the Union by securing a court order forcing the employer to recognize and bargain with the Union.

Ruling in a lawsuit filed by the NLRB against the Employer on February 21, a federal court judge for the Eastern District of Michigan ordered upheld the allegations made in August 23, 2013 by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Detroit, Michigan Regional Office that the Employer violated the National Labor Relations Act when it withdrew recognition from Local 517M, made unilateral changes to employees’ terms and conditions of employment without affording the Union an opportunity to bargain over those changes, and failed to provide relevant information to the Union to help in its bargaining with the Employer on behalf of the employees.

The Regional Office sought, and the Board authorized, seeking interim injunctive relief to return the parties to the bargaining table pending final resolution of the matter, to require the Employer to provide the Union with the information it requested and, upon request, to rescind the unilateral changes made to employees’ terms and conditions of employment.

On February 21, 2014, the District upheld the Regional Office’s action. It ruled that an interim injunction was appropriate to prevent loss of Union support, to keep the employees’ right to bargain with their Employer through their chosen bargaining representative, and to provide the Union with the information it needs to evaluate and make bargaining proposals while the administrative case is pending before the Board.

The case is one of a growing number of actions where the NLRB has used is powers to help Unions force health care and other employers to yield to union demands. See e.g., Specialty Healthcare and Rehabilitation of Mobile, Board Case No. 15-CA-68248 (reported at 357 NLRB No. 174) (6^th Cir. decided August 15, 2013 under the name Kindred Nursing Centers East, LLC f/k/a Specialty Healthcare and Rehabilitation of Mobile v. NLRB).

These decisions should remind health care and other employers of the highly union-friendly bent of the NLRB under the current administration, as well as the hazards of mishandling efforts to defend against union organizing and other protected activities under the NLRA. Beyond the obligation to recognize and bargain with properly certified collective bargaining unions, the NLRB and other federal labor laws also grant employees a host of other protections. Among these are recently affirmed rights-even for a worker not represented by a union – to insist another employee be present when participating in disciplinary and certain other meetings with management, rules limit the ability of employers to prohibit or restrict employees requiring employees to keep confidential and not discuss among each other salary, wages or other terms of compensation or employment terms and conditions, and others. The Obama Administration has made known its desire to expand these rights further and has carried out an aggressive legislative, regulatory and enforcement campaign in pursuit of this goal since taking office. For this reason, health care or other organizations should seek the advice and assistance of qualified legal counsel experienced with labor management relations matters to review policies for compliance, to prepare and administer anti-organizing activities, and to evaluate and respond to union organizing or bargaining activities.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance responding to health industry staffing and workforce, regulatory, enforcement or other developments, reviewing or tightening your policies and procedures, conducting training or audits, responding to or defending an investigation or other enforcement action or with other health care related risk management, compliance, training, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 25 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes extensive work advising, representing and training health industry and other clients on HIPAA and other privacy, data protection and breach and other related matters. She also advises hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD, and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. A popular lecturer and widely published author on health industry concerns, Board Certified in Labor and Employment Law, Ms. Stamer’s experience includes continuous involvement in advising and representing health care organizations about employment, labor-management, peer review and staffing and other workforce management and compensation concerns. Ms. Stamer also continuously advises health industry clients about compliance and internal controls, workforce and medical staff performance, quality, governance, reimbursement, and other risk management and operational matters. Ms. Stamer also publishes and speaks extensively on health and managed care industry regulatory, staffing and human resources, compensation and benefits, technology, public policy, reimbursement and other operations and risk management concerns. Scribe for the ABA JCEB annual Technical Sessions meeting with OCR for the past three years, Ms. Stamer also is recognized for her extensive publications and programs including numerous highly regarding publications and programs on HIPAA and other privacy and data security concerns as well as a wide range of other workshops, programs and publications on other compliance, operational and risk management, and other health industry matters. Her insights on these and other related matters appear in the Health Care Compliance Association, Atlantic Information Service, Bureau of National Affairs, World At Work, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insurance, the Dallas Morning News, Modern Health Care, Managed Healthcare, Health Leaders, and a many other national and local publications. You can get more information about her health industry experience here. If you need assistance responding to concerns about the matters discussed in this publication or other health care concerns, wish to obtain information about arranging for training or presentations by Ms. Stamer, wish to suggest a topic for a future program or update, or wish to request other information or materials, please contact Ms. Stamer via telephone at (214) 452-8297 or via e-mail here. If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Hospital Will Pay $75K For Refusing To Hire Disabled Worker

