Health Care Fraud |

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

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

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 find this of interest, you also be interested reviewing some of our other Solutions Law Press resources including:

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

2/28/14 Deadline To Submit Quality Data for 2013 PQRS-Medicare EHR Incentive Pilot

January 17, 2014

February 28, 2014 is the deadline for any eligible professional participating or wishes to participate in the 2013 PQRS-Medicare EHR Incentive Pilot to submit its quality data. Eligible providers wishing to participate in the pilot must submit 12 months of CQM data by February 28, 2014 at 11:59 pm ET. The system is currently open to accept this data so eligible professionals wishing to participate should complete the collection and submission of this data as soon as possible.

Steps to Successfully Participate
To successfully participate in the pilot, you must do the following by February 28, 2014:

Register for an IACS account (for EHR submission only)
Indicate intent to report CQMs using pilot in EHR Registration & Attestation System
Generate required reporting files
Test data submission
Submit quality data

Eligible professionals that cannot submit their CQM data for 12 months electronically through PQRS must return to the EHR Attestation System and deselect the electronic reporting option. Please note: if a provider does not submit its 2013 quality data or deselect the electronic reporting option in the EHR Attestation System, CMS says the provider will not receive an EHR incentive payment.

For More Information
For further guidance on the 2013 PQRS-Medicare EHR Incentive Pilot, eligible providers should read the Participation Guide and Quick-Reference Guide.

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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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Final CMS Rule To Expand Medicaid Support For Community & Home-Based Care

January 12, 2014

New Rule Expands Medicaid Coverage For Community Living For Disabled Aging Adults

Caregivers and service providers caring the Medicaid-eligible aging or disabled individuals will want to check out the new final rule on Home and Community-Based Services published by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Friday, January 10. See Final Rule: Home and Community-Based Services (“Final Rule”).

HHS views the Final Rule as supporting its Community Living Initiative, which seeks to expand and improve community services in order to allow aging and disabled people to live, work, and participate in the greater community. The Initiative reflects the growing community support for helping aging and disabled individuals to avoid institutionalization and instead “age in place” by offering broader care options, developing community services that extend options for disabled and aging persons to live independently, and other actions that support the ability of individuals to live safely within community rather than institutional settings. In announcing the Final Rule, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “Today’s announcement will help ensure that all people participating in Medicaid home and community-based services programs have full access to the benefits of community living.”

The Final Rule expands the conditions under which Medicaid provides coverage for home and community-based services as an alternative to institutional care for older.. adults covered by Medicaid. Among other things, the Final Rule defines home and community-based settings and implements new flexibility authorized by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that gives states additional options as part of their State Plan Option to expand home and community-based services and to target services to specific populations under the provisions of Section 1915(i) on home and community-based services. It also amends the 1915(c) home and community-based services waiver program to add new person-centered planning requirements, allow states to combine multiple target populations in one waiver, and streamlines waiver administration. The final rule also includes a transitional period for states to adjust their programs to meet the new home and community-based services settings requirements. CMS says technical assistance will also be available for states.

Service providers and community agencies caring for Medicaid-eligible populations will want to check out these new rules for insights on helping the aging and disabled covered by Medicaid and their families to adapt care plans in response to the new options that the Final Rule may afford.

For more information about Home and Community-Based Services available under Medicaid, see here. For information about the HHS Community Living Initiative, see here. For additional resources, persons interested in these and other aging in place trends and resources may want to contact the author of this update, Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, who regularly speaks and writes on these concerns.

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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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Abbott Labs, Sisters of Charity Paying More Than $9M In Two Anti-Kickback Settlements

January 2, 2014

The Justice Department’s recovery of more than $9 million in two physician kickback settlements during the last week of December, 2013 sends another strong warning to health care providers and physicians of the risks of structuring physician compensation or other arrangements that run afoul of the federal Anti-kickback Statute, STARK Law or False Claims Act Health care providers and physicians or others who may be receiving or seeking compensation or other benefits prohibited by these and other federal or state health care fraud laws should seek advice and assistance from experienced qualified legal counsel to structure or review any proposed or existing transactions that could create these risks.

The two settlements both stem from alleged payments of kickbacks to physicians to induce referrals in contravention of federal health care fraud laws.

On December 31, 2013, DOJ announced that Butte, Montana based St. James Healthcare (St. James) and its Denver-based parent company, Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System (Sisters of Charity), have agreed to pay $3.85 million to resolve allegations that they violated the Anti-Kickback Statute, the Stark Law and the False Claims Act by improperly providing financial benefits to physicians and physician groups that made referrals to the hospital. Colorado Health Care Organization and One of Its Montana Hospitals to Pay $3.85 Million for Allegedly Providing Financial Benefits to Referring Physicians and Physician Groups.

The St. James settlement announcement follows DOJ’s December 27, 2013 announcement that pharmaceutical giant Abbot Laboratories has agreed to pay the United States $5.475 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by paying kickbacks to induce doctors to implant the company’s carotid, biliary and peripheral vascular products. U.S. Department of Justice. Abbott Laboratories Pays U.S. $5.475 Million to Settle Claims That Company Paid Kickbacks to Physicians.

St. James/Sisters of Charity Settlement

The settlement with St. James and Sisters of Charity resolves DOJ charges that they provided various improper financial incentives to physicians and physician groups involved in a joint venture with St. James to own and run a medical office building on the St. James campus. These incentives included a payment to the joint venture that increased the share values for the physicians and physician groups in the joint venture and resulted in below fair market value lease rates for the physicians renting space in the medical office building. Additional incentives provided by St. James and Sisters of Charity included below fair market value lease rates for the land upon which the medical office building was constructed and other below fair market value arrangements related to shared facilities, use and maintenance. These issues were disclosed by St. James and Sisters of Charity to the government. To resolve their liability, St. James and the Sisters of Charity will pay $3.85 millions to the U.S. Government.

In announcing the settlement, U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana Michael W. Cotter cautioned other heath care providers to review their own transactions and to take the rules seriously, stating. “We are encouraged that hospitals like St. James Healthcare are taking these issues seriously by reviewing their operations and making disclosures to the government where necessary.”

Abbott Laboratories Settlement

The Abbott Laboratories settlement requires it to pay the U.S. $5.475 million to resolve allegations that Abbott Laboratories knowingly paid prominent physicians for teaching assignments, speaking engagements and conferences with the expectation that these physicians would arrange for the hospitals with which they were affiliated to purchase Abbott’s carotid, biliary and peripheral vascular products in violation of the Anti-Kickback Act and caused the submission of false claims to Medicare for the procedures using these Abbott products .

The settlement resolves allegations originally brought in a lawsuit filed by Steven Peters and Douglas Gray, former Abbott employees, under the qui tam provision of the False Claims Act. See United States ex rel. Peters et al. v. Abbott Laboratories, Inc., Civil Action No. 3:09-CV-430 (E.D. Tenn.). The False Claims Act allows whistleblowers to file suit on behalf of the United States for false claims and share in any recovery Whistleblower claims are a major tool in the enforcement efforts and success of the DOJ in its campaign to find and prosecute health care fraud. As part of the Abbott Laboratory’s settlement, the two whistleblowers will receive a total payment of more than $1 million.

Settlements Reflect Heightened Enforcement Risks For Health Care Providers Participating In Kickback Arrangements

Health care providers offering or providing illegal or otherwise aggressive inducements to physicians or others for referrals of health care services covered by Medicare, Medicaid or other federal health care programs should heed the settlements as a warning. The two settlements illustrate the growing emphasis on the investigation and enforcement of Anti-Kickback, STARK and False Claims Act laws against health care providers by the DOJ and Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits the provision of remuneration with the intent to induce referrals of government health care program business unless the transaction falls within one of the safe harbors or otherwise qualifies as exempt from the prohibition. The Stark Law restricts financial relationships that hospitals or other designated health care providers may enter into with physicians who refer patients to them unless the arrangement meets the criteria to qualify as exempt from the prohibition. When either of these two prohibitions is violated, billing for services for care rendered creates additional fraud law exposures. Federal law prohibits payment by federal health care programs of medical claims that result from arrangements that violate the Anti-Kickback Statute or the Stark Law. The settlements announced this week both stemmed from civil prosecutions by the Justice Department. However, violations of these health care fraud laws also may result in criminal prosecutions.

DOJ, HHS and other federal and state agencies acting through the Medicare Fraud Strike Force activities conducted as part of the Health Care Fraud Prevention & Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), federal RAC audits and other actions hunting for, and increasingly finding an prosecuting health care providers and others who participate in transactions that violate these and other federal health care fraud laws as part of efforts to control health care costs and expenditures. HEAT is a joint initiative 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-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. Since its announcement, the Strike Force has used the combined resources of agents from the FBI, HHS-Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), multiple Medicaid Fraud Control Units, and other state and local law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute a rising number of organizations and individuals throughout the industry for alleged violations of Federal health care fraud prohibitions.

The effectiveness of these Federal efforts to deter, find and prosecute false claims and other perceived abuses of Federal health care law has been significantly strengthened since Congress passed the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act). 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.

In its Abbott Laboratories settlement announcement, DOJ touted the HEAT efforts with resulting in the recovery of a total of more than $17 billion through False Claims Act cases, with more than $12.2 billion of that amount recovered in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs.

Act To Manage Risks

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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APDerm To Pay $150k To Settle 1st HIPAA Breach Rule Charges

December 27, 2013

A new settlement agreement announced by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) shows health plans, health care providers, health care clearinghouses and their business associates the perils of failing to properly implement the necessary policies and procedures to comply with the breach notification requirements added to the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) added by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, passed as part of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

APDerm Settlement Overview

Private dermatology practice, Adult & Pediatric Dermatology, P.C., (APDerm) has agreed to pay $150,000 and implement a corrective action plan to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules. The APDerm Settlement marks the first settlement with a covered entity for not having policies and procedures in place to address the breach notification provisions of the HITECH Act.

According to its December 26, 2013 announcement of the settlement, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened an investigation of APDerm upon receiving a report that an unencrypted thumb drive containing the electronic protected health information (ePHI) of approximately 2,200 individuals was stolen from a vehicle of one its staff members. The thumb drive was never recovered. The investigation revealed that APDerm had not conducted an accurate and thorough analysis of the potential risks and vulnerabilities to the confidentiality of ePHI as part of its security management process. Further, APDerm did not fully comply with requirements of the Breach Notification Rule to have in place written policies and procedures and train workforce members.

Enforcement Actions Highlight Growing HIPAA Exposures For Covered Entities

The APDerm settlement provides more evidence of the growing exposures that health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses and their business associates need to carefully and appropriately manage their HIPAA responsibilities. See HIPAA Heats Up: HITECH Act Changes Take Effect & OCR Begins Posting Names, Other Details Of Unsecured PHI Breach Reports On Website. It joins the growing list of settlement or resolution agreements under HIPAA announced by OCR.

The APDerm also is notable both as it settles the first ever charges against a covered entity for failing to adopt required Breach Notification policies and procedures and the relatively most settlement payment required in comparison to other announced settlement. Other settlements have been significantly higher. For instance, OCR required that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee (BCBST) to pay $1.5 million to resolve HIPAA violations charges.

In response to these expanding exposures, all covered entities and their business associates should review critically and carefully the adequacy of their current HIPAA Privacy and Security compliance policies, monitoring, training, breach notification and other practices taking into consideration OCR’s audit, investigation and enforcement actions, emerging litigation and other enforcement data, their own and reports of other security and privacy breaches and near misses, evolving rules and technology, and other developments to determine if additional steps are necessary or advisable. For tips, see here.

For Representation, Training & Other Resources

If you need assistance monitoring HIPAA and other health and health plan related regulatory policy or enforcement developments, or to review or respond to these or other health care or health IT related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer may be able to help.

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 inquire 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:

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[1] WHD’s announcement of the planned rule notes that this draft shared December 15 remains subject to change before formally published in the Federal Register

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Reminder To Follow Confidentiality, Due Process When Conducting Peer Revew & Credentialing

December 16, 2013

Hospitals, physicians, health plans and others participating in credentialing and peer review activities need to use care to ensure that they and others involved in these matters understand and comply with the confidentiality requirements of the Health Care Quality Improvement Act and similar state laws.

Hospitals and their medical staffs, physician and other practice groups and other health care organizations commonly require or query the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) established under HCQIA and other sensitive professional and personal when checking the backgrounds and credentials of physicians seeking admission to the medical staff, employment, staff privileges, participation in provider panels or other positions. These health care organizations and providers also frequently may receive inquiries from other health care providers or organizations seeking information about a provider who is applying for admission, employment or other status. Finally, medical staffs, practices and other health care organizations from time to time may conduct credentialing, peer review or other disciplinary activities, or quality assurance reviews that may involve the discussion of information about the conduct, quality, discipline or other credentials and qualifications of current or former physicians at their own or another health care organization.

The investigation or discipline of a physician and certain other information regarding potential performance or credentialing concerns about a physician or other health care worker often by necessity involves the receipt, sharing, or use of sensitive professional or personal information with credentialing, management, medical staff leadership or others involved in the investigation, review or process. When participating in any of these activities, all parties involved in the activities or providing input or participation in their conduct need to understand and be required to comply fully with all applicable confidentiality and privacy requirements. While participants in these processes often may feel great temptation to circumvent formal processes in the name of expediency, to share sensitive insight with special relationships or other inducements to cut corners on confidentiality, the participants in these activities and the organizations conducting the activities should take all necessary steps to ensure that the participants carefully comply with the confidentiality and privacy requirements and only obtain and share information as allowed by and in accordance with the procedures established by these rules.

The background check rules of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) generally require that health care organizations, as well as other businesses, conducting background check or other investigations using third party data or investigators comply with the notice, consent and disclosures of the FCRA. Parties requesting or providing information as part of a credentialing, peer review or other investigation should ensure that the necessary disclosures, notices and consents have been obtained before requesting or sharing information. The fulfillment of these requirements should not be assumed as experience demonstrates that these requirements are commonly overlooked by many health care and other organizations engaged in these activities.

In addition to meeting the FCRA, HCQIA, most state peer review, and medical staff bylaws generally require that credentialing, peer review, quality assurance, and other performance and discipline activities be conducted in accordance with carefully prescribed rules, including specific requirements concerning the protection of the confidentiality of information about a provider. While relatively rare, violation of HCQIA’s confidentiality rules can create significant liability. For instance, after it self-disclosed conduct to the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG), The Queen’s Medical Center (QMC), Hawaii, agreed to pay $150,500 in civil money penalties for allegedly violating the NPDB in 2009.

Beyond the rare sanctions under HCQIA, failing to following the rules of HCQIA and state laws can undermine the defensibility of peer review and credentialing decisions by undermining the ability of participants in the process to rely upon the peer review privilege to protect deliberations and discussions conducted in connection with the peer review and credentialing process from discovery, as well as by providing evidence of bad faith, malice or other bad motivation or acts corrupted the process and determination. Beyond hurting the defensibility of the credentialing and peer review process, violations of confidentiality or other procedures often also give rise to antitrust, defamation, invasion of privacy, tortious interferences, and other damage claims by physicians who feel their ability to practice and reputations have been injured by alleged improper conduct in connection with a peer review, credentialing or quality assurance process.

Beyond avoiding giving rise to claims by the targeted physician or other health care provider, all participants in these processes also need to use care to properly protect any individually identifiable patient information. Records and information about a patient, his medical condition, payment history and other related patient data and information often involved in these activities typically qualifies as personal health information, the use, access, and disclosure of which is restricted by the Privacy Rules of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and state common law, HIPAA and other medical records privacy and confidentiality laws. In addition to the specific requirements of HIPAA and other medical information privacy laws, patient financial information and certain other sensitive information also may be protected by a broad range of federal and state laws protecting personal financial and other sensitive personal information, contractual rights created by privacy policies of the organizations involved or other laws.

Conducting proper credentialing, peer review and quality assurance activities is a critical aspect of the hiring and oversight of physicians and others providing care. As important as these requirements are, health care providers and organizations participating in these activities need to remember that the physicians who are subjected to these requirements also enjoy confidentiality, due process and other legal protections, which can create significant liability when violated. Consequently, health care organizations, physicians and members of management, and other staff and participants should use care to follow the proper procedures to ensure that physician rights to confidentiality, due process and other protections are honored as these activities are conducted.