March 10, 2014

Osceola Community Hospital Refused To Hire Child Care Worker With Cerebral Palsy Who Had Worked As Volunteer

Osceola Community Hospital in Sibley, Iowa will pay $75,000 and furnish other relief to settle an Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for its refusal to hire a child care worker with cerebral palsy. The case shows both the need for health care and other employers to have sufficient evidence to support decisions not to hire disabled workers for safety reasons as well as the potential risks that hospitals or other face when refusing to hire disabled individuals who have been allowed to work as volunteers in their organizations.

The EEOC charged a day care center operated by the hospital, Bright Beginnings of Osceola County, unlawfully failed to hire a volunteer employee into a paid position for which she was qualified because of her cerebral palsy. Although the woman who brought the charge of discrimination against the hospital already volunteered in the day care center and held a job driving a school bus, the EEOC’s investigation revealed the county refused to hire her into a paying job in the center out of an unfounded fear that her disability meant that she could not safely care for the children.

Judge Mark Bennett entered a consent decree on February, 28, 2014, resolving the brought by the EEOC in EEOC v. Osceola Community Hospital d/b/a Bright Beginnings of Osceola County, Civil Action No. 5:12-cv-4087 (N.D. Iowa, Sept. 26, 2012 that orders Osceola Community Hospital to pay $75,000 to the discrimination victim. The decree also requires the hospital to institute a policy prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability and to distribute the policy to all of its employees. The hospital also must train its employees and report regularly to the EEOC on its compliance with the ADA.

The lawsuit provides another example to health care and other employers of their growing exposure to disability discrimination claims under the ADA. The EEOC action and lawsuit highlights the importance of employers ensuring that decisions to refuse to hire disabled workers for safety reasons are based upon appropriate evidence of actual safety concerns that prevent the worker from safely performing the assigned duties with or without reasonable accommodation.

The fact that the worker in this case had in fact worked as a volunteer likely created additional challenges in defending the decision. The use of volunteer workers in health industry businesses is a common practice that may justify special care before those organizations deny employment to a former volunteer on the basis of safety concerns associated with the disabilities of the applicant or worker both to document the reasonable basis of the safety concern and that the concern could not be adequately resolved through reasonable accommodation.

Health Care Providers Must Strengthen Disability Compliance & Risk Management

Employment discrimination isn’t the only disability discrimination risk that hospitals and other health industry organizations need to worry about in today’s liability charged environment. Enforcing federal discrimination laws is a high priority of the Obama Administration. The Departments of Labor, Health & Human Services, Education, Justice, Housing & Urban Development, and others all have both increased enforcement, audits and public outreach, as well as have sought or are proposing tighter regulations.

The expanding applicability of nondiscrimination rules coupled with the wave of new policies and regulatory and enforcement actions should alert private businesses and state and local government agencies of the need to exercise special care to prepare to defend their actions against potential disability or other Civil Rights discrimination challenges under employment, Medicare, housing and a broad range of other laws.

The Obama Administration is targeting disability discrimination by health care organizations in a broad range of areas as part of its Barrier Free Health Care Initiative (Initiative). Launched on the 22^nd anniversary of the ADA in July 2012, the Initiative is a partnership of the Civil Rights Division and 40 U.S. Attorney’s offices across the nation, that targets ADA and other disability discrimination law enforcement efforts on a critical area for individuals with disabilities.

Part of a broader enforcement initiative of the Obama Administration to enforce and expand federal protections for individuals with disabilities, the Initiative seeks to protect patients with disabilities against illegal disability discrimination by prosecuting health care providers under the ADA and the Rehab Act.

Section 504 of the Rehab Act requires recipients of Medicare, Medicaid, HUD, Department of Education, welfare and most other federal assistance programs funds including health care, education, housing services providers, state and local governments to ensure that qualified individuals with disabilities have equal access to programs, services, or activities receiving federal financial assistance.

The ADA extends the prohibition against disability discrimination to private providers and other businesses as well as state and local governments including but not limited to health care providers reimbursed by Medicare, Medicaid or various other federal programs The ADA requirements extend most federal disability discrimination prohibits to health care and other businesses even if they do not receive federal financial assistance to ensure that qualified individuals with disabilities have equal access to their programs, services or activities.

In many instances, these federal discrimination laws both prohibit discrimination and require health care and other regulated businesses to put in place reasonable accommodations needed to ensure that their services are accessible and available to persons with disabilities. The public accommodation provisions of the ADA, for instance, generally require those doctors’ offices, medical clinics, hospitals, and other health care providers, as well as other covered businesses to provide people with disabilities, including those with HIV, equal access to goods, services, and facilities. The ADA also may compel health care providers to adjust their practices for delivering care and/or providing access to facilities to accommodate special needs of disabled individuals under certain circumstances. Meanwhile the Civil Rights Act and other laws prohibit discrimination based on national origin, race, sex, age, religion and various other grounds. These federal rules impact almost all public and private health care providers as well as a broad range housing and related service providers.

The Justice Departments campaign against disability discrimination by health care providers is supported and enhanced by the concurrent efforts of OCR. Along side the Justice Department’s efforts, OCR recently has announced several settlement agreements and issued letters of findings as part of its ongoing efforts to ensure compliance with the Rehab Act and the ADA well as various other federal nondiscrimination and civil rights laws. Through its own antidiscrimination campaign, OCR is racking up an impressive list of settlements with health care providers, housing and other businesses for violating the ADA, Section 504 or other related civil rights rules enforced by OCR. See, e.g. Genesis Healthcare Disability HHS OCR Discrimination Settlement Reminder To Use Interpreters, Other Needed Accommodations For Disabled. Meanwhile, both the Justice Department and OCR also are encouraging victims of discrimination to enforce their rights through private action through educational outreach to disabled and other individuals protected by federal disabilities and other civil rights laws to make them aware of and to encourage them to act to enforce these rights.

Health Care Organizations & Providers Should Act To Manage Patient-Related Disability Discrimination Risks

Prosecutions and settlements by these and other federal agencies show the need for health care providers and other public and private organizations to strengthen their disability discrimination compliance and management practices to defend against rising exposures to actions by the Justice Department, OCR, the EEOC and other agencies as well as private law suits. Hospitals, health care clinics, physicians and other health care providers should take steps to guard against joining the growing list of health care providers caught in the enforcement sights of the Initiative by reviewing and updating practices, policies, training and oversight to ensure that their organizations can prevent and defend against charges of disability discrimination.

Defending or paying to settle a disability discrimination charge brought by a private plaintiff, OCR or another agency, or others tends to be financially, operationally and politically costly for a health care organization or public housing provider. In addition to the expanding readiness of OCR and other agencies to pursue investigations and enforcement of disability discrimination and other laws, the failure of health care organizations to effectively keep up processes to appropriately include and care for disabled other patients or constituents with special needs also can increase negligence exposure, undermine Joint Commission and other quality ratings, undermine efforts to qualify for public or private grant, partnerships or other similar arrangements, and create negative perceptions in the community.