Using care when discussing these concerns is equally important for a physician or other health care provider who is the subject of an investigation, credentialing, peer review, quality assurance or other activity. While a physician whose personal or professional conduct or credentials are questioned understandably feels a strong urge to defend him or herself through a campaign of communication or other actions, physicians on the receiving end also need to follow the process and restrict their discussions.

Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, for additional information or representation.

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[1] WHD’s announcement of the planned rule notes that this draft shared December 15 remains subject to change before formally published in the Federal Register

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: CMS, compensation, DOJ, E-Prescribing, Fee Schedule, Health Care, Health Care Fraud, Home Care, home health, medical expense, Medicare, Medicare Fraud, mileage reimbursement, Minimum Wage, nurses, OIG, Overtime, Physician, physician compensation, Physician Fee Schedule, Provider, Wage and Hour | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

CMS Gives Providers Facing Fee Schedule Reduction For Unsuccessful EPrescribing Can Request Review Until 2/28

December 16, 2013

Physicians and other eligible professionals and group practices (who self-nominated for the 2012 and/or 2013 Electronic Prescribing (eRx) group practice reporting option) who were unsuccessful electronic prescribers under the 2012 or 2013 eRx Incentive Program can expect to receive notification from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) plans that CMS will have their 2014 eRx payment adjusted to 98.0% of his or her otherwise applicable Medicare Part B physician fee schedule (PFS) allowed charges amount for the specified services for all charges with dates of service from January 1–December 31, 2014.

Providers receiving these notices may wish to request a review of this planned adjustment under an informal review process for the 2014 eRx payment adjustment implemented by CMS. An informal review may be requested if the eligible professional or group practice receives notification from CMS confirming they will be subject to the 2014 eRx payment adjustment or they did not meet the requirements to avoid the 2014 eRx payment adjustment. CMS will accept nformal review requests through February 28, 2014.

Eligible professionals and group practices should submit their eRx informal review request via email to the informal review mailbox at eRxInformalReview@cms.hhs.gov.

Complete instructions on how to request an informal review are available in the 2014 eRx Payment Adjustment Informal Review Made Simple educational document.

Physicians or other health care providers who have questions about these or other e-prescribing or reimbursement concerns may contact the author of this update, Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, for additional information or representation.

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[1] WHD’s announcement of the planned rule notes that this draft shared December 15 remains subject to change before formally published in the Federal Register

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Update Mileage Reimbursement Policies, Communications For IRS 2014 Mileage Rates

December 10, 2013

Health care organizations should review the updated optional standard mileage rates and maximum standard automobile costs for purposes of claiming certain automobile allowances during 2014 recently released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to determine and make the necessary arrangements to communicate and implement any changes in the rates that their business plans to use to reimburse employees and others for mileage. In addition, health care organizations also may want to consider sharing information about the updates to medical expense mileage reimbursement rates and other aspects of those rules in newsletters or other marketing communications to help empower those patients and their families to understand and use the new rates and rules to properly claim deductions that their families qualify for on their 2014 tax return for mileage incurred traveling for medical care.

Notice 2013-80, which is scheduled for official publication in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2013-52 on December 23, 2013, provides the optional 2014 standard mileage rates for taxpayers to use in computing the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving expense purposes. This notice also provides the amount taxpayers must use in calculating reductions to basis for depreciation taken under the business standard mileage rate, and the maximum standard automobile cost that may be used in computing the allowance under a fixed and variable rate (FAVR) plan. The IRS released an advanced copy of the Notice on December 6, 2013.

Many health care organizations reimburse doctors, management, home health, sales and marketing or other employees and other service providers for mileage and other automobile expenses under policies that use these IRS standard rates to calculate the reimbursement amounts. Reimbursement of employees based on these rate is not required. Because reimbursements in excess of the standard rates can create income tax recordkeeping and reporting challenges for the employer, the employee or both, however, most businesses use standard mileage reimbursement rates set at or below the IRS optional standard rates. Businesses facing financial or other challenges may want to reevaluate whether to continue to reimburse mileage and if so, the rate of reimbursement to use to do so.

When communicating with employees about the businesses’ policies for reimbursing business and moving expense mileage, businesses should take care to ensure that employees understand differences in the mileage reimbursement rates that apply to different categories of expenses. As an added service to employees, many human resources departments also may want to consider alerting employees to consult their tax advisor or take other steps to properly understand and retain documentation of mileage not only for business expense reimbursement, but also medical and moving purposes. The availability of this information can be helpful to empower workers and their families to understand and take proper advantage of rules for deducting these expenses even when the employer or its health plan does not reimburse the employee for the expenses.

In addition to reimbursements for workers, businesses also should consider the potential effects of the adjustments in the IRS optional standard mileage rates on the amounts they may bill their customers for mileage expenses as well as the amount that they should expect that their vendors and service providers may bill the business for mileage expenses under contracts that provide for reimbursement of those expenses. Businesses whose contracts with vendors or customers provide for reimbursement of mileage expenses using rates based on the IRS’ optional standard mileage rates should evaluate the effect of the announced adjustments on those mileage obligations to ensure that mileage expenses are properly anticipated, billed and paid.

Beyond dealing with their own policies for reimbursement and billing for mileage, many health care organizations may want to consider sharing information about the 2014 medical mileage reimbursement rates announced by the IRS with patients and their families. Many patients and their families may qualify to claim deductions for mileage for medical travel under IRS rules, but may not be aware of the adjusted rates or the proper procedures for identifying and documenting their medical mileage. While often negligible for families who are not suffering major illness requiring extensive commuting or travel, patients with chronic or serious medical conditions often can benefit from claiming these deductions properly. Communicating the new rates and other tips for keeping records and claiming the mileage deduction could be a significant and valued service to aid these families.

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[1] WHD’s announcement of the planned rule notes that this draft shared December 15 remains subject to change before formally published in the Federal Register

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: compensation, DOJ, Health Care, Health Care Fraud, Home Care, home health, Hospital, medical expense, Medicare Fraud, mileage reimbursement, Minimum Wage, nurses, OIG, Overtime, Physician, physician compensation, Provider, Wage and Hour | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Doc Sentenced to 15 Years for Health Care Fraud

November 16, 2013

Dr. Anthony Stevens Chase faces a 15 month sentence and must pay $360,293 in restitution after pleading guilty to two health care fraud counts.

On October 21, 2011, Jase pled guilty to two counts of health care fraud before Judge James J. Brady, for involvement in two nearly identical schemes to defraud Medicare.

The first conviction arose from Jase’s association Baton Rouge-based company Lobdale Medical Services, which was owned by Beatrice and Young Anyanwu. As part of the scheme to defraud, Sandra Parkman Thompson and others procured the names and personal information of Medicare beneficiaries in and around the New Orleans area and delivered these names to Jase, who then signed false and fraudulent prescriptions for power wheelchairs and other durable medical equipment for which the Medicare beneficiaries had no medical need. Thompson later delivered the fraudulent prescriptions to the Anyanwus, who submitted claims to Medicare through Lobdale Medical Services for the medically unnecessary equipment. The total billings to Medicare by Lobdale Medicare Services exceeded $1,000,000.

The second conviction arose from JASE’s involvement with a New Orleans-based durable medical equipment company known as Psalms 23-DME, which also paid Thompson to deliver prescriptions for wheelchairs and other durable medical equipment. Jase wrote prescriptions for beneficiaries whom he had never seen and who had no need for the equipment prescribed them. As a result, Psalms 23-DME billed Medicare for claims totaling $230,963 using JASE’s provider number.

Beatrice and Young Anyanwu pled guilty to the health care fraud scheme to defraud Medicare as well as the illegal remuneration conspiracy on August 14, 2012. Theywere sentenced February 1, 2013. Sandra Parkman Thompson was convicted after a jury trial on August 20, 2012. She was sentenced on March 14, 2013.

The investigation of Jase was conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Louisiana Department of Justice. Announcing the sentence, acting U.S. Attorney Walt Green stated, “This case is a great example of how federal and state law enforcement work together on a daily basis to stamp out health care fraud by doctors and others who abuse our health care system in our state.”

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[1] WHD’s announcement of the planned rule notes that this draft shared December 15 remains subject to change before formally published in the Federal Register

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, Health Care, Health Care Fraud, Home Care, home health, Hospital, Medicare Fraud, Minimum Wage, nurses, OIG, Overtime, Physician, Wage and Hour | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

DOL Extends Minimum Wage, Overtime Protections To Home Care Workers

September 18, 2013

Health care and other parties employing or otherwise engaging the services of home care workers should review and update their policies and practices for scheduling, tracking hours worked and paying these workers to ensure that they comply by January 1, 2015 with a new final rule announced by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division today (September 18, 2013). Today’s announcement of the regulatory changes means employers of home care workers can expect to see costs rise and also will join most other U.S. businesses that must worry about getting caught in minimum wage and overtime enforcement traps.

Under the new final rule, the Labor Department extends the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime protections to most of the nation’s direct care workers who provide essential home care assistance to elderly people and people with illnesses, injuries, or disabilities beginning January 1, 2015.

The new final rule generally will require that the approximately two million home care workers such as home health aides, personal care aides, and certified nursing assistants will qualify for minimum wage and overtime. Employers engaging these services also generally will need to keep records and comply with other FLSA requirements with respect to these workers as well.

In anticipation of the rollout of these new protections, the Labor Department is kicking off a public outreach campaign to educate home care workers and their employers about the rule change. The Department will be hosting five public webinars during the month of October and has created a new, dedicated web portal here with fact sheets, FAQs, interactive web tools, and other materials.

The Labor Department’s focus on home workers is an extension of its expanded regulation and enforcement efforts targeting a broad range of health care industry employers. Home care and other health industry employers should act to manage their rising exposures to minimum wage, overtime and other federal and state wage and hour law risks.

New Home Care Worker Rules Effective January 2015

The impending change in the treatment of home care workers is part of a larger commitment by the Obama Administration to both expansion and enforcement of the FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime provisions, and a specific program targeting employers in health care and related services industries.

The Obama Administration since taking office has conducted an aggressive campaign seeking to significantly increase the minimum wage under the FLSA and expand other protections. Along with this proactive regulatory agenda, the Obama Administration also specifically is aggressively targeting health care and other caregiver businesses in its enforcement and audit activities. See, e.g. Home health care company in Dallas agrees to pay 80 nurses more than $92,000 in back wages following US Labor Department investigation; US Department of Labor secures nearly $62,000 in back overtime wages for 21 health care employees in Pine Bluff, Ark.; US Department of Labor initiative targeted toward increasing FLSA compliance in New York’s health care industry; US Department of Labor initiative targeted toward residential health care industry in Connecticut and Rhode Island to increase FLSA compliance; Partners HealthCare Systems agrees to pay 700 employees more than $2.7 million in overtime back wages to resolve U.S. Labor Department lawsuit; US Labor Department sues Kentucky home health care provider to obtain more than $512,000 in back wages and damages for 22 employees; and Buffalo, Minn.-based home health care provider agrees to pay more than $150,000 in back wages following US Labor Department investigation.

Violation of wage and hour laws exposes health care and other employers to significant back pay awards, substantial civil penalties and, if the violation is found to be willful, even potential criminal liability. Because states all have their own wage and hour laws, employers may face liability under either or both laws. Coupled with these and other enforcement efforts against health and other caregiver businesses, today’s announcement reflects enforcement risks will continue to rise for employers of home care workers.

In light of the proposed regulatory changes and demonstrated willingness of the Labor Department and private plaintiffs to bring actions against employers violating these rules, health care and others employing home care workers should take well-documented steps to manage their risks. These employers should both confirm the adequacy of their practices under existing rules, as well as evaluate and begin preparing to respond to the proposed changes to these rules. In both cases, employers of home care or other health care workers are encouraged to critically evaluate their classification or workers, both with respect to their status as employees versus contractor or leased employees, as well as their characterization as exempt versus non-exempt for wage and hour law purposes. In addition, given the nature of the scheduled often worked by home care givers, their employers also generally should pay particular attention to the adequacy of practices for recordkeeping.

Enforcement Against Other Industries Shows Risks

Of course, the home care and health care industry are not the only industries that need to worry about FLSA enforcement. The Obama Administration is very aggressive in its enforcement of wage and hour and overtime laws generally. For instance, First Republic Bank recently paid $1,009,643.93 in overtime back wages for 392 First Republic Bank employees in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Oregon after the Labor Department found the San Francisco-based bank wrongly classified the employees as exempt from the FLSA’s overtime and recordkeeping requirements, resulting in violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime and record-keeping provisions. The Labor Department announced the settlement resulting in the payment on November 27, 2012. The settlement resulted from an investigation by the Labor Department that found the San Francisco-based bank wrongly classified the employees as exempt from overtime, resulting in violations of the FLSA’s overtime and record-keeping provisions.

The FLSA requires that covered, nonexempt employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular rates, including commissions, bonuses and incentive pay, for hours worked beyond 40 per week. Employers also are required to maintain accurate time and payroll records.

While the FLSA provides an exemption from both minimum wage and overtime pay requirements for individuals employed in bona fide executive, administrative, professional and outside sales positions, as well as certain computer employees, job titles do not determine the applicability of this or other FLSA exemptions. In order for an exemption to apply, an employee’s specific job duties and salary must meet all the requirements of the department’s regulations. To qualify for exemption, employees generally must meet certain tests regarding their job duties and be paid on a salary basis at not less than $455 per week.

Investigators found that First Republic Bank failed to consider the FLSA’s criteria that allow certain administrative and professional employees to be exempt from receiving overtime pay. In fact, the employees were entitled to overtime compensation at one and one-half times their regular rates for hours worked over 40 in a week. Additionally, the bank failed to include bonus payments in nonexempt employees’ regular rates of pay when computing overtime compensation, in violation of the act. Record-keeping violations resulted from the employer’s failure to record the number of hours worked by the misclassified employees.

“It is essential that employers take the time to carefully assess the FLSA classification of their workforce,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis in the Labor Department’s announcement of the settlement. “As this investigation demonstrates, improper classification results in improper wages and causes workers real economic harm.”

FLSA Violations Generally Costly; Enforcement Rising

The enforcement record of the Labor Department confirms that employers that improperly treat workers as exempt from the FLSA’s overtime, minimum wage and recordkeeping requirements run a big risk. The Labor Department and private plaintiffs alike regularly target employers that use aggressive worker classification or other pay practices to avoid paying minimum wage or overtime to workers. Under the Obama Administration, DOL officials have made it a priority to enforce overtime, record keeping, worker classification and other wage and hour law requirements. See e.g., Boston Furs Sued For $1M For Violations Of Fair Labor Standards Act; Record $2.3 Million+ Backpay Order; Minimum Wage, Overtime Risks Highlighted By Labor Department Strike Force Targeting Residential Care & Group Homes; Review & Strengthen Defensibility of Existing Worker Classification Practices In Light of Rising Congressional & Regulatory Scrutiny; 250 New Investigators, Renewed DOL Enforcement Emphasis Signal Rising Wage & Hour Risks For Employers; Quest Diagnostics, Inc. To Pay $688,000 In Overtime Backpay. In an effort to further promote compliance and enforcement of these rules, the Labor Department is using smart phone applications, social media and a host of other new tools to educate and recruit workers in its effort to find and prosecute violators. See, e.g. New Employee Smart Phone App New Tool In Labor Department’s Aggressive Wage & Hour Law Enforcement Campaign Against Restaurant & Other Employers. As a result of these effort, employers violating the FLSA now face heightened risk of enforcement from both the Labor Department and private litigation.