In light of the expanding readiness of the Justice Department, OCR, HUD, EEOC and other agencies to investigate and take action against health care providers for potential violations of the ADA, Section 504 and other federal discrimination and civil rights laws, health care organizations and their leaders should review and tighten their policies, practices, training, documentation, investigation, redress, discipline and other nondiscrimination policies and procedures. In carrying out these activities, organizations and their leaders should keep in mind the critical role of training and oversight of staff and contractors plays in promoting and maintaining required operational compliance with these requirements. Reported settlements reflect that the liability trigger often is discriminatory conduct by staff, contractors, or landlords in violation of both the law and the organization’s own policies.

To achieve and maintain the necessary operational compliance with these requirements, organizations should both adopt and policies against prohibited discrimination and take the necessary steps to institutionalize compliance with these policies by providing ongoing staff and vendor training and oversight, contracting for and monitoring vendor compliance and other actions. Organizations also should take advantage of opportunities to identify and resolve potential compliance concerns by revising patient and other processes and procedures to enhance the ability of the organization to learn about and redress potential charges without government intervention.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or tightening your policies and procedures, conducting training or audits, responding to or defending an investigation or other enforcement action or with other health care related risk management, compliance, training, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 24 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns.

Her insights on these and other related matters appear in the Health Care Compliance Association, Atlantic Information Service, Bureau of National Affairs, World At Work, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insurance, the Dallas Morning News, Modern Health Care, Managed Healthcare, Health Leaders, and a many other national and local publications. You can get more information about her health industry experience here. If you need assistance responding to concerns about the matters discussed in this publication or other health care concerns, wish to obtain information about arranging for training or presentations by Ms. Stamer, wish to suggest a topic for a future program or update, or wish to request other information or materials, please contact Ms. Stamer via telephone at (469) 767-8872 or via e-mail here.

About Solutions Law Press, Inc.™

Solutions Law Press, Inc.™ provides business and management information, tools and solutions, training and education, services and support to help organizations and their leaders promote effective management of legal and operational performance, regulatory compliance and risk management, data and information protection and risk management and other key management objectives. Solutions Law Press, Inc.™ also conducts and help businesses and associations to design, present and conduct customized programs and training targeted to their specific audiences and needs. For additional information about upcoming programs, to explore becoming a presenting sponsor for an upcoming event, e-mail your request to info@Solutionslawpress.com These programs, publications and other resources are provided only for general informational and educational purposes. Neither the distribution or presentation of these programs and materials to any party nor any statement or information provided in or in connection with this communication, the program or associated materials are intended to or shall be construed as establishing an attorney-client relationship, to constitute legal advice or provide any assurance or expectation from Solutions Law Press, Inc., the presenter or any related parties. If you or someone else you know would like to receive future Alerts or other information about developments, publications or programs or other updates, send your request to info@solutionslawpress.com. CIRCULAR 230 NOTICE: The following disclaimer is included to comply with and in response to U.S. Treasury Department Circular 230 Regulations. ANY STATEMENTS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE NOT INTENDED OR WRITTEN BY THE WRITER TO BE USED, AND NOTHING CONTAINED HEREIN CAN BE USED BY YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON, FOR THE PURPOSE OF (1) AVOIDING PENALTIES THAT MAY BE IMPOSED UNDER FEDERAL TAX LAW, OR (2) PROMOTING, MARKETING OR RECOMMENDING TO ANOTHER PARTY ANY TAX-RELATED TRANSACTION OR MATTER ADDRESSED HEREIN. ©2013 Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, P.C. All rights reserved.

Leave a Comment » | Academic medicine, ADA, DME, Doctor, Electronic Health Records, Employer, Employment, Health Care, Health Care Provider, Health IT, HIPAA, HITECH Act, Hospital, OCR, Physician | Tagged: ADA, Disability Discrimination, EEOC, Health Care, Hospital, OCR | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

OCR Assigns More HIPAA Compliance Work To Health Care Providers

March 5, 2014

Think your health care organization or health plan has health care privacy covered? Think again.

A series of supplemental guidance issued by the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in recent weeks is giving health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses (Covered Entities) and their business associates even more to do in reviewing and updating their policies, practices and training for handing protected health information (PHI) beyond bringing their policies and practices into line with OCR’s restatement and update to the Modifications to the HIPAA Privacy, Security, Enforcement, and Breach Notification Rules Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act; Other Modifications to the HIPAA Rules; Final Rule (Omnibus Final Rule) OCR published January 25, 2013.

Covered Entities generally have been required to comply with most requirements the Omnibus Final Rule’s restated regulations restating OCR’s regulations implementing the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules to reflect HIPAA amendments enacted by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act since the Omnibus Final Rule took effect on March 26, 2013 and to have updated business associate agreements in place since September 23, 2013. Meanwhile, the Omnibus Final Rule generally has required business associates have updated business associate agreements in place and otherwise to have come into compliance with all of the applicable requirements of the Omnibus Final Rule since September 23, 2013. Although these deadlines are long past, many Covered Entities and business associates have yet to complete the policy, process and training updates required to comply with the modifications implemented in the Omnibus Final Rule.

Even if a Covered Entity or business associate completed the updates required to comply with the Omnibus Final Rule, however, recent supplemental guidance published by OCR means that most organizations now have even more work to do on HIPAA compliance. This includes the following supplemental guidance concerning its interpretation and enforcement of HIPAA against Covered Entities and business associates published by OCR since January 1, 2014 alone:

When conducting these efforts, Covered Entities and business associates not only carefully watch for and react promptly to new OCR guidance and enforcement actions, but also document their commitment and ongoing compliance and risk management activities to help support their ability to demonstrate their organization maintains the necessary “culture of compliance” commitment needed to mitigate risks in the event of a breach or other HIPAA violation and take well-documented, reasonable steps to encourage their business associates to do the same. When carrying out these activities, most covered entities and business associates also will want to take steps to monitor potential responsibilities and exposures under other federal and state laws like the privacy and data security requirements that often apply to personal financial information, trade secrets or other sensitive data under applicable federal and state laws and judicial precedent.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 24 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Federal Health Care Fraud Enforcement Recouped Record $4.3 Billion in FY 2013

March 4, 2014

Health care providers got another reminder last week of their ever-growing exposure to federal health care fraud detection and enforcement efforts. The joint federal health care fraud enforcement efforts of the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Health and Human Services (HHS) set new records for recoveries in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, according to the newly released annual Health Care Fraud and Abuse (HCFAC) Program Report (the “Fraud Report”).

Record Breaking Fraud Recoveries In FY 2013 Highlight Health Care Fraud Enforcement Risk

According to the Fraud Report, the government’s health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered a record-breaking $4.3 billion in taxpayer dollars in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, up from $4.2 billion in FY 2012, from individuals and companies who attempted to defraud federal health programs serving seniors or who sought payments from taxpayers to which they were not entitled.　 Over the last five years, the Fraud Report says administration’s enforcement efforts have recovered $19.2 billion, up from $9.4 billion over the prior five-year period.　 Since the inception of the program in1997, the HCFAC Program has returned more than $25.9 billion to the Medicare Trust Funds and treasury.

These reported recoveries show the commitment and growing success of federal health care fraud detection, investigation and enforcement efforts targeting providers and others in health care. This is the fifth consecutive year that the program has increased recoveries over the past year, climbing from $2 billion in FY 2008 to over $4 billion every year since FY 2011.

Recoveries Show Providers Big & Growing

The DOJ and HHS credit the success of these efforts largely to the joint Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) program DOJ and HHS created in 2009 to target health care fraud and reforms passed as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that aid government investigation and enforcement efforts.

DOJ and HHS have used HEAT and expanded powers in ACA to strengthen and grow their join fraud detection and enforcement efforts. ACA reforms have strengthened these efforts by giving the agencies new tools.