Employers Should Strengthen Practices For Defensibility

To minimize exposure under the FLSA, employers should review and document the defensibility of their existing practices for classifying and compensating workers under existing Federal and state wage and hour laws and take other actions to minimize their potential liability under applicable wages and hour laws. Steps advisable as part of this process include, but are not necessarily limited to:

Audit of each position current classified as exempt to assess its continued sustainability and to develop documentation justifying that characterization;
Audit characterization of workers obtained from staffing, employee leasing, independent contractor and other arrangements and implement contractual and other oversight arrangements to minimize risks that these relationships could create if workers are recharacterized as employed by the employer receiving these services;
Review the characterization of on-call and other time demands placed on employees to confirm that all compensable time is properly identified, tracked, documented, compensated and reported;
Review of existing practices for tracking compensable hours and paying non-exempt employees for compliance with applicable regulations and to identify opportunities to minimize costs and liabilities arising out of the regulatory mandates;
If the audit raises questions about the appropriateness of the classification of an employee as exempt, self-initiation of proper corrective action after consultation with qualified legal counsel;
Review of existing documentation and record keeping practices for hourly employees;
Exploration of available options and alternatives for calculating required wage payments to non-exempt employees; and
Re-engineering of work rules and other practices to minimize costs and liabilities as appropriate in light of the regulations and enforcement exposures.

Because of the potentially significant liability exposure, employers generally will want to consult with qualified legal counsel before starting their risk assessment and assess risks and claims within the scope of attorney-client privilege to help protect the ability to claim attorney-client privilege or other evidentiary protections to help shelter conversations or certain other sensitive risk activities from discovery under the rules of evidence.

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About Solutions Law Press

[1] WHD’s announcement of the planned rule notes that this draft shared December 15 remains subject to change before formally published in the Federal Register

1 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, Employer, Fair Labor Standards Act, FLSA, Health Care, Health Care Fraud, Home Care, home health, Hospital, Medicare Fraud, Minimum Wage, nurses, OIG, Overtime, Physician, Wage and Hour | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Doc Caught Submitting Conflicting Patient Records to Private Payer Versus Medicare Criminally Sentence, Pays Civil Settlement

July 23, 2013

The recent criminal sentencing and civil settlement of Illinois physician Dr. Mahmoud Yassin highlights the growing- but too often appreciated exposure of physicians and other health care providers and their billing or other management who submit conflicting claims data to private and government claims or otherwise permit in false falsely bill or participate in the cover-up of fraudulent or other improper billings to payers. The Yassin sentencing is notable both because Yassin incurred criminal liability for obstruction based on his presentation of altered patient records to a private payer and and civil liability for making false claims to Medicare and others.

Yassin was sentenced July 22, 2013 to serve 30 days in prison and 3 years of probation and to pay a fine of $10,000, a special assessment of $100, and restitution to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois in the amount of $19,615.17 in federal district court in Benton, Illinois for Obstructing a Criminal Health Care Fraud Investigator. The felony obstruction conviction stemmed from charges that on March 2, 2012, when a FBI agent, having served a subpoena for patient records on Dr. Yassin, gave an altered patient progress note that showed an in-office examination previously claimed to an insurance carrier, but which had not taken place.

In a separate civil settlement with the United States Attorney’s Office regarding false claims to Medicare, Dr. Yassin also previously has paid double damages for $87,348.64. The restitution and civil false claims settlement were based on claims for in person office visits in which the patient either failed to show up for an appointment or only was spoken to by telephone.

The Yassin prosecution demonstrates the importance of providers getting their records and billings straight when billing both private payers and government payers. While most health care providers recognize the significant exposure they incur from overbilling Medicare or other federal programs as a result of the highly publicized, heavy-handed audit and enforcement activities of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) and Department of Justice (DOJ), many don’t recognize their exposure from private payer billings or the potential interaction between private and government claims investigations Amendments enacted as part of the anti-fraud provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) added private health plans to the list of plans protected by federal prohibitions against fraudulent billing by providers. Furthermore, federal fraud investigators and private payers increasingly are working together on the investigation and redress of false billing and other aggressive practices. These and other risks mean that providers cannot afford to be unprepared when asked to respond to investigations like one that lead to the Yassin conviction, recoupment or other audit and enforcement actions See, Secondary Payers Hit Physician Group With Recoupment After Medicare Audit Findings. Rather, physicians and other health care clinics must be ready to prove and defend their billings to public and private payers. In both cases, these preparations should ensure that records accurately and completely document the care provided, that the coding and billing applied is reflective of actual care and consistent with existing reimbursement, and otherwise defensible. As demonstrated by Yassin, inconsistencies between records presented to different payers should be avoided.

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Leave a Comment » | Accreditation, Ambulatory care, ASC, Doctor, Employer, Health Care, Health Care Finance, Health Care Provider, Health Care Quality, Hospital, Joint Commission, Medical Licensure, OIG, Physician | Tagged: accreditation, Ambulatory care organizations, ambulatory surgery, Doctor, false claims act, Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Health Care, Health Care Compliance, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Health Care Reimbursement, Health Insurance, Health Plans, HEAT, HIPAA, Hospital, Hospitals, Joint Commission, Physician, Physicians, Reimbursement | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Improper Billing Of Private Payers Increasing Source Of Liability & Risk For Providers

July 8, 2013

Physicians or other health care providers now have even more to worry about when a Medicare or other federal program audit reveals overpayments – repayment demands from commercial insurers and self-insured health plans, who are secondary payers. Federal officials and private payers alike increasingly are coming after providers to recover overpayments or other inappropriate billings identified through audits or other investigations. In the face of these actions, providers should use care to ensure that their billing and compliance programs appropriately manage and monitor the defensibility of claims billed to private payers as well as those to Medicare or other government programs.

Most health care providers recognize the significant exposure they incur from overbilling Medicare or other federal programs as a result of the highly publicized, heavy-handed audit and enforcement activities of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) and Department of Justice (DOJ).

Unfortunately, many health care providers don’t recognize that overbilling private payers can carry similar risks and liabilities. Amendments enacted as part of the anti-fraud provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) added private health plans to the list of plans protected by federal prohibitions against fraudulent billing by providers.

While CMS, OIG and DOJ tend to emphasize Medicare and other federal program recoveries in media releases about their overbilling and health care fraud enforcement efforts, careful review of these actions increasingly shows that these enforcement actions often also cover overbilling of private health plans uncovered in connection with the underlying Medicare or other federal program overpayment audit or investigation. For instance, upcoding and other false billing of claims was the basis of the federal criminal health care fraud prosecution of the Chief Executive Officer of a small, rural Texas health care clinic. Texas Clinic CEO Sentence Highlights Risks Of Upcoding. See, also Pharmas Face New Pressure To Put Patients Before Profits After GlaxoSmithKline Record $3 Billion Health Care Fraud & FDCA Settlement.

Unfortunately, many providers have failed to recognize and adequately respond to these and other clear indicators of their exposure to fraud, recoupment and other enforcement actions from sloppy or otherwise improper billings to private insurers and self insured plans. With health care reform increasingly focusing on reducing health care expenditures in the private as well as public arena, already existing federal and state enforcement against providers for improper billing of private payers will inevitably grown.

Taking into account these and other trends toward stepped up enforcement against aggressive billing by providers of private insurance or self-insured plans, physicians and other providers should not be surprised or unprepared to respond to recoupment or other audit and enforcement actions like that recently reported by Nina Youngstrom in AIS Health about the recoupment demands by commercial insurers against a Kansas health care clinic based on the Medicare audit findings of overpayments. See, Secondary Payers Hit Physician Group With Recoupment After Medicare Audit Findings. Rather, physicians and other health care clinics must be ready to prove and defend their billings to private payers as well as Medicare and other government payers.

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Hollywood Pavillion & Other Fraud Convictions Show Individuals Risk Prison Time For Health Care Fraud Involvement

July 6, 2013

Convictions Show Growing Fraud Enforcement Risks Reach Broadly To Broad Range Of Actors

Do you love your health care organization enough to go to jail? With federal and state prosecutors stepping up health care fraud investigation and enforcement, this is a question that individuals leading, working or investing in health care organizations increasingly need to seriously consider.

As federal and state officials continue to ramp up their war on health care fraud, the ever-growing list of criminal convictions of individuals found to have participate in or tolerated prohibited billing, referral or other activities prohibited under federal or state health care fraud laws are intended to both punish the guilty and send a strong message to others throughout the industry: Don’t Do The Crime If You Don’t Want To Serve The Time!

Hollywood Pavilion Convictions

The July 28 federal jury conviction of four individuals for their involvement in nearly $70 million of fraudulent Medicare billings by Hollywood Pavilion (HP), a Miami-area mental health care hospital is the latest case in point. The successful prosecutions shows again the readiness of the Justice Department to prosecute individuals at all levels of organizations for their participation in health care fraud activities even after obtaining criminal convictions, civil settlements, and program disqualification or other administrative consequences against the health care organizations, their leaders, employees and others that participate illegal schemes that defraud federal health care programs like Medicare, private health insurance plans or both.

In the verdicts announced July 28 stemmed from the Justice Department’s prosecution of the former Chief Executive Officer, the former in-patient clinical director, former head of intensive outpatient care and former director of physical therapy for various health care fraud, wire fraud and other charges for their participation in a massive scheme that attempted to defraud the United States of approximately $70 million by taking advantage of Medicare beneficiaries.

Federal officials originally announced charges against the four defendants as part of high-profile sting and takedown by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force of 91 individuals across the nation for their alleged involvement in submitting approximately $430 million in false billings to federal health care programs. See Indictment of 91 Shows Growing Heath Care Fraud Enforcement Risk.

The convictions resulted after the Justice Department tried the defendants with illegally paying bribes to a network of patient recruiters, falsifying documents and other criminal conduct in violation of federal health care fraud, wire fraud and other laws. Based on evidence presented at trial, the federal jury found:

Karen Kallen-Zury, 59, and Daisy Miller, 44, each guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud, five substantive counts of wire fraud and two substantive counts of health care fraud;
Michele Petrie, 64, guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud and three substantive counts of wire fraud;
Kallen-Zury, Miller, Petrie and a fourth defendant, Christian Coloma, 49, of one count of conspiracy to pay bribes in connection with Medicare; and
Kallen-Zury and Coloma also each guilty of five substantive counts of paying bribes.

The convictions resulted after Federal prosecutors charged the four defendants and one other individual with participating and aiding HP to illegally bill Medicare for nearly $70 million for services that were not properly rendered, for patients that did not qualify for the services being billed and for claims for patients procured through bribes and kickbacks from at least 2003 through at least August 2012.

At trial, Federal prosecutors claimed that the defendants and their co-conspirators caused the submission of false and fraudulent claims to Medicare through HP, a state-licensed psychiatric hospital located in Hollywood that purportedly provided, among other things, inpatient psychiatric care and intensive outpatient psychiatric care. Prosecutors claimed the defendants paid illegal bribes and kickbacks to patient brokers in order to obtain Medicare beneficiaries as patients at HP who did not qualify for psychiatric treatment, then illegally submitted claims to Medicare for those patients who were procured through bribes and kickbacks.

Among other things, Federal prosecutors charged and introduced evidence that:

Karen Kallen-Zury, the CEO and registered agent of HP, attempted to conceal the payment of bribes and kickbacks by creating false documents to make it appear as if legitimate services were being rendered;
Miller, the clinical director of HP’s inpatient facility, and Petrie, the head of HP’s intensive outpatient program, facilitated the payment of bribes to patient recruiters and oversaw the fraudulent admissions and treatment of unqualified patients;
Coloma, the director of physical therapy for an entity associated with HP, facilitated the payment of bribes and kickbacks, and he supervised the creation of false documents to conceal the bribery scheme.

All four defendants now are awaiting sentencing.

Zealous Investigation & Prosecution Part of National Anti-Health Care Fraud Campaign

These and other convictions provide tangible proof of the growing success of the efforts to zealously investigate and prosecute health fraud by the Justice Department, HHS and other federal officials under their joint the Health Care Fraud Prevention & Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), Medicare Fraud Strike Force and other anti-fraud efforts. The joint Department of Justice-HHS Medicare Fraud Strike Force that lead to these charges and convictions 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. Since its announcement, the Strike Force has used the combined resources of agents from the FBI, HHS-Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), multiple Medicaid Fraud Control Units, and other state and local law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute a rising number of organizations and individuals throughout the industry for alleged violations of Federal health care fraud prohibitions.

In recent years, Congress has amended the False Claims Act and enacted other reforms that give the Justice Department and other federal officials working in these anti-fraud efforts new tools that they are using to strengthen the effectiveness of their anti-fraud investigation and prosecution efforts. See Health Care Fraud Enforcement Packs New Heat.

Empowered by these and other new tools, the Justice Department and other participants in the HEAT and Medicare Fraud Strike Force increasingly are successful in prosecuting and convicting health care providers and others for participating in activities and schemes that violate federal or state health care fraud, referral, anti-kickback or other federal or state laws. See, e.g., North Texas Medical Supply Company Owner Indicted For Health Care Fraud Now Also Charged With Immigration Fraud; 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; Detroit-Area Foot Doctor Pleads Guilty to Medicare Fraud Scheme; Merck To Pay $950 Million To Settle Vioxx® Off-Label Marketing Charges. Indeed, since the jury rendered its July 28 verdict, Justice Department officials already have announced several other prosecutorial successes. See, e.g.,Los Angeles Medical Supply Company Owner Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for $8.4 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme; Los Angeles-Area Doctor and Patient Recruiter Plead Guilty to Participating in a Power Wheelchair Scheme That Defrauded Medicare of Over $10.1 Million; Owner of Rehabilitation Facility Pleads Guilty to Mail Fraud Charge; Local Oncology Practice Sentenced To Pay Millions for Medicare Fraud.

In addition to criminal prosecutions, the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working with the HHS-OIG, are using a wide range of new and old tools in their campaign against what they perceive as fraudulent providers and to deter other perceived aggressiveness by health care providers and organizations. See e.g., U.S. to use software to crack down on Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP fraud; Health Care Fraud Enforcement Packs New Heat; OIG Shares Key Insights On When Owners, Officers & Managers Face OIG Program Exclusion Based On Health Care Entity Misconduct; OIG Launch of Health Care Fraud “Most Wanted” List Sign of Enforcement Risks; CMS Delegated Lead Responsibility For Development of New Affordable Care Act-Required Medicare Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol; HHS announces Rules Implementing Tools Added By Affordable Care Act to Prevent Federal Health Program Fraud.

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.

See HHS announces Rules Implementing Tools Added By Affordable Care Act to Prevent Federal Health Program Fraud.

Act To Manage Risks

In response to the growing emphasis and effectiveness of Federal officials in wielding these and other tools 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 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

Feds Arrest 36 More California & Florida Providers On Defrauding Medicare Of More than $66 Million

May 16, 2013

The Federal Medicare Fraud Strike Force’s arrest of 36 providers in California and Florida highlights again the continuing and growing zeal of federal health care fraud investigation and enforcement efforts. On May 14, 2013 the Justice Department announced it arrested and charged with Medicare fraud 12 defendants in Los Angeles here and 24 South Florida residents here in fraud enforcement actions on opposite coasts. The charges show the continuing commitment by Federal officials to find an prosecute health care fraud.

Florida Arrests

In South Florida, Federal officials announced charges against 24 South Florida residents for their alleged participation in various schemes to defraud Medicare out of more than $45,299,935 million. The charges in South Florida are part of a nationwide takedown by Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations in eight cities that resulted in charges against 89 individuals, including doctors, nurses and other licensed professionals, for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $223 million in false billings.