Among other things, ACA empowered HHS to:

Suspend payments to providers and suppliers based on credible allegations of fraud in Medicare and Medicaid;
Impose a temporary moratorium on Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP enrollment on providers and suppliers when necessary to help prevent or fight fraud, waste, and abuse without impeding beneficiaries’ access to care.
Strengthen and build on current provider enrollment and screening procedures to more accurately assure that fraudulent providers are not gaming the system and that only qualified health care providers and suppliers are allowed to enroll in and bill Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP;
Terminate providers from Medicaid and CHIP when they have been terminated by Medicare or by another state Medicaid program or CHIP;
Require provider compliance programs, now required under the Affordable Care Act, that will ensure providers are aware of and comply with CMS program requirements.

These tools make it easier for HHS to detect and prevent potential questionable activities, as well as aid DOJ and HHS in investigating and prosecuting suspected fraud or other misconduct. The agencies tout their use of these tools along with their heightened enforcement and coordination for the growing success of their health care fraud detection and prosecution efforts.

“With these extraordinary recoveries, and the record-high rate of return on investment we’ve achieved on our comprehensive health care fraud enforcement efforts, we’re sending a strong message to those who would take advantage of their fellow citizens, target vulnerable populations, and commit fraud on federal health care programs,” said Attorney General Eric Holder.　 “Thanks to initiatives like HEAT, our work to combat fraud has never been more cooperative or more effective.　 And our unprecedented commitment to holding criminals accountable, and securing remarkable results for American taxpayers, is paying dividends.”

“These impressive recoveries for the American taxpayer are just one aspect of the comprehensive anti-fraud strategy we have implemented since the passage of the Affordable Care Act,” said HHS Secretary Sebelius.　 “We’ve cracked down on tens of thousands health care providers suspected of Medicare fraud. New enrollment screening techniques are proving effective in preventing high risk providers from getting into the system, and the new computer analytics system that detects and stops fraudulent billing before money ever goes out the door is accomplishing positive results – all of which are adding to savings for the Medicare Trust Fund.”

Federal officials also give credit to new new authorities given to them by the Affordable Care Act that help HHS and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to detect and target heatlh care fraud.

In FY 2013, CMS announced the first use of its temporary moratoria authority granted by the Affordable Care Act.　 The action stopped enrollment of new home health or ambulance enrollments in three fraud hot spots around the country, allowing CMS and its law enforcement partners to remove bad actors from the program while blocking provider entry or re-entry into these already over-supplied markets.

The Justice Department and HHS have improved their coordination through HEAT and are currently operating Medicare Fraud Strike Force teams in nine areas across the country. The strike force teams use advanced data analysis techniques to identify high-billing levels in health care fraud hot spots so that interagency teams can target emerging or migrating schemes as well as chronic fraud by criminals masquerading as health care providers or suppliers. The Justice Department’s enforcement of the civil False Claims Act and the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act has produced similar record-breaking results.　 These combined efforts coordinated under HEAT have expanded local partnerships and helped educate Medicare beneficiaries about how to protect themselves against fraud.

In Fiscal Year 2013, the strike force secured records in the number of cases filed (137), individuals charged (345), guilty pleas secured (234) and jury trial convictions (46). Beyond these remarkable results, the defendants who were charged and sentenced are facing significant time in prison – an average of 52 months in prison for those sentenced in FY 2013, and an average of 47 months in prison for those sentenced since 2007.

In FY 2013, the Justice Department opened 1,013 new criminal health care fraud investigations involving 1,910 potential defendants, and a total of 718 defendants were convicted of health care fraud-related crimes during the year.　 The department also opened 1,083 new civil health care fraud investigations.

The strike force coordinated a takedown in May 2013 that resulted in charges by eight strike force cities against 89 individuals, including doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $223 million in false billings. As a part of the May 2013 takedown, HHS also suspended or took other administrative action against 18 providers using authority under the health care law to suspend payments until an investigation is complete.

In FY 2013, the strike force secured records in the number of cases filed (137), individuals charged (345), guilty pleas secured (234) and jury trial convictions (48). Beyond these remarkable results, the defendants who were charged and sentenced are facing significant time in prison – an average of 52 months in prison for those sentenced in FY 2013, and an average of 47 months in prison for those sentenced since 2007.

In March 2011, CMS began an ambitious project to revalidate all 1.5 million Medicare enrolled providers and suppliers under the Affordable Care Act screening requirements. As of September 2013, more than 535,000 providers were subject to the new screening requirements and over 225,000 lost the ability to bill Medicare due to the Affordable Care Act requirements and other proactive initiatives.　 Since the Affordable Care Act, CMS has also revoked 14,663 providers and suppliers’ ability to bill the Medicare program. These providers were removed from the program because they had felony convictions, were not operational at the address CMS had on file, or were not in compliance with CMS rules.

HHS and the Justice Department are leading historic efforts with the private sector to bring innovation to the fight against health care fraud. In addition to real-time data and information exchanges with the private sector, CMS’ Program Integrity Command Center worked with the HHS Office of the Inspector General and the FBI to conduct 93 missions to detect, investigate, and reduce improper payments in FY 2013.

From May 2013 through August 2013, CMS led an outreach and education campaign targeted to specific communities where Medicare fraud is more prevalent.　 This multimedia campaign included national television, radio, and print outreach and resulted in an increased awareness of how to detect and report Medicare fraud.

These and other activities make it more important than ever that hospitals, physicians and other health care providers participating in Medicare, Medicaid or other federal health care programs tighten their compliance and risk management practices and processes to manage their exposures.

Providers Urged To Act To Manage Risks

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 24 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

CMS Publishes Tools To Help Providers Understand E-Health Administrative Simplification Tools & Processes

March 4, 2014

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is offering training resources to help providers learn about the electronic administrative simplification tools available through the CMS eHealth programs implemented as part of the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) Administrative Simplification rules.

CMS recently launched eHealth University, a new education portal designed to give providers information vital for understanding, implementing, and successfully participating in a range of . The curriculum offers resources organized by level, from beginner to advanced, in a variety of formats, including　fact sheets, guides, videos, checklists, webinar recordings, and more.

As part of eHealth University, CMS is offering tools and resources to help providers understand Administrative Simplification initiatives such as claims and eligibility operating rules, electronic funds transfer and remittance advice operating rules and standards, and the health plan identifier. These resources include:

What Administrative Simplification Does For You – This fact sheet explains the basics behind how Administrative Simplification will help improve health care efficiency and lower costs.
Introduction to Administrative Simplification – This guide gives an overview of Administrative Simplification initiatives and their purposes.
Introduction to Administrative Simplification: Operating Rules – A short video with information on Administrative Simplification operating rules.

Once providers or others have an understanding of the basics of Administrative Simplification through these beginner-level resources, the user can use the intermediate and advanced resources also available on the eHealth University website.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Board Certified in Labor and Employment Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 24 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients on how to establish, administer and defend workforce, staffing, management, compliance and risk management policies and practices; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to employment, staffing, peer review and other quality, compliance and enforcement concerns; and to respond to OSHA and other Department of Labor, IRS, Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns.

Ms. Stamer also publishes and speaks extensively on health and managed care industry regulatory, staffing and human resources, compensation and benefits, technology, public policy, reimbursement and other operations and risk management concerns. Her presentations and programs include How to Ensure That Your Organization Is In Compliance With Regulations Governing Discrimination, as well as a wide range of other workshops, programs and publications on discrimination and cultural diversity, as well as a broad range of compliance, operational and risk management, and other health industry matters.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

OSHA Hospital Tool Signals OSHA Enforcement Risk

January 20, 2014

Health industry employers brace for heightened worker health and safety exposures. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OHSA) is getting serious about health care worker safety.

On January 15, 2014, OSHA launched a new educational Web-based OSHA Hospital Resource with extensive materials it intends to help hospitals prevent worker injuries, assess workplace safety needs, enhance safe patient handling programs, and implement safety and health management systems. The materials include fact books, self-assessments and best practice guides.

In announcing the new resource, OSHA noted that hospital workers face serious hazards, including: lifting and moving patients, workplace violence, slips and falls, exposure to chemicals and hazardous drugs, exposures to infectious diseases and needlesticks.