Specifically, the South Florida cases announced as part of the nationwide Medicare Fraud Strike Force takedown include the following:

U.S. v. Emilio Amador, Cristobal Gonzalez, Eduims Mora, Jose Contreras, and Elizabeth Monteagudo, where five defendants are charged with conspiracy to receive health care kickbacks and substantive counts of receiving kickbacks in connection with a federal health care program. According to the indictment, the defendants participated in a scheme involving Caring Nurse Home Health, Corp. and Good Quality Home Health, Inc. The defendants allegedly supplied patients to Caring Nurse and/or Good Quality in exchange for kickbacks and bribes. Caring Nurse and Good Quality, in turn, fraudulently billed Medicare for approximately $50 million for home health services that were not provided and/or were not medically necessary. If convicted, the defendants face up to five years for each count.
United States v. Rafael Meana and Janet Farigola, where Defendants Rafael Meana and Janet Farigola are charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and several substantive counts of health care fraud. According to the indictment, the defendants participated in a scheme involving Lord’s Medical & Rehab Center, Inc. (Lords), a medical clinic that purportedly provided Medicare Advantage beneficiaries with medical items and services. From February 2010 through July 2011, Meana and Farigola allegedly caused Lord’s to submit approximately $5,497,047 in Medicare claims falsely claiming that health care benefits and services were medically necessary and had been provided to Medicare beneficiaries. As a result of the submission of these claims, Medicare paid Lord’s approximately $2,240,134. If convicted, the defendants face up to ten years in prison for each count of health care fraud.
United States v. Jose Moran, Rafael Meana, and Armando Rubio Cordero, where the defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and several substantive counts of health care fraud. According to the indictment, the defendants participated in a scheme involving Lord Family Services, Inc., a medical clinic that purportedly provided Medicare Advantage beneficiaries with medical items and services. From January 2010 through September 2011, the defendants allegedly caused Lord Family Services, Inc. to submit approximately $1,919,751 in Medicare claims falsely claiming that health care benefits and services were medically necessary and had been provided to Medicare beneficiaries. As a result of the submission of these claims, Medicare paid Lord Family Services, Inc. approximately $976,476. If convicted, the defendants face up to ten years in prison for each count of health care fraud.
United States v. Karina Merino, where defendant Karina U. Merino is charged with a single count of health care fraud in connection with her role in a massive health care fraud scheme involving Ideal Home Health, Inc. (Ideal), which submitted more than $40 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare. The Information alleges that Merino, as a nurse for Ideal, falsified patient visitation logs to reflect that home health care nursing services had been provided to beneficiaries when such services had, in fact, not been provided. Ideal fraudulently billed the Medicare program for approximately $148,000. If convicted of the health care fraud charge, Merino faces up to ten years in prison.
United States v. Delia Y. Chaveco and Arturo Y. Chaveco,
where Delia Y. Chaveco and Arturo Y. Chaveco (the Chavecos) were charged by Information with a single count of conspiracy to receive kickbacks in connection with a federal health care benefit program. This charge stems from the Chavecos’ role in a health care fraud scheme involving Ideal Home Health Inc. (Ideal), an agency that submitted more than $40 million in fraudulent claims to the Medicare program. The Information alleges that Ideal and other Miami-Dade area home health agencies paid the Chavecos kickbacks in exchange for recruiting Medicare beneficiaries that they later used to bill the Medicare program. If convicted, the defendants face up to five years in prison.
United States v. Roberto Marrero, Sandra Fernandez Viera and Enrique Rodriguez, where defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to receive and pay health care kickbacks, and substantive kickback charges. Defendants Roberto Marrero and Sandra Fernandez Viera were the owners and operators of Trust Care Health Services, Inc. (Trust Care), which allegedly paid kickbacks and bribes to patient recruiters and beneficiaries to obtain Medicare beneficiaries, and then submitted more than $20 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, primarily for skilled nursing diabetic care and physical/occupational therapy. Defendant Enrique Rodriguez worked as a patient recruiter for Trust Care, supplying patients in exchange for kickbacks and bribes. A civil injunction is being filed under 18 U.S.C. § 1345 to restrain the defendants’ assets to satisfy restitution in the criminal matter. If convicted, the defendants face up to ten years for the health care fraud charges and five years for each count of the kickback charges.
United States v. Dora Moreira, Ivan Alejo, and Hugo Morales,
where the defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to receive and pay health care kickbacks, substantive kickback charges, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and substantive money laundering. Defendant Dora Moreira was the owner and operator of Anna Nursing Services Corp. (Anna Nursing), which paid kickbacks and bribes to patient recruiters and beneficiaries to obtain Medicare beneficiaries. Anna Nursing was paid more than $7 million for the false claims it submitted to Medicare, which claims were primarily for physical/occupational therapy. Defendant Ivan Alejo worked at Anna Nursing, and was responsible for, among other things, negotiating kickback rates and distributing kickback payments to patient recruiters on behalf of Anna Nursing. Defendant Hugo Morales worked as a physical therapist on behalf of Anna Nursing, and was responsible for, among other things, fabricating patient medical documentation. Defendant Dora Moreira laundered money for the purpose, among others, of concealing the proceeds of the fraud and the payment of kickbacks to recruiters. The Asset Forfeiture Section has obtained restraining orders on the corporate bank account and on real property that is traceable to the fraud. If convicted, the defendants face up to ten years for the health care fraud charges, five years for each count of the kickback charges, and twenty years for the money laundering charges.
United States v. Marina Sanchez Pajon and Miguel Jimenez,
where Federal officials charge defendants with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to receive and pay health care kickbacks, and substantive kickback charges. Defendants Marina Sanchez Pajon and Miguel Jimenez were the owners and operators of Flores Home Health Care Inc. (Flores Home Health), which allegedly paid kickbacks and bribes to patient recruiters and beneficiaries to obtain Medicare beneficiaries. Flores Home Health was paid more than $8 million for the false claims it submitted to Medicare, which claims were primarily for physical/occupational therapy. The Asset Forfeiture Section has obtained seizure warrants and restraining orders on five vehicles and bank accounts containing $160,000. They have also filed lis pendens against four real properties that were purchased with proceeds of the fraud. If convicted, the defendants face up to ten years for the health care fraud charges and five years for each count of the kickback charges.
United States v. Miguel A. Rodriguez, where defendant Miguel A. Rodriguez is charged with three counts of paying kickbacks in connection with a federal health care program. The defendant allegedly paid kickbacks and bribes to induce medical providers to refer Medicare beneficiaries to his medical company for services, including x-rays. If convicted, the defendant faces up to five years in prison for each count of the kickback charges.
United States v. Enrique Alberto Siret Rodriguez, where defendant Enrique Alberto Siret Rodriguez is charged with four counts of health care fraud and two counts of paying kickbacks in connection with a federal health care program. The defendant allegedly paid kickbacks and bribes to a doctor for fraudulent home health care prescriptions that could be used to fraudulently bill Medicare. If convicted, the defendant faces up to 10 years in prison for each health care fraud count and up to five years for each of the kickback counts.
United States v. Alberto Cosme Garcia, where defendant Alberto Cosme Garcia is charged with one count of health care fraud and two counts of paying kickbacks in connection with a federal health care program. The defendant allegedly paid kickbacks and bribes to a doctor for fraudulent home health care prescriptions that could be used to fraudulently bill Medicare. If convicted, the defendant faces up to 10 years in prison for the health care fraud count and up to five years for each of the kickback counts.

Los Angeles Charges

In Los Angeles, the Health Care Fraud Task Force action resulted in 12 arrests including California’s second-largest biller for chiropractic services, a physician’s assistant, and owners of durable medical equipment and ambulance companies, in relation to seven criminal cases that the Justice Department alleges resulted in the cumulative submission of more than $22 million in false billings to Medicare. The charges filed in Los Angeles are part of a nationwide “takedown” by Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations in eight cities that led to charges against 89 individuals for their alleged participation in schemes to collectively submit about $223 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare. See here.

The dozen defendants taken into custody are among 13 people charged in Los Angeles in cases that allege health care fraud. A thirteenth defendant is a fugitive.

Federal officials charge Dr. Houshang Pavehzadeh, of the Sylmar Physician Medical Group, allegedly billed Medicare more than $1.7 million for chiropractic treatments he never performed. During the scheme, which ran from 2005 through 2012, Dr. Pavehzadeh, 40, of Agoura Hills, became the second-largest Medicare biller in California for chiropractic services – even though he was not in the United States when some of the alleged services were performed. In addition to being charged with health care fraud, Pavehzadeh is charged with aggravated identity theft related to Medicare beneficiaries whose information he used to bill Medicare as a part of the scheme. When investigators tried to conduct an audit of Pavehzadeh’s claims, he falsely reported to the Los Angeles Police Department that he had been carjacked and that patient files requested by the auditors had been stolen from his car. Pavehzadeh surrendered this morning, and he is scheduled to be arraigned with other Los Angeles-area defendants this afternoon in the Roybal Federal Building.

Nine defendants affiliated with DME companies were also charged in five separate indictments.

Olufunke Fadojutimi, 41, of Carson, a registered nurse; Ayodeji Temitayo Fatunmbi, 41, formerly of Carson, and now believed to be residing in Nigeria; and Maritza Velazquez, 40, of Las Vegas, were charged with health care fraud. The scheme allegedly revolved around Lutemi Medical Supplies, a DME company Fadojutimi owned and where Fatunmbi and Velazquez worked. According to the indictment in this case, Lutemi billed Medicare more than $8.3 million in claims, primarily for medically unnecessary power wheelchairs. Fadojutimi and Fatunmbi allegedly laundered Medicare funds in order to purchase fraudulent prescriptions for those power wheelchairs and pay illegal kickbacks to recruit Medicare beneficiaries. Fadojutimi was arrested this morning in Los Angeles, while Velazquez was arrested in Las Vegas. Fatunmbi is currently a fugitive being sought by federal authorities.
Susanna Artsruni, 45, of North Hollywood, and Erasmus Kotey, 76, of Montebello, a licensed physician’s assistant, allegedly worked together to commit health care fraud out of a medical clinic on Vermont Avenue where they both worked. Kotey allegedly prescribed medically unnecessary DME, including power wheelchairs, for Medicare beneficiaries. Many of those power wheelchair prescriptions were then used by Artsruni’s DME company, Midvalley Medical Supply, to support fraudulent claims to Medicare. In only four months, the clinic and Midvalley billed Medicare more than $525,000 for these fraudulent claims. Artsruni has previously been convicted of health care fraud and was on pretrial supervision at the time she allegedly laundered some of the proceeds of this fraud. Artsruni was arrested this morning, while Kotey self-surrendered.

Three other DME cases were also charged, alleging fraudulent Medicare billing for medically unnecessary power wheelchairs that were sometimes never even delivered.

In one case, Akinola Afolabi, 53, of Long Beach, the owner of Emmanuel Medical Supply, allegedly submitted more than $2.6 million in in false and fraudulent billing to Medicare.
In another case, Queen Anieze-Smith, 52, of Encino, and Abdul King-Garba, 47, of Westwood, the owners and operators of ITC Medical Supply, allegedly submitted more than $1.8 million in false and fraudulent billing to Medicare.
In the third case, Clement Etim Aghedo, 53, of Fontana, the owner of Ace Medical Supply Company, allegedly submitted more than $1.8 in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare. Afolabi, Anieze-Smith, and King-Garba were all arrested this morning, while Aghedo self-surrendered.

In the seventh case brought as part of today’s takedown, three defendants affiliated with Gardena-based ProMed Medical Transportation, an ambulance company, were charged with submitting more than $5.9 million in false claims to Medicare between 2008 and 2011. ProMed’s owner, Yaroslav Proshak, 45, of Valley Village; general manager Sharetta Wallace, 35, of Inglewood; and office manager and biller Sergey Mumjian, 40, of West Hollywood, submitted claims for medically unnecessary transportation services and then created fake documentation purporting to support those claims. Proshak, Wallace, and Mumjian were arrested this morning.

The charge of health care fraud carries a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison. Money laundering carries a potential penalty of 20 years in prison. Aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory two-year prison term.

Aggressive Medicare Health Care Fraud Task Force Enforcement Continues

The announcement of these arrests provides more evidence of the continuing zealousness of Federal health care fraud investment and enforcement efforts targeting heath care providers for health care fraud or other aggressive activities.

The Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations that lead to todays’ charges are part of the continuing activities Health Care Fraud Prevention & Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), 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.

Since March 2007, Federal officials credit Strike Force operations in nine locations with leading to charges against more than 1,500 defendants who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for more than $5 billion.

In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.

In announcing the Florida charges, HHS Secretary Sebelius commented on the effect of recent legal changes that have given Federal officials new tools in investigating and fighting health care fraud. She said, “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.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney General Holder said, “Today’s announcement marks the latest step forward in our comprehensive efforts to combat fraud and abuse in our health-care systems.”

In the face of these criminal efforts and expanding civil and administrative enforcement actions by Federal officials targeting heaelth care fraud and other aggressive billing and referral efforts, health care providers should exercising continuing care to maintain compliance with applicable rules and carefully document these and other compliance and risk management efforts.

For Help With Compliance, Investigations Or Other Needs

If you need assistance providing compliance or other training, 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. Ms. Stamer has extensive experience advising and assisting health care providers and other health industry clients to establish and administer medical privacy and other compliance and risk management policies, to 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, 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/ She also regularly designs and presents risk management, compliance and other training for health care providers, professional associations and others. Her publications and insights 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 inquire 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.

About Solutions Law Press

1 Comment | DME, Doctor, false claims act, Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Health Care, Health Care Finance, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Health Care Quality, Health Plan, Health Plans, Home Health, Hospital, Hospital, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Money Laundering, OIG, Physician, Physician Licensing, Reimbursement | Tagged: false claims act, Health Care Fraud, HEAT, Medical Licensure, Physician, texas medical board | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Amgen Settlement Highlights Anti-Kickback Exposures From Whistleblowers, Need For Effective Compliance & Risk Management

April 22, 2013

California-based biotechnology giant Amgen, Inc. has agreed to pay $24,9 Million to resolve Justice Department False Claims Act charges that the biotechnology giant violated the False Claims Act by paying illegal kickbacks to long-term care pharmacy providers to promote the sale of its Aranesp and other products. The settlement announced by the Justice Department on April 16, 2013 is the latest in a series of settlements resulting from efforts by Federal officials to target pharmaceutical and other providers for violating federal anti-kickback and other health care fraud laws brought by the Justice Department. See Amgen to Pay U.S. $24.9 Million to Resolve False Claims Act Allegations. It highlights the growing risk of civil prosecution that pharmaceutical companies face for offering or providing prohibited kickbacks, as well as the growing role of whistleblowers in civil prosecutions under the anti-kickback law.

Amgen Settlement Highlights

The Amgen Settlement Agreement resolves Federal allegations that Amgen paid illegal kickbacks to long-term care pharmacy providers Omnicare Inc., PharMerica Corporation and Kindred Healthcare Inc. in return for implementing “therapeutic interchange” programs designed to switch Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries from a competitor drug to Aranesp, which Amgen manufactures.

The government alleged that the kickbacks took the form of performance-based rebates tied to market-share or volume thresholds. The government also charged that, as part of the therapeutic interchange program, Amgen distributed materials to consultant pharmacists and nursing home staff encouraging the use of Aranesp for patients who did not have anemia associated with chronic renal failure.

The Amgen Settlement Agreement resolves a civil lawsuit filed under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provision of the False Claims Act, which allows private citizens with knowledge of false claims to bring civil actions on behalf of the United States and share in any recovery. The False Claims Act suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina is captioned United States ex rel. Kurnik v. Amgen Inc., et al.

When announcing the settlement, Justice Department officials emphasized federal officials’ commitment to pursuing pharmaceutical companies for paying illegal kickbacks to secure drug sales. “We will continue to pursue pharmaceutical companies that pay kickbacks to long-term care pharmacy providers to influence drug prescribing decisions,” said Stuart F. Delery, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Patients in skilled nursing facilities deserve care that is free of improper financial influences.”

The Settlement Agreement and lawsuit that it resolves also show the key role that whistleblowers can play in these types of prosecutions. Qui tam and other fraud reports made by employees or other business partners have become a significant tool in the Federal government’s war against health care fraud. The Amgen Settlement and other recent prosecutions and settlement show that Federal officials are acting on this promise and that whistleblowers increasingly are helping them to do so.

As this trend continues, pharmaceutical companies and other health care providers subject to the anti-kickback and other health care fraud laws will need to review their existing and former practices to identify pre-existing and ongoing exposures, and decide what steps to take, if any, to mitigate these risks. In addition to considering what corrective actions, if any are needed generally, these organizations also should consider the workforce management and other internal controls that will help promote compliance with these policies and manage potential whistleblower and other liabilities.

In addition to working to promote compliance with the False Claims Act and other health care laws, pharmaceutical companies and health care providers need to implement strong internal investigation, audit, and employee and contractor management procedures to help self-discover and address potential compliance or other liability concerns. These processes and policies should involve but not be limited to hotlines and other processes for reporting suspected fraud or other misconduct. Most companies also should consider adopting and enforcing strong policies that require employees, contractors and other business partners to timely report and coöperate in the investigation and redress of potential health care fraud or other legal violations, should promptly investigate and redress as needed alleged noncompliance, and should retaliation against individuals making these reports in good faith.

For More Information Or Assistance

For help reviewing and updating your Stark Law, Anti-Kickback Statute, or other health care compliance, workforce, internal controls and risk management policies, practices or programs; assessing the strength of your organizations existing risk management and compliance controls under these laws or other healthcare laws and regulations; or in addressing other compliance or health care concerns, please contact Cynthia Marcotte Stamer via e-mail here or via telephone at 469.767.8872. To review and register to receive other helpful updates or for more information about Ms. Stamer and her experience, see here.

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.

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. 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 help responding to concerns about the matters discussed in this publication or other health care concerns, wish to get 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 » | Anti-KickBack, Controlled Substances, Corporate Compliance, Evidence Based Medicine, false claims act, Health Care, Health Care Finance, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Medicaid, Medicare, OIG, Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs, Reimbursement | Tagged: FDA, Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Food and Drug, GlaxoSmithKiine, Health Care, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Fraud Task Force, Pharma, Pharmaceudical | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

CMS 2nd Recalculation Medicare Readmission Penalties In 6 Months Cuts Overall Penalties By $10M

March 15, 2013

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)for the second time in six months has corrected errors in its calculation of Medicare readmission penalties imposed against more than 1,000 hospitals imposed under the Medicare Hospital Readmission Reduction Program.

Under the Medicare Readmission Reduction Program, CMS is penalizing hospitals whose readmissions within 30 days following their discharge of heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia patients exceed the rate CMS expects based on their patient risks with the loss of up to 1 percent of their regular payments. This maximum penalty ramps is slated to rise to up to 2 percent in October and 3 percent in 2014.

While some hospital’s penalties went up and most went down, the net effect of the recalculation back to the program’s origination last October is a $10 million reduction in the overall penalties resulting in an adjusted total of $280 million for 2013.

An updated chart of the corrected readmission penalties prepared by Kaiser Health News is available here.

Part of new CMS “quality” provisions, the readmission penalties have prompted widespread concern by many hospital and other health care leaders as penalizing hospitals for readmissions beyond their control. Supports of the penalties say that the penalties can encourage hospitals to provide better quality and reduce costs by emphasizing appropriate discharge planning.

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 25 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Ms. Stamer has extensive experience advising and assisting health care providers and other health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies and to respond to DEA 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, 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.

About Solutions Law Press

Leave a Comment » | Academic medicine, Affordable Care Act, Anti-KickBack, ASC, Childrens Health Insurance Program, Corporate Compliance, Durable Medical Equipment, Federal Health Center, Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Health Care, Health Care Finance, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Health Care Quality, Health Care Reform, Health Plans, Hospital, Laws, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Fee Schedule, Medicare Prescription Drug Program, Mental Heatlh, Money Laundering, OIG, Outpatient, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pharmacy, Physician, Prescription Drugs, Public Policy, Reimbursement, Rural Health Care, Stark, Substance Abuse | Tagged: Health Care Fraud, Medicaid Fraud, Medicare, Medicare Fraud Task Force, readmissions penalty | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Par Pharmaceutical Pays $45 Million For Illegal Off-Label Marketing Of Megace ES

March 11, 2013

New Jersey-based Par Pharmaceutical Companies Inc. (Par) must pay more than will pay $45 million to resolve their criminal and civil liability under its March 5, 2013 guilty plea to illegally promoting off-label uses of the prescription drug Megace ES in violation of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules and wrongfully promoting and billing Medicare for its use. The Par guilty plea followed a guilty plea by Par’s Chief Executive Officer Paul V. Campanelli earlier in the day in a New Jersey federal court.

Par also entered into a civil settlement that resolved three lawsuits filed under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act, which let private parties to file suit on behalf of the United States and obtain part of the government’s recovery. The civil lawsuits filed in New Jersey are U.S. ex rel. McKeen and Combs v. Par Pharma ceutical, et al., U.S. ex rel. Thompson v. Par Pharmaceutical, et al., and U.S. ex rel. Elliott & Lundstrom v. Bristol-M yers Squibb, Par Pharma ceutical, et al. As part of today’s resolution, relators McKeen and Combs will receive $4.4 million. The actions provide another example of the growing role of whistleblowers to the success of federal health care fraud detection and enforcement efforts.

Par Criminal & Charges

The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) requires companies such as Par to specify the intended uses of a product in its new drug application to the FDA. Once approved, a drug may not be distributed in interstate commerce for unapproved or “off-label” uses until the company receives FDA approval for the new intended uses.

Par pleaded guilty to a federal a criminal misdemeanor violation of these rules by misbranding Megace ES in violation of the FDCA. Megace ES, a megestrol acetate drug product was approved by the FDA to treat anorexia, cachexia, or other significant weight loss suffered by patients with AIDS. Federal prosecutors charged that Megace ES distributed nationwide by Par was criminally misbranded because its FDA-approved labeling lacked adequate directions for use in the treatment of non-AIDS-related geriatric wasting, a use that was intended by Par but never approved by the FDA.

Federal Judge Judge Arleo fined Par $18 million and ordered $4.5 million in criminal forfeiture. Par also entered into a civil settlement agreement to settle associated civil liability.

The civil settlement agreement requires Par to pay $22.5 million to the federal government and various states to resolve claims arising from its off-label marketing. The civil settlement resolves allegations that Par, by promoting the sale and use of Megace ES for uses that were not FDA-approved and not covered by Federal health care programs, caused false claims to be submitted to these programs. The United States further alleged that Par deliberately and improperly targeted sales to elderly nursing home residents with weight loss, whether or not such patients suffered from AIDS, and launched a long-term care sales force to market to this population. During this marketing campaign, the government charged Par was aware of adverse side effects associated with the use of megestrol acetate in elderly patients, including an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis, toxic reactions in elderly patients with impaired renal function, and mortality. The United States alleged that Par made unsubstantiated and misleading representations about the superiority of Megace ES over generic megestrol acetate for elderly patients to encourage providers to switch patients from generic megestrol acetate to MegaceES, despite having conducted no well-controlled studies to support a claim of greater efficacy for Megace ES.

As part of plea agreement and corporate integrity agreements reached to resolve its civil and criminal charges, Par committed to the Department of Justice, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and its Office of Inspector General. Par to implement several compliance measures and annually provide the U.S. Attorney’s Office and other agencies with certain reports.

The plea agreement and corporate integrity agreement include provisions that require Par to implement changes to the way it does business. The plea agreement and agreement prohibit Par from providing compensation to sales representatives or their managers based on the volume of sale of Megace ES, and in the corporate integrity agreement, based on the volume of Megace ES and any branded successor megestrol acetate drug.

The agreements also dictate individual accountability of Par’s board and executives. Under the agreement, Par is also required to change its executive compensation program to permit the company to recoup annual bonuses from covered executives if they, or their subordinates, engage in significant misconduct. Company executives may have to forfeit annual bonuses if they or their subordinates engage in significant misconduct, and sales representatives may not be paid incentive compensation for the drug involved in the case, or successor branded versions of that drug. For instance, the plea agreement requires Par give the Justice Department a sworn certification from its chief executive officer that the company has not unlawfully marketed any of its pharmaceutical products.

Par Prosecutions Part Of Larger Aggressive Health Care Fraud Enforcement

The Par civil and criminal charges were brought as part of the ongoing war against health care fraud conducted by federal and state officials. Its announcement is just one of high-profile health care fraud charges, settlements and convictions announced by the Justice Department in the first seven days of March. See, e.g., Health Care Clinic Director Pleads Guilty in Miami for Role in $63 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme; Orange County Doctor Convicted of Six Counts of Health Care Fraud in Multi-Million Dollar Scam involving Durable Medical Equipment; Manhattan U.S. Attorney Sues Park Avenue Medical Associates for Medicare Billing Fraud; Par Pharmaceuticals Pleads Guilty and Agrees to Pay $45 Million to Resolve Civil and Criminal Allegations Related to Off-Label Marketing; Doctor gets 50 Month Sentence for Health Care Fraud & Tax Evasion; and Nelson County, Kentucky Drug Store Owner Charged With Health Care Fraud and Wire Fraud.

Already a lead federal enforcement priority for more than a decade, the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2012 (FY2012 Report) documents that DOJ and HHS health care fraud enforcement activities scored big in 2012, and that qui tam whistleblowers played a big part and shared big in the profits. See Federal Health Care Fraud & Abuse Recovery of $4.2 Billion In FY 2012 Shows Enforcement Risks Growing.

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. Along with a broad health care fraud enforcement and compliance programs, these efforts should include targeted efforts to prevent and manage fraud and other whistleblower claims by employees, business partners and others.

For More Information Or Assistance

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Leave a Comment » | Academic medicine, Affordable Care Act, Anti-KickBack, ASC, Childrens Health Insurance Program, Corporate Compliance, Durable Medical Equipment, Federal Health Center, Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Health Care, Health Care Finance, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Health Care Quality, Health Care Reform, Health Plans, Hospital, Laws, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Fee Schedule, Medicare Prescription Drug Program, Mental Heatlh, Money Laundering, OIG, Outpatient, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pharmacy, Physician, Prescription Drugs, Public Policy, Reimbursement, Rural Health Care, Stark, Substance Abuse | Tagged: FDA, Health Care Fraud, Medicaid Fraud, Medicare, Medicare Fraud Task Force, Off Label | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Corpus Christi Radiology Group & Clinic $2.3 Million To Settle Health Care Fraud Charges

March 11, 2013

Children’s Physician Services of South Texas (CPSST) and Radiology Associates jointly will pay $2.3 million to settle claims they violated the False Claims Act and the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act between 2002 and 2007.

The CPSST & Radiology Associates Settlement as part of another busy week of health care fraud enforcement by the Justice Department. See, Health Care Clinic Director Pleads Guilty in Miami for Role in $63 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme; Orange County Doctor Convicted of Six Counts of Health Care Fraud in Multi-Million Dollar Scam involving Durable Medical Equipment; Manhattan U.S. Attorney Sues Park Avenue Medical Associates for Medicare Billing Fraud; Par Pharmaceuticals Pleads Guilty and Agrees to Pay $45 Million to Resolve Civil and Criminal Allegations Related to Off-Label Marketing; Doctor gets 50 Month Sentence for Health Care Fraud & Tax Evasion; and Nelson County, Kentucky Drug Store Owner Charged With Health Care Fraud and Wire Fraud. These and other growing health care fraud charges, settlements and convictions show the zealous enforcement by federal prosecutors is continuing. To guard against getting caught in the health care fraud hopper, health care providers must constantly look at current and past practices against emerging regulations and enforcement and take prompt steps to maintain compliance and minimize risks as they become clear.

CPSST & Radiology Associates Settlement Highlights

According to the March 5, 2013 announcement of United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson, the charges settled involved allegations that CPSST billed and received payment for Radiology Associates’ professional services and, without disclosing the payments, directed Radiology Associates to bill and receive payment for the same professional services. Magidson says that CPSST, a part of the Driscoll Health System, agreed to pay $1.5 million, while Radiology Associates, an independent physician group serving the Driscoll Health System, agreed to pay $800,000 to settle claims they billed and received payment twice for the professional reading and interpretation of genetic ultrasounds.

Medicare billing rules recognize two components for each ultrasound, a technical component and a professional component. The technical component refers to the actual taking of the ultrasound by a technician and the professional component refers to the reading and interpretation of the ultrasound images by a physician, usually a radiologist.

According to federal prosecutors, CPSST made arrangements to have Radiology Associates read and interpret the ultrasounds taken at CPSST. From Jan. 1, 2002, to June 1, 2007, Radiology Associates read and interpreted several thousand ultrasounds for CPSST. The understanding between the two providers was that CPSST would bill and receive payment solely for the technical component and Radiology Associates would bill and receive payment solely for the professional component. In reality, CPSST billed and received payment for both the technical and professional components without informing or disclosing this fact to Radiology Associates. Upon discovery of this fact, Radiology Associates informed CPSST about the double billing for the professional component, but CPSST denied billing for the professional component except for a few accidental and isolated occasions. Instead, CPSST instructed and directed Radiology Associates to continue to bill for the professional component and reaffirmed that CPSST would only bill for the technical component. Despite additional evidence of double billing, Radiology Associates ignored the evidence, accepted CPSST’s misrepresentations without question and continued to bill and receive payment for the professional component.

Government funded health care programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE and the Federal Employees Health Benefits program agree to pay enrolled health care providers once for the technical and professional components of each ultrasound performed on a patient covered by theses health care programs. Health care providers enrolled and servicing patients covered by these government-funded health care programs are prohibited from billing and receiving payment twice for the ultrasound’s technical or professional component.

The settlement resolves allegations made against Radiology Associates, Children’s Physician Services of South Texas, Center for Genetic Services, and Raymond C. Lewandowski Jr. M.D. in a qui tam or whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2008 by a former revenue manager and coding compliance officer with Radiology Associates. Under the False Claims Act, private citizens can bring suit on behalf of the government and share in any amounts that are obtained through that legal action. In this case, the share will be between 15 – 25% of the proceeds of the overall settlement.

The investigation was conducted by the United States Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General and the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and Civil Medicaid Fraud Division.

Strike Force & Other Zealous Health Care Fraud Enforcement Continues

The settlement and other fraud enforcement actions provide clear evidence of the risks health care providers and their management face if they are found to have participated in activities that federal or state health care fraud prosecutors view as violating health care fraud rules.

The FY2012 Report says DOJ opened 1,131 new criminal health care fraud investigations involving 2,148 potential defendants. Federal prosecutors had 2,032 health care fraud criminal investigations pending, involving 3,410 potential defendants, and filed criminal charges in 452 cases involving 892 defendants. A total of 826 defendants were convicted of health care fraud-related crimes during the year. Also in FY 2012, DOJ opened 885 new civil health care fraud investigations and had 1,023 civil health care fraud matters pending at the end of the fiscal year. In FY 2012, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) health care fraud investigations resulted in the operational disruption of 329 criminal fraud organizations, and the dismantlement of the criminal hierarchy of more than 83 criminal enterprises engaged in health care fraud.

Meanwhile, HHS’ Office of Inspector General (HHS/OIG) excluded 3,131 individuals and entities in FY 2012. Among these were exclusions based on criminal convictions for crimes related to Medicare and Medicaid (912) or to other health care programs (287); for patient abuse or neglect (212); and as a result of licensure revocations (1,463). In addition, HHS/OIG imposed civil monetary penalties against, among others, providers and suppliers who knowingly submitted false claims to the Federal government. HHS/OIG also issued many audits and evaluations with recommendations that, when implemented, would correct program vulnerabilities and save program funds.

The enforcement actions announced by the Justice Department the first week of March, 2013 make clear federal prosecutors are gunning for even greater health care fraud enforcement success in 2013. See Health Care Clinic Director Pleads Guilty in Miami for Role in $63 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme; Orange County Doctor Convicted of Six Counts of Health Care Fraud in Multi-Million Dollar Scam involving Durable Medical Equipment; Manhattan U.S. Attorney Sues Park Avenue Medical Associates for Medicare Billing Fraud; Par Pharmaceuticals Pleads Guilty and Agrees to Pay $45 Million to Resolve Civil and Criminal Allegations Related to Off-Label Marketing; Doctor gets 50 Month Sentence for Health Care Fraud & Tax Evasion; and Nelson County, Kentucky Drug Store Owner Charged With Health Care Fraud and Wire Fraud.

Act To Manage Risks

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Houston Ambulance Service Owner Convicted Of Health Care Fraud Faces Up To 70 Years

March 11, 2013

A Houston, Texas Federal jury on March 4, 2013 convicted the owner and operator of a Houston-area ambulance company, Olusola Elliott, of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and six counts of health care fraud for submitting false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for ambulance services.

Elliott owned and operated Double Daniels LLC, a Texas entity that purportedly provided non-emergency ambulance services to Medicare beneficiaries in the Houston area. During the course of the scheme, the Justice Department charged that Elliott submitted and caused the submission of approximately $1,713,716 in fraudulent ambulance service claims to Medicare.

According to evidence presented at trial, Elliott and others conspired from April 2010 through December 2011 to unlawfully enrich themselves by submitting false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for ambulance services that were medically unnecessary and not provided. Evidence showed that Elliott falsified patient records in order to fraudulently bill Medicare for beneficiaries who were not in need of ambulance services. According to court documents, Elliot transferred the proceeds of the fraud to himself and others after Medicare payments were sent to Double Daniels.

Elliot is scheduled for sentencing on May 31, 2013, in Houston. The six health care fraud counts and the conspiracy count each carry a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine

Federal prosecutors brought the charges as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas and the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.

Strike Force & Other Zealous Health Care Fraud Enforcement Continues

The conviction is another reminder to health care providers, leaders and organizations of the advisability of tightening compliance practices and taking other steps to guard against ever-expanding health care fraud exposures. Even as the jury convicted Elliott, federal prosecutors finalizing a health care fraud settlement with another group of Texas providers. On March 5, 2013, the Justice Department announced that Children’s Physician Services of South Texas (CPSST) and Radiology Associates had agreed to pay more than $2 million collectively to settle claims they violated the False Claims Act and the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act between 2002 and 2007. Under the settlement, CPSST, a part of the Driscoll Health System, agreed to pay $1.5 million, while Radiology Associates, an independent physician group serving the Driscoll Health System, will pay $800,000 to settle claims they billed and received payment twice for the professional reading and interpretation of genetic ultrasounds. See, Corpus Christi Radiologist Group and Children’s Genetic Services Clinic Settle False Claims Act Allegations.

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 23 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Ms. Stamer has extensive experience advising and assisting health care providers and other health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies and to respond to DEA 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, 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.

About Solutions Law Press

Leave a Comment » | Academic medicine, Affordable Care Act, Anti-KickBack, ASC, Childrens Health Insurance Program, Corporate Compliance, Durable Medical Equipment, Federal Health Center, Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Health Care, Health Care Finance, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Health Care Quality, Health Care Reform, Health Plans, Hospital, Laws, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Fee Schedule, Medicare Prescription Drug Program, Mental Heatlh, Money Laundering, OIG, Outpatient, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pharmacy, Physician, Prescription Drugs, Public Policy, Reimbursement, Rural Health Care, Stark, Substance Abuse | Tagged: Health Care Fraud, HEAT, Medicaid Fraud, Medicare, Medicare Fraud, Medicare Fraud Task Force | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

OSHA Safety Violations At Veterans’ Medical Center Reminder To Manage OSHA Compliance

March 1, 2013

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued seven notices of unsafe or unhealthful working conditions found at the Battle Creek Veterans Administration Medical Center, following a safety inspection conducted in July as part of OSHA’s Federal Agency Targeting Inspection Program. OSHA’s announcement of the citations highlights the need for all health care and other employers to manage safety compliance. The citations highlight the high enforcement and penalty risks that public and private health care providers risk by failing to comply with OSHA’s safety, recordkeeping and reporting requirements.

Health Industry Employers High Priority OSHA Enforcement Target

Under these OSHA requirements, all employers, including federal and private health industry employers, are responsible for knowing what hazards exist in their facilities and taking appropriate precautions by following OSHA standards so workers are not exposed to such hazards. Physician practices, hospitals and other health care providers in both the public and private sectors generally are subject to these federal requirements, as well as various state and federal environmental and patient safety requirements. Enforcement of compliance in the health care industry is a high priority for OSHA because of the high rates of occupational accident and injury among health industry workers. Federal agencies generally must comply with the same safety standards as private-sector employers.

OSHA prioritizes monitoring and enforcing occupational safety standards throughout the health care industry because of the high incidence of occupational accidents and illnesses among health care workers. According to OSHA, more workers are injured in the healthcare and social assistance industry sector than any other. This industry has one of the highest rates of work related injuries and illnesses and it continues to rise. In 2020, the healthcare and social assistance industry reported a 40% increase in injury and illness cases which continues to be higher than any other private industry sector – 806,200 cases (2020 Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, BLS). Over half of these cases (447,890) resulted in at least one day away from work. The total incidence rate for this sector was 5.5 cases per 100 FTE workers in 2020, compared to 3.8 per 100 FTE workers in 2019. Nursing assistants were amongst the occupations with the highest rates of musculoskeletal disorders of all occupations in 2020, with 15,360 cases. Musculoskeletal disorders made up 52% of all days away from work cases for nursing assistants. See here. In addition to the medical staff, large healthcare facilities employ a wide variety of trades that have health and safety hazards associated with them. These include mechanical maintenance, medical equipment maintenance, housekeeping, food service, building and grounds maintenance, laundry, and administrative staff. Because of these risks, OSHA has extensive occupational health and safety requirements for physician practices, hospitals, nursing homes, home health and other health industry employers and targeted audit and enforcement programs to enforce and promote compliance with these requirements. See here.

Violations are common and frequently result in citations, particularly in certain key areas. The most frequently cited areas affecting health industry employers include violations of the following standards:

Section 1910.132, General requirements.
Section1910.133, Eye and face protection.
Section 1910.134, Respiratory protection.
Section 1910 Subpart Z – Toxic and Hazardous Substances
Section 1910.1030, Bloodborne pathogens.
Section 1910.1047, Ethylene oxide.
Section 1910.1048, Formaldehyde.
Section 1910.1096, Ionizing radiation.
Section 1910.1200, Hazard Communication.
Section 1910.1450, Occupational exposure to hazardous chemicals in laboratories.

Battle Creek VA OSHA Safety Violations

In the case of the Battle Creek Veterans Administration Medical Center, OSHA says an inspection uncovered several repeat safety violations, as well as certain other serious safety violations. OSHA reports that three repeat safety violations involved failing to evaluate the workplace to identify if permit-required confined spaces were present and label such spaces with danger signs; failing to adequately guard automated laundry equipment to prevent employees from entering the work area, and failing to fully guard the belt and pulley of an air compressor. To issue notices for repeat violations, OSHA must have issued at least one other notice for the same violation at one of the agency’s establishments within the same standard industrial classification code, commonly known as the SIC code. OSHA previously has cited U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs facilities in Danville and North Chicago, Illinois, and Minneapolis, Minnesota for the same safety and health violations.

The serious safety violations found included three serious safety violations for unguarded floor openings in the general repair shop; failing to inspect powered industrial trucks prior to placing them in service, and failing to remove trucks from service in need of repair. Additionally, OSHA found a circuit breaker panel was not mounted correctly. OSHA issues a serious notice when it finds a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.

Beyond the repeat and serious violations, OSHA reports it also found one other-than-serious violation for failing to close unused openings on electrical cabinets and junction boxes. An other-than-serious violation is one that has a direct relationship to job safety and health, but probably would not cause death or serious physical harm.

While the medical center and other federal agencies are required to comply with the same OSHA rules as private sector employers, the VA and other federal agencies don’t face the same liabilities when cited. OSHA cannot propose monetary penalties against another federal agency for failure to comply with OSHA standards.

Since private sector employers that don’t enjoy the VA’s immunity liability run much greater risks for failing to maintain workplace safety, including significant civil and in the case of a workplace death, potentially even criminal penalties, private sector hospitals and other organizations should exercise special care to ensure appropriate safety in their workplaces.

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 nearly 35 years of experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Ms. Stamer has extensive experience advising and assisting health care providers and other health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies and to respond to DEA 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, 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.

About Solutions Law Press

Leave a Comment » | Academic medicine, Affordable Care Act, Anti-KickBack, ASC, Childrens Health Insurance Program, Corporate Compliance, Employer, Federal Health Center, Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Health Care, Health Care Finance, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Health Care Quality, Health Care Reform, Health Plans, Hospital, Laws, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Fee Schedule, Medicare Prescription Drug Program, Mental Heatlh, Money Laundering, OIG, Outpatient, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pharmacy, Physician, Prescription Drugs, Public Policy, Reimbursement, Rural Health Care, Stark, Substance Abuse | Tagged: Health Care, Health Care Fraud, hospita, Hospital, Medicaid Fraud, Medicare Fraud Task Force, OSHA, Safety | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Federal Health Care Fraud & Abuse Recovery of $4.2 Billion In FY 2012 Shows Enforcement Risks Growing

March 1, 2013

A new report from the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) joint Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program (HCFC) documents the growing exposures of health care providers to federal health care fraud enforcement actions.

The charges are provide yet another powerful reminder to health care providers, leaders and organizations of the advisability of tightening compliance practices and taking other steps to guard against ever-expanding health care fraud exposures. Already a lead federal enforcement priority for more than a decade, the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2012 (FY2012 Report) documents that DOJ and HHS health care fraud enforcement activities scored big in 2012, and that qui tam whistleblowers played a big part and shared big in the profits.

Among other things, the FY2012 Report credits HCFC with producing $4.2 Billion in health care fraud judgments and settlements in Fiscal Year 2012 of which more than $284 million of the recovered monies were paid to relators under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act (FCA).

The FY2012 Report says the Medicare Trust Fund received more than $2.4 billion, including civil recoveries of $935 million, $1.4 billion in criminal fines, and $89.7 million in HHS Medicare program audit disallowances.

On the enforcement front, the FY2012 Report says DOJ opened 1,131 new criminal health care fraud investigations involving 2,148 potential defendants. Federal prosecutors had 2,032 health care fraud criminal investigations pending, involving 3,410 potential defendants, and filed criminal charges in 452 cases involving 892 defendants. A total of 826 defendants were convicted of health care fraud-related crimes during the year. Also in FY 2012, DOJ opened 885 new civil health care fraud investigations and had 1,023 civil health care fraud matters pending at the end of the fiscal year. In FY 2012, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) health care fraud investigations resulted in the operational disruption of 329 criminal fraud organizations, and the dismantlement of the criminal hierarchy of more than 83 criminal enterprises engaged in health care fraud.

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 23 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Ms. Stamer has extensive experience advising and assisting health care providers and other health industry clients to establish and administer compliance and risk management policies and to respond to DEA 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, 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.

About Solutions Law Press

Leave a Comment » | Academic medicine, Affordable Care Act, Anti-KickBack, ASC, Childrens Health Insurance Program, Corporate Compliance, Durable Medical Equipment, Federal Health Center, Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Health Care, Health Care Finance, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Health Care Quality, Health Care Reform, Health Plans, Hospital, Laws, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Fee Schedule, Medicare Prescription Drug Program, Mental Heatlh, Money Laundering, OIG, Outpatient, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pharmacy, Physician, Prescription Drugs, Public Policy, Reimbursement, Rural Health Care, Stark, Substance Abuse | Tagged: Health Care Fraud, HEAT, Medicaid Fraud, Medicare, Medicare Fraud, Medicare Fraud Task Force | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Updated 2013 ACA Prescription Drug Fee Calculation & Payment Rules Released; 12/18 Deadline To File Form 8947

December 4, 2012

December 17, 2012 is the deadline for covered entities to file a Form 8947 as part if its reporting and payment of the Form 8947The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Notice 2012-74 sets forth the instructions for calculation and reporting branded prescription drug fee for the 2013 fee year under Section 9008 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by section 1404 of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Affordable Care Act).

The Act imposes an annual fee on covered entities engaged in the business of manufacturing or importing branded prescription drugs. The Branded Prescription Drug Fee Regulations in 26 C.F.R. Part 51 published on August 18, 2011 provide the method for calculating each covered entity’s annual fee and the fee year for purposes of these rules and how the fee must be reported and paid. See 76 Fed. Reg. 51245. These regulations also define terms for the administration of the fee.

Notice 2012-74/s instructions on the 2013 prescription drug fee discusses:

The submission of Form 8947, “Report of Branded Prescription Drug Information,”
The time and manner for notifying covered entities of their preliminary fee calculation;
the time and manner for covered entities to submit error reports for the dispute resolution; process; and
The time for the IRS to notify covered entities of their final fee calculation.

12/18/12 Deadline to File Form 8947

One of the deadlines for this process is rapidly approaching. Section 51.3T provides that annually, each covered entity may submit a completed Form 8947, “Report of Branded Prescription Drug Information,” in accordance with the instructions for the form. Generally, the form solicits information from covered entities on National Drug Codes, orphan drugs, designated entities, rebates, and other information specified by the form or its instructions. The form is to be filed by the date prescribed in guidance published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin.

Notice 2012-74 sets the deadline for a covered entity that chooses to submit Form 8947 for 2013 at December 17, 2012.

Preliminary Fee Calculation

For the 2013 fee year, the IRS will mail each covered entity a paper notice of its preliminary fee calculation by April 1, 2013. This mailing will include a National Drug Code (NDC) attachment (NDC attachment) that lists the covered entity’s NDCs and the sales data reported to the IRS by each government program pursuant to § 51.4T.

A covered entity may request that the IRS send a CD-ROM with the NDC attachment in Microsoft Excel format. The covered entity must make this request by March 15, 2013. This request must be made either by telephone to Ingrid Taylor at (908) 301-2118 or Mi Lim at (312) 292-3775 (not toll-free calls) or by email to it.bpd.fee@irs.gov. If a covered entity makes this request timely, the IRS will mail the covered entity its notice of preliminary fee calculation on paper and the NDC attachment on paper and CD-ROM by April 1, 2013.

Submitting Error Reports For The Dispute Resolution Process

For the 2013 fee year, a covered entity that chooses to submit an error report regarding its preliminary fee calculation must mail the error report by May 16, 2013. When the IRS mails each covered entity a notice of its preliminary fee calculation by April 1, 2013, the IRS will also send each covered entity a template on a CD-ROM that the covered entity must use to prepare its error report. All completed templates and the supporting documentation must be submitted on a CD-ROM to the IRS in a timely fashion.

Final Fee Calculation & Payment

The IRS will notify each covered entity of its final fee calculation for 2013 by August 31, 2013. In accordance with § 51.8T(c), each covered entity must pay this fee by September 30, 2013.

For Help With Monitoring Developments, Compliance, Investigations Or Other Needs

If you need help reviewing or commenting on the Tests Procedures or monitoring or responding to these or other health care or health IT related risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, can 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, and A Fellow in the American Bar Association, State Bar of Texas and other prominent organizations, Ms. Stamer has more than 24 years experience advising health industry clients about these and other matters. Ms. Stamer has extensive experience advising and assisting health care providers, health plans, their business associates and other health industry clients to set up and administer medical privacy, EHR and other technology and other compliance and risk management policies, to health care industry investigation, enforcement and other compliance, public policy, regulatory, staffing, and other operations and risk management concerns. She regularly designs and presents HIPAA and other risk management, compliance and other training for health plans, employers, health care providers, professional associations and others.

Ms. Stamer also regularly works with OCR and other agencies, publishes and speaks extensively on medical and other privacy and data security, 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 publications and insights 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. For instance, Ms. Stamer for the second year will serve as the appointed scribe for the ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits Agency meeting with OCR. Her insights on HIPAA risk management and compliance often appear in medical privacy and other technology, risk management and compliance-related publications of a broad range of health care, health plan and other industry publications Among others, she has conducted privacy training for the Association of State & Territorial Health Plans (ASTHO), the Los Angeles Health Department, the American Bar Association, the Health Care Compliance Association, a multitude of health industry, health plan, insurance and financial services, education, employer employee benefit and other clients, trade and professional associations and others.

You can get more information about her experience here.

Other Recent Updates & Resources

If you found this information of interest, you also may be interested in the following recent updates on health care, health plan and employee benefits, human resources and other risk management and compliance matters. Recent examples on health care compliance and risk management matters include:

OIG Recommends CMS, ONC Tighten EMR Incentive Program Rules To Improve Oversight

Congress Sends Bill Amending Lab Testing Rule Violation Sanctions

Learn Latest On OCR New HIPAA De-Identification Guidance & Other HIPAA Developments In 12/12 HIPAA Update Workshop!

$12M+ Settlement Recoveries In 2 Health Care Fraud Whistleblower Claims Shows Providers, Owners, Management & Staff Must Manage Compliance & Risks

Feds Health Fraud Suit Against Psychiatrists Shows Risks Providers Run From Aggressive Referral or Billing Activities

ONC Releases Next Wave of 2014 Draft Test Methods For Public Review and Comment; Plans 11/13 Virtual Workshop

Recent OIG Audit Reports Provide Insights Where Fraud Audits Likely To Look Next

Hospital Chain HCA Inc. Pays $16.5 Million to Settle False Claims Act Allegations That Hospital

Detroit-Area Doctor Charged for Role in Alleged $40 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

Five More Individuals Charged in Detroit for Alleged Roles in $24.7 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

Massachusetts Ear Group To Pay $1.5 Million To Resolve HIPAA Charges

Personal Consumer Information Protection In Health Care Operations Topic of Stamer’s 11/1 Speech

ONC Releases First Wave of EHR Test Procedures; More To Come

OCR Releases HIPAA Compliance Training Tool As Enforcement Risks Rise

Health Care Orgs Disability Exposure High As $475K Paid To Settle Justice Department Charges Medical Fitness Screenings of EMTs, Others Violated ADA

HHS/DOJ Partner With Private Health Plans To Further Ramp Up Health Care Fraud Heat!

AHRQ Issues New Guide for Use of Interactive Preventive Care Record

Nextcare Inc. $10 Million False Claims Act Settlement Shows Qui Tam Role In False Claims Act Prosecutions

For more resources and publications training materials by Ms. Stamer, see here.

Leave a Comment » | Academic medicine, ARRA, Disease Management, DME, Doctor, Durable Medical Equipment, Electronic Health Records, Electronic Medical Records, Employee Benefits, Employer, Health Care, Health Care Provider, Health Insurance Exchange, Health IT, Health Plan, Health Plans, HIPAA, HITECH Act, Home Health, Hospital, Hospital, Indian Health, Meaningful Use, Mental Heatlh, Pharmacy, Physician, Privacy | Tagged: CMS, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Fraud Task Force, Health Care Reimbursement, HHS, Hospitals, Inpatient, Medicare, OIG, outpatient, Physicians | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Hospitals Urged To Tighten Inpatient & Outpatient Admission Records As OIG Audits Hospitals for New vs. Established Patients,

November 29, 2012

Hospitals should act quickly to adopt appropriate compliance policies and tighten outpatient and inpatient admissions recordkeeping and associated billing activities to minimize exposures signaled by audits announced by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG).

OIG reportedly is auditing inpatient and outpatient hospital claims for new and established patients to identify potential overcharges by some hospital-based outpatient clinics that may have resulted from treating established patients as if they were new patients. OIG’s Office of Audit Services reportedly sent letters to some hospitals in October, asking about a handful of claims for new patient visits that OIG suspects the hospital should have billed as established patient visits. In addition to requesting specific information about line items on the claims and their internal controls for billing new versus established patients and provide descriptions of written policies and procedures governing the facilities classification of new versus established patients and internal controls for detecting errors.

Medicare typically pays more for new versus established patients since CMS implemented the outpatient prospective payment system in 2000. Since 2008, CMS rules have specified that patients who visit the hospital outpatient clinic within three years are established patients, and after that they are new, with Medicare paying more for the latter. See(73 Fed. Reg. 68502, 68679 (November 18, 2009). Data mining technology increasingly used by CMS and other federal fraud investigators facilities the ability of Medicare and others to identify errors in coding and billing resulting from misclassication of existing patients as new.

Many hospitals may be exposed under this requirement for a variety of reasons including failure to appropriately track and coordinate inpatient and outpatient admission data, defaults built into recordkeeping systems and omissions to timely update practices or training. In contrast to the risk of overbilling from incorrectly treating patients as new, hospitals that bill all patients as established to overcome inadequacies in their ability to track new versus established patients often leave money on the table unnecessarily by foregoing added reimbursement that the facility otherwise would qualify for it could reliably identify new patients.

While strengthening coding and billing to ward of risks, may debate the appropriateness of CMS’ new versus existing patient distinction outside the physician office context. Critics contend that unlike in the physician office context, the level of care or resources delivered for a new patient compared to a patient who previously visited the hospital doesn’t generally differ. Parties with these concerns should continue to ensure appropriate compliance with existing rules while providing input and feedback to CMS and other regulators about their concerns with the policy’s suitability.

For Help With Monitoring Developments, Compliance, Investigations Or Other Needs

You can get more information about her experience here.

Other Recent Updates & Resources

OIG Recommends CMS, ONC Tighten EMR Incentive Program Rules To Improve Oversight

Congress Sends Bill Amending Lab Testing Rule Violation Sanctions

Learn Latest On OCR New HIPAA De-Identification Guidance & Other HIPAA Developments In 12/12 HIPAA Update Workshop!

$12M+ Settlement Recoveries In 2 Health Care Fraud Whistleblower Claims Shows Providers, Owners, Management & Staff Must Manage Compliance & Risks

Feds Health Fraud Suit Against Psychiatrists Shows Risks Providers Run From Aggressive Referral or Billing Activities

ONC Releases Next Wave of 2014 Draft Test Methods For Public Review and Comment; Plans 11/13 Virtual Workshop

Recent OIG Audit Reports Provide Insights Where Fraud Audits Likely To Look Next

Hospital Chain HCA Inc. Pays $16.5 Million to Settle False Claims Act Allegations That Hospital

Detroit-Area Doctor Charged for Role in Alleged $40 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

Five More Individuals Charged in Detroit for Alleged Roles in $24.7 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

Massachusetts Ear Group To Pay $1.5 Million To Resolve HIPAA Charges

Personal Consumer Information Protection In Health Care Operations Topic of Stamer’s 11/1 Speech

ONC Releases First Wave of EHR Test Procedures; More To Come

OCR Releases HIPAA Compliance Training Tool As Enforcement Risks Rise

Health Care Orgs Disability Exposure High As $475K Paid To Settle Justice Department Charges Medical Fitness Screenings of EMTs, Others Violated ADA

HHS/DOJ Partner With Private Health Plans To Further Ramp Up Health Care Fraud Heat!

AHRQ Issues New Guide for Use of Interactive Preventive Care Record

Nextcare Inc. $10 Million False Claims Act Settlement Shows Qui Tam Role In False Claims Act Prosecutions

For more resources and publications training materials by Ms. Stamer, see here.

Congress Sends Bill Amending Lab Testing Rule Violation Sanctions

November 29, 2012

Congress sent the “Taking Essential Steps for Testing Act of 2012” to President Obama for signature. The Act amends the Public Health Service Act to revise sanctions for laboratories that intentionally refer proficiency testing samples required for certification to another laboratory for analysis by: (1) giving the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) discretion to substitute intermediate sanctions for such violations instead of the two-year prohibition against ownership or operation which would otherwise apply, and (2) making the one-year certificate revocation for such a laboratory optional rather than mandatory. For details, see the Text of Legislation.

About The Author

A Fellow in the American Bar Association, State Bar of Texas, and American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, recognized in International Who’s WhoNorth Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association Vice-President and Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer has 25 years experience advising and representing private and public health care providers, employers, employer and union plan sponsors, employee benefit plans, associations, their fiduciaries, administrators, and vendors, group health, Medicare and Medicaid Advantage, and other insurers, governmental leaders and others on privacy and data security, health care, health and other employee benefit. employment, insurance and related matters. A well-known and prolific author and popular speaker, Ms. Stamer has worked extensively with heath care providers, health plans and other payers, health and insurance IT and data systems, and others on HIPAA and other privacy and data security concerns. She served as the scrivener for the ABA JCEB Agency Meetings with the Office of Civil Rights on HIPAA Privacy for the past two years. She presently serves as Co-Chair of the ABA RPTE Section Welfare Plan Committee, Vice Chair of the ABA TIPS Employee Benefit Committee, an ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits Representative, an Editorial Advisory Board Member of the Institute of Human Resources (IHR/HR.com) and Employee Benefit News, and various other publications. A primary drafter of the Bolivian Social Security privatization law with extensive domestic and international regulatory and public policy experience, Ms. Stamer also has worked extensively domestically and internationally on public policy and regulatory advocacy on HIPAA and other privacy and data security risks and requirements as well as a broad range of other health, employee benefits, human resources, insurance, tax, compliance and other matters and representing clients in dealings with OCR and other HHS agencies, as well as the Departments of Labor, Treasury, Federal Trade Commission, HUD and Justice, Congress and state legislatures, and various state attorneys general, insurance, labor, worker’s compensation, medical licensure and disciplinary and other agencies and regulators. A prolific author and popular speaker, Ms. Stamer regularly authors materials and conducts workshops and professional, management and other training on HIPAA and other privacy, health care, employee benefits, human resources, insurance and related topics for the ABA, Aspen Publishers, the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA), SHRM, World At Work, Government Institutes, Inc., the Society of Professional Benefits Administrators and many other organizations. Her insights on privacy and other matters are quoted in Modern Healthcare, HealthLeaders, Benefits, Caring for the Elderly, The Wall Street Journal and many other publications. She also regularly serves on the faculty and planning committees of a multitude of symposium and other educational programs. For more details about Ms. Stamer’s services, experience, presentations, publications, and other credentials or to ask about arranging counseling, training or presentations or other services by Ms. Stamer, see www.CynthiaStamer.com.

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 assist 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. If you would prefer not to receive communications from Solutions Law Press, Inc. send an e-mail with “Solutions Law Press Unsubscribe” in the Subject to support@solutionslawyer.net. 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. If you are an individual with a disability who requires accommodation to participate, please let us know at the time of your registration so that we may consider your request.

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: FDA, Health Care Fraud, Health Quality, Health Research, HHS, Laboratory | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

$12M+ Settlement Recoveries In 2 Health Care Fraud Whistleblower Claims Shows Providers, Owners, Management & Staff Must Manage Compliance & Risks

November 23, 2012

The Justice Department’s announcement that it will recover more than $11.3 million in False Claims Act recoveries under two settlements announced on November 20, 2012 provides yet another sharp reminder to health care providers of the critical need to carefully manage billing, referral and other practices to manage health care fraud related exposures.

On November 20, the Justice Department announced that Morton Plant Mease Health Care Inc. and its affiliated hospitals (Morton Plant) will pay $10,169,114 to the federal government to resolve allegations that Morton Plant facilities violated the False Claims Act by submitting false claims for services rendered to Medicare patients. The same day, the Justice Department also announced its achievement of a $1.286 million settlement with Harmony Care Hospital, Inc. and its owner Harmony Care Hospice Inc. (Harmony) and Harmony owner and chief executive officer Daniel J. Burton of allegations that the South Carolina-based company submitted false claims to Medicare for patients under care at its hospice facilities.

Both settlements show the role that disgruntled current or former employees or other whistleblowers increasingly play in these and other health care fraud investigations as well as the significant exposures that health care providers, their owners and management risk by engaging or failing to investigate and resolve practices that Federal officials consider to violate the False Claims Act or other federal health care fraud laws.

Morton Plan Settlement

The Morton Plant settlement resolves whistleblower allegations that, between July 1, 2006 and July 31, 2008, Morton Plant improperly billed for certain interventional cardiac and vascular procedures as inpatient care when those services should have been billed as less costly outpatient care or as observational status. See United States ex rel. Randi Ferrare v. Morton Plant Mease Health Care, Inc., No. 08:cv:01689-T-266MSS (M.D. Fl.).

Morton Plant owns and operates, or is affiliated with, Morton Plant Hospital, St. Joseph’s Hospital, Morton Plant North Bay Hospital, St. Anthony’s Hospital, Mease Countryside Hospital and Mease Dunedin Hospital. These hospitals are part of the BayCare Health System in Florida’s Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties.

The Morton Plant action arose from a qui tam, or whistleblower, lawsuit filed by Randi Ferrare, a former director of Health Management Services at Morton Plant Hospital. Under the False Claims Act, private citizens, known as relators, can bring suit on behalf of the United States and share in any recovery. Ms. Ferrare will receive over $1.8 million as her share of the government’s recovery.

Harmony $1.2 Million Settlement

The Harmony settlement arises out of a qui tam action filed against Harmony Care Hospice Inc. (Harmony) and Harmony owner and chief executive officer Daniel J. Burton have agreed to pay the United States $1,286,999.32 to settle allegations that the South Carolina-based company submitted false claims to Medicare for patients under care at its hospice facilities.

The Harmony settlement resolves a lawsuit filed by former Harmony employees Mona Singletary and Lynda Fulton under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act. The qui tam case is captioned United States ex rel. Singletary, et al. v. Harmony Care Hospice, Inc., et al. , Case No. 2:10-cv-01404-PMD (D.S.C.).

Hospices provide palliative care – medical treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of a disease’s symptoms – to patients who decide to forego curative care of their illness. Medicare beneficiaries are entitled to hospice care if they have a terminal prognosis of six months or less. The United States alleged that Harmony and Burton knowingly submitted or caused to be submitted false claims for patients who did not have such a prognosis and thus were not eligible for hospice care.

Under the Harmony settlement agreement, its owner and chief executive officer, Burton is individually liable for $200,000 of the settlement amount. The balance of more than $1 million will be paid by Harmony. As part of the settlement, Harmony and Burton will enter into a Corporate Integrity Agreement with the Office of Inspector General (OIG), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to address the allegations raised in the qui tam complaint. Together, Singletary and Fulton will receive $244,529.87 as their share of the government’s recovery.

Whistleblowers Key Prosecutorial Tool

The approximately $2 million paid out to whistleblowers under these two settlements drives home the growing importance that current or former employees, officers or other insiders increasingly play in federal and state health care fraud prosecutions. Whistleblowers like Ferrare, Singletary and Fulton are increasingly common and valuable tools that the federal government uses to find and prosecute alleged health care fraud. By promoting the availability of qui tam and other recoveries and broadly advertising their payment, federal prosecutors and investigators are priming the pump for future investigations and prosecution. See also Nextcare Inc. $10 Million False Claims Act Settlement Shows Qui Tam Role In False Claims Act Prosecutions; Oklahoma’s Harmon Memorial Hospital, Physician Pay $1.5M Qui Tam Health Care Fraud Settlement.

The two settlements also show the growing zealousness of the federal war on health care fraud. Both cases were investigated by the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative, which was announced by Attorney General Eric Holder and Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in May 2009.

The partnership between the two departments has focused efforts to reduce and prevent Medicare and Medicaid financial fraud through enhanced cooperation. One of the most powerful tools in that effort is the False Claims Act, which the Justice Department has used to recover more than $10.1 billion since January 2009 in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs. The Justice Department’s total recoveries in False Claims Act cases since January 2009 are over $13.9 billion. Federal officials have and continue to rack up an ever-increasing list of civil settlements and judgments using the False Claims Act and other civil enforcement tools. See e.g., See, e.g., Feds Health Fraud Suit Against Psychiatrists Shows Risks Providers Run From Aggressive Referral or Billing Activities; Recent OIG Audit Reports Provide Insights Where Fraud Audits Likely To Look Next; Hospital Chain HCA Inc. Pays $16.5 Million to Settle False Claims Act Allegations That Hospital; Pharmas Face New Pressure To Put Patients Before Profits After GlaxoSmithKline Record $3 Billion Health Care Fraud, FDCA Conviction & Settlement.

In addition to the high dollar civil judgments and settlements recovered. by the HEAT Task Force, federal prosecutors also are racking up a growing list of criminal convictions and sentences. See e.g., Health Care Providers Warned To Raise Defenses As Feds Charge 91 Individuals Bilked Medicare For Approximately $430 Million; Detroit-Area Doctor Charged for Role in Alleged $40 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme; Five More Individuals Charged in Detroit for Alleged Roles in $24.7 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme; Baton Rouge Area Women Heading To Prison For DME Health Care Fraud Participation; Houston Man Gets 24 Month Prison Sentence For Anti-Kickback & Other Health Care Fraud Convictions.

For instance, along with the Morton Plan and Harmony civil settlements, the Justice Department also announced on November 20, 2012 that a registered nurse pleaded guilty November 20 and a former program coordinator pleaded guilty November 19 for their roles in a $63 million mental health care fraud scheme involving defunct health provider Health Care Solutions Network Inc. (HCSN) in Miami. See here.

These and other investigations and enforcement actions show that health care providers, their owners, officers, providers and other staff need to take seriously health care reimbursement, referral and other health care fraud and compliance responsibilities, as well as to carefully manage workforces to mitigate exposures to qui tam and other health care fraud exposures.

These activities are intended to send a strong message to health care providers that bill Medicare, Medicaid, or other public or private health care programs that they must be prepared to defend any charges billed to these or other federal health care programs and to defend their other business practices.

Providers Urged To Manage Risks

In response to these threats, health care providers should take steps to strengthen their billing, referral, audit, medical and other recordkeeping and other compliance and risk management practices to enhance their ability to defend or prevent these exposures. While most providers already are moving to tighten these practices, the move to electronic health records, changing rules and other pressures are undermining the sufficiency of these efforts. This investigation shows that beyond mere aggressive billing practices, federal officials also are targeting for enforcement physicians and other health care providers that participate in financial or other referral incentive or reward practices prohibited by the anti-kickback, STARK or other relevant law as well as the filing of Medicare, Medicaid or other health claims for undelivered, unnecessary or otherwise uncovered care or services.

Amid these and other enforcement actions, all health industry players should exercise care to steer clear of activities that might violate federal health care fraud rules as well as consider whether corrective or other action might be necessary to address risks of prior activities that with the benefit of hindsight taking into account the current enforcement climate reflect potential exposures. Providers should carefully monitor existing Medicare, Medicaid and other federal and state program reimbursement, terms of participation, reimbursement and other guidance; Office of Inspector General (OIG), Justice Department and other agency audit and enforcement activities and other developments that could impact on the defensibility of their billing, referral or other practices and tighten compliance and oversight as necessary to mitigate risks.

In the case of physicians and certain other professionals, these plans need to include both efforts to manage potential government investigation risks and management of their practices to mitigate peer review or other disciplinary or practice regulatory oversight that often arises when the practices and hospitals start tightening oversight and controls on practices as part of their own efforts to protect their organizations from fraud or other audits.

While almost all health care providers can find room to improve their documentation and tighten other compliance, it also is important that providers also plan for how they will finance the cost of defending an audit or other investigation. Often, the financial cost of defending these and other charges prevents physicians or other health care providers from lodging effective defenses of legitimate practices. To help avoid this quagmire, providers generally will want to explore getting special liability coverage, indemnification or other protection as part of their planning arrangements.

For Help With Compliance, Investigations Or Other Needs

If you need help providing compliance or other training, 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. Ms. Stamer has extensive experience advising and assisting health care providers and other health industry clients to establish, audit, administer and defend billing, referral, privacy, staffing and recruitment and other compliance and risk management policies, to 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, 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. She also regularly designs and presents risk management, compliance and other training for health care providers, professional associations and others. Her publications and insights 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. Contact Ms. Stamer at (469) 767-8872 or via e-mail here.

About Solutions Law Press

Leave a Comment » | DME, Doctor, Durable Medical Equipment, Hospital, Hospital, Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility, Medicaid, Medicare, OIG, Physician, Prescription Drugs, Real Estate, Reimbursement, Rural Health Care, Stark | Tagged: Anti-Kickback, Health Care Fraud, healthcare provider, Hospital, Physician, referral, STARK | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Feds Health Fraud Suit Against Psychiatrists Shows Risks Providers Run From Aggressive Referral or Billing Activities

November 16, 2012

A civil lawsuit seeking millions of dollars of damages from a Chicago-area psychiatrist provides a clear warning to physicians and other health care providers of the significant potential legal risks that can arise if they improperly receive compensation or other perks for participating in conferences, prescribing treatments or engage in other arrangements that violate federal or state anti-kickback or other health care fraud laws.On November 15, 2012, the Justice Department sued Chicago-area psychiatrist Dr. Michael J. Reinstein in the Northern District of Illinois with receiving illegal kickbacks on at least 50,000 claims and filing at least 140,000 false Medicare and Medicare Claims for antipsychotic medications he prescribed for thousands of mentally ill patients in area nursing homes. The suit against Dr. Michael J. Reinstein seeking triple damages under the False Claims Act, plus a civil penalty of $5,500 to $11,000 for each alleged false claim. See here.

The lawsuit involves Reinstein’s use of clozapine, a rarely-used medication that has serious potential side effects and is generally considered a drug of last resort, particularly for elderly patients. While clozapine has been shown to be effective for treatment-resistant forms of schizophrenia, it is also known to cause numerous side effects, including a potentially deadly decrease in white blood cells, seizures, inflamation of the heart muscle, and increased mortality in elderly patients.

According to the suit, 69-year old Reinstein has provided psychiatric medical services in the Chicago area since 1973. According to the lawsuit, Reinstein routinely prescribed antipsychotic and other psychiatric medications knowing that, because most of his patients are indigent nursing home residents, pharmacies dispensing the medications submitted claims to Medicaid, and beginning in 2006, to Medicare Part D. Reinstein also submitted Medicare and Medicaid claims for pharmacologic management of his patients, knowing that he did not engage in substantive evaluations of his patients’ medical and psychiatric conditions to properly manage their medications. Instead, he allegedly prescribed medications to his patients based on his receipt of kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies.

Prior to August 2003, Reinstein prescribed Clozaril, the trade name for clozapine manufactured by Novartis, and he often had more than 1,000 patients using the medication at any given time. For many years, Novartis paid Reinstein to promote Clozaril, the complaint alleges. After Novartis’ patent for Clozaril expired in 1998, Reinstein resisted pharmacy and drug company efforts to switch his patients to generic clozapine and he continued to be the largest prescriber of Clozaril to Medicaid recipients in the United States. In July 2003, Novartis notified Reinstein that was withdrawing its support for Clozaril, and ended the regular payments that it had been making to Reinstein.

In August 2003, Reinstein finally agreed to switch his patients to generic clozapine manufactured by Miami-based IVAX Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the suit alleges, if IVAX agreed to pay Reinstein $50,000 under a one-year “consulting agreement;” pay his nurse to speak on behalf of clozapine; and fund a clozapine research study by a Reinstein-affiliated entity known as Uptown Research Institute. IVAX agreed and Reinstein immediately began switching his patients from Clozaril to IVAX’s clozapine. He quickly became the largest prescriber of generic clozapine in the country.

“Reinstein’s inordinate prescribing of clozapine stands in stark contrast to its extremely limited use by other physicians,” the lawsuit states. While generally only four percent of schizophrenia patients who were prescribed antipsychotics received clozapine, during the time Reinstein was alegedly accepting kickbacks from IVAX, more than 50 percent of his patients were prescribed IVAX’s clozapine. At one nursing home, Reinstein had 75 percent of the 400 residents on IVAX’s clozapine.

Between 2003 and 2006, the lawsuit charges Reinstein requested, and IVAX provided, additional direct and indirect benefits to Reinstein and his associates, including paying airfare, lodging, meals, and entertainment expenses for a pharmacy owner and spouse, Reinstein’s nurse, his accountant and spouse, his administrative assistant and spouse, and Reinstein and his wife to travel to IVAX’s headquarters in Miami. IVAX also paid for Reinstein and his entourage to go on a fishing trip, a boat cruise, and a golf outing; annual renewal of Reinstein’s $50,000 “consulting agreement;” and tickets to sporting events and free IVAX-manufactured medication for Reinstein’s personal use.

In January 2006, IVAX became a subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries, Ltd., an Israeli company. About seven months before the merger, Reinstein began moving large numbers of his patients to a form of clozapine manufactured by a competitor of IVAX/Teva. In April 2006, Teva paid all expenses for Reinstein and his entourage to travel to Miami, including a $2,300 boat cruise, and at least two dinners costing more than $1,700 each. During this trip Teva employees asked Reinstein what the company could do to induce Reinstein to prescribe more clozapine, and Reinstein suggested that Teva hire an associate of his from Chicago, the lawsuit alleges. Teva agreed and in the months after the hiring Reinstein put several hundred patients back on Teva’s clozapine. From 2007 to 2009, the suit alleges, Teva and Reinstein entered into annual “speaker agreements” that resulted in Teva paying Reinstein more than $100,000.

Based on this alleged conduct, the suit charges Medicaid received and paid more than 100,000 false claims from various pharmacies for IVAX/Teva clozapine prescriptions written by Reinstein between August 2003 and July 2011 as a result of illegal kickbacks he solicited and received from IVAX and Teva. Between 2006 and July 2011, Medicare Part D received and paid more than 40,000 false claims involving similar kickback-induced prescriptions. Likewise, between August 2003 and July 2011, Reinstein allegedly submitted more than 40,000 false claims and received payment from Medicaid for purported pharmacologic management, as well as more than 10,000 similar false claims to Medicare.

This lawsuit is one a growing list of civil and criminal investigations and enforcement actions by federal and state prosecutors targeting health care providers using expanded health care fraud laws and investigatory and prosecutorial powers granted under the Affordable Care Act and other legislation to help bring down health care costs.

Through these and other flashy prosecutions, as well as a continuous campaign of audits and other activities, federal officials are trying to reduce Medicare and other health care expenditures, both by prosecuting health care providers for intentionally submitting false claims, as well as using the treat of audits, program, disqualification or civil or criminal prosecution to scare health care providers to reduce legitimate billings that could trigger a federal audit or other federal scrutiny.

Federal officials are aided in these efforts by an arsenal of new health care fraud statistical profiling and other health care fraud detection and enforcement tools granted by Congress in recent years that make it easier for federal officials to target and successfully prosecute or bring other sanctions against health care providers whose billing or other business practices come under scrutiny.

Coupled with the ever-lengthening list of civil settlements and civil monetary penalties, program disqualifications, and audits, Federal officials use high profile criminal sweeps like those announced today both to send a message to health care providers generally, and as a tool to pressure and encourage health care providers to accept settlements proposed by federal auditors and prosecutors to avoid the potential threat of more serious criminal, civil or administrative prosecutions.

For Help With Compliance, Investigations Or Other Needs

If you need help providing compliance or other training, 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. Ms. Stamer has extensive experience advising and assisting health care providers and other health industry clients to establish, audit, administer and defend billing, referral, privacy, staffing and recruitment and other compliance and risk management policies, to 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, 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/ She also regularly designs and presents risk management, compliance and other training for health care providers, professional associations and others. Her publications and insights 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. Contact Ms. Stamer at (469) 767-8872 or via e-mail here.

About Solutions Law Press

Leave a Comment » | DME, Doctor, Durable Medical Equipment, Hospital, Hospital, Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility, Medicaid, Medicare, OIG, Physician, Prescription Drugs, Real Estate, Reimbursement, Rural Health Care, Stark | Tagged: Anti-Kickback, DME, Health Care Fraud, healthcare provider, home health, Hospital, Physician, referral, STARK | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Health Care Providers Warned To Raise Defenses As Feds Charge 91 Individuals Bilked Medicare For Approximately $430 Million

October 4, 2012

Health Care Providers Warned To Raise Defenses As Feds Charge 91 Individuals Bilked Medicare For Approximately $430 Million

A total of 91 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals in Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Brooklyn, Baton Rouge and Chicago are facing health care fraud charges for their alleged participation in false Medicare billings totaling approximately $429.2 million to Medicare fraud schemes under federal indictments unsealed in a joint Department of Justice and HHS Medicare Fraud Strike Force nationwide takedown jointly announced by Attorney General Eric Holder, Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and other agencies today (October 4, 2012). Coming on the heels of President Obama’s touting of the health care fraud fighting success of his Administration during his debate with Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, the indictments are the latest warning to health care providers of the advisability of tightening their Medicare and other health care billing and other compliance practices.

Highlights of The Latest Strike Force Action

Together, dozens of charged individuals were arrested or surrendered as federal officials unsealed indictments charging more than $230 million in home health care fraud; more than $100 million in mental health care fraud and more than $49 million in ambulance transportation fraud; and millions more in other frauds.

The defendants charged are accused of various health care fraud-related crimes, including conspiracy to commit health care fraud, 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 such as home health care, mental health services, psychotherapy, physical and occupational therapy, durable medical equipment (DME) and ambulance services.

According to court documents, the defendants allegedly participated in schemes to submit claims to Medicare for treatments that were medically unnecessary and oftentimes 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 submit fraudulent billing to Medicare for services that were medically unnecessary or never provided. Collectively, the doctors, nurses, licensed medical professionals, health care company owners and others charged are accused of conspiring to submit a total of approximately $429.2 million in fraudulent billing.

“Today’s coordinated actions represent one of the largest Medicare fraud takedowns in Department of Justice history, as measured by the amount of alleged fraudulent billings,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “We have made it one of the Department’s missions to hold accountable those who abuse the Medicare program for personal profit. And there are Medicare fraudsters in prisons across the country – some who will be there for decades – who can attest to our determination, and our effectiveness.”

In Miami, a total of 33 defendants are charged for their alleged participation in various fraud schemes involving a total of $204.5 million in false billings for home health care, mental health services, occupational and physical therapy, and DME. In one case, three defendants are charged for participating in a fraud scheme at LTC Professional Consultants and Professional Home Care Solutions Inc. which led to approximately $74 million in fraudulent billing for home health care. In another case, five defendants are charged for participating in a fraud scheme at Hollywood Pavilion which led to $67 million in fraudulent billing for mental health services.

Sixteen individuals, including three doctors and one licensed physical therapist, are charged in Los Angeles with participating in various fraud schemes involving a total of $53.8 million in false billings. In one case, four defendants are charged for allegedly participating in a fraud scheme at Alpha Ambulance Inc., which led to approximately $49.2 million in fraudulent billing for ambulance transportation. The case represents the largest ambulance fraud scheme ever prosecuted by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force. According to court documents, the defendants provided beneficiaries ambulance rides that were medically unnecessary.

In Dallas, 14 individuals – including two doctors and two registered nurses – are charged for their alleged participation in various fraud schemes involving a total of $103.3 million in false billings. In one case, three defendants – a medical doctor and two registered nurses – are charged with participating in a fraud scheme at Raphem Medical Practice and PTM Healthcare Services which led to approximately $100 million in fraudulent billing for home health care services. According to court documents, Dr. Joseph Megwa signed approximately 33,000 prescriptions for more than 2,000 unique Medicare beneficiaries from 2006 to 2011. Many of these Medicare beneficiaries had primary care physicians who never certified home healthcare services for them. In order to handle the volume of prescriptions, Megwa allegedly signed stacks of documents without reviewing them.

Seven individuals are charged in Houston for their participation in a fraud scheme at a hospital which led to $158 million in fraudulent billing for community mental health center services. According to court documents, the defendants who served as administrators at the hospital paid kickbacks – in the form of cigarettes, food and coupons redeemable for items available at the hospital’s “country stores” – to Medicare beneficiaries in exchange for those beneficiaries’ attendance at the hospital’s partial hospitalization programs (PHP). Allegedly, beneficiaries watched television, played games and engaged in other non-PHP activities rather than receiving the services for which the hospital billed Medicare. Previously, on Feb. 22, 2012, the assistant administrator of the hospital, Mohammad Kahn, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and paying kickbacks related to $116 million worth of fraudulent claims submitted to Medicare. After his guilty plea, an additional $42 million in fraudulent claims were discovered that are included in today’s totals.

In Brooklyn, 15 individuals, including one doctor and four chiropractors, are charged for their alleged participation in various fraud schemes involving a total of $23.2 million in false billings. In one case, nine defendants, including a medical doctor, are charged with participating in a fraud scheme at Cropsey Medical Care PLLC which led to approximately $13.8 million in fraudulent billing for physical therapy and related services. According to court documents, the defendants paid cash kickbacks to Medicare beneficiaries in exchange for physical therapy that was not medically necessary and on some occasions never provided to beneficiaries.

In Baton Rouge, four defendants, including a licensed practical nurse, are charged for their roles in fraud schemes involving approximately $2.4 million in false claims for medically unnecessary durable medical equipment.

In Chicago, two defendants, including a dermatologist and a psychologist, are charged for their roles in fraud schemes involving, according to court documents, millions of dollars in false claims for medically unnecessary laser treatments and psychotherapy services.

In addition to the criminal indictments, HHS also used recently expanded health care fraud powers granted as part of the Affordable Care Act to suspend and took other administrative action against 30 health care providers following a data-driven analysis that HHS claims showed “credible allegations of fraud.” Under the Affordable Care Act, HHS is able to suspend payments until the resolution of an investigation.

According to today’s announcement the charges and other actions announced today resulted from coordinated health care fraud investigations conducted by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force as part of the Health Care Fraud Prevention & Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), 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.

Federal officials now credit strike force operations in nine locations have charged more than 1,480 defendants who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for more than $4.8 billion since strike force operations began in March 2007.

Charges Part of Widening War Against Health Care Providers

The charges unsealed today are the latest and among the most sweeping of an ever-lengthening list of flashy prosecutions and federal program disqualification actions that federal