According to OSHA, U.S. hospitals recorded 250,000 work-related injuries and illnesses, almost 60,000 of which caused employees to miss work in 2012. Nationwide, workers’ compensation losses result in a total annual expense of $2 billion for hospitals.

According to OSHA, the website’s materials on safe patient handling are designed to address the most common type of injuries hospital workers face, and hospitals can use these resources to protect their workers, improve patient safety and reduce costs.

While presented as helpful tools for industry employers, health care employers should not overlook the potential legal exposures risked by failing to properly manage employee health and safety risks.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. Viewed from this perspective, health industry employers generally will want to use the tool within the scope of attorney-client privilege to evaluate their potential risks and exposures in the event of a workplace injury or death, OSHA audit or both, and take appropriate steps to mitigate those risks promptly.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Board Certified in Labor and Employment Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 24 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients on how to establish, administer and defend workforce, staffing, management, compliance and risk management policies and practices; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to employment, staffing, peer review and other quality, compliance and enforcement concerns; and to respond to OSHA and other Department of Labor, IRS, Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Leave a Comment » | Controlled Substances, DEA, Doctor, E-Prescribing, FDA, Health Care, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Hospital, Licensing, Medical Licensure, Medical Malpractice, OIG, Physician, Physician Licensing, Prescription Drugs, Substance Abuse | Tagged: Health Care, health plan issuer, Hospital, insurer, OSHA, Physician, Safety | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Health Insurance Provider Fee Reporting Rules Published

January 20, 2014

Notice 2013-76 provides guidance on the health insurance providers fee related to (1) the time and manner for submitting Form 8963, “Report of Health Insurance Provider Information,” (2) the time and manner for notifying covered entities of their preliminary fee calculation, (3) the time and manner for submitting a corrected Form 8963 for the error correction process, and (4) the time for notifying covered entities of their final fee calculation. The Notice was published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin on December 16, 2013.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 24 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Leave a Comment » | Controlled Substances, DEA, Doctor, E-Prescribing, FDA, Health Care, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Hospital, Licensing, Medical Licensure, Medical Malpractice, OIG, Physician, Physician Licensing, Prescription Drugs, Substance Abuse | Tagged: EHR, electronic health record, Health Care, Health Care Reform, health insurance provider, health plan issuer, insurer, Physician, Safety | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

IRS Extends Existing 501(r) Guidance Reliance Period For ACA-Added Hospital Tax-Exemption Requirements

January 20, 2014

Tax-exempt hospitals can continue to rely upon existing guidance concerning the additional requirements for continued qualification for tax-exemption for hospitals added as Internal Revenue Code Section 501(r) as part of the health care reforms imposed by the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act according to two new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Notices.

Notice 2014-2 confirms that tax-exempt hospitals can rely on proposed regulations under § 501(r) contained in notices of proposed rulemaking (NPRMs) issued on June 26, 2012, and April 5, 2013, pending the publication of final or temporary regulations or other applicable guidance. Meanwhile, Notice 2014-3 contains a proposed revenue procedure that provides correction and disclosure procedures under which certain failures to meet the requirements of § 501(r) of the Internal Revenue Code will be excused for purposes of § 501(r)(1) and 501(r)(2)(B).

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need assistance reviewing or responding to these or other health care related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, may be able to help. Vice President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section and the former Board Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 24 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Her experience includes advising hospitals, nursing home, home health, rehabilitation and other health care providers and health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies; prevent, conduct and investigate, and respond to peer review and other quality concerns; and to respond to Board of Medicine, Department of Aging & Disability, Drug Enforcement Agency, OCR Privacy and Civil Rights, HHS, DOD and other health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns from Ms. Stamer, see here.

About Solutions Law Press

Leave a Comment » | Academic medicine, Doctor, Health Care, Health Care Finance, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Health Care Reform | Tagged: 501(r), Affordable Care Act, Health Care, Hospitals, tax-exempt | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

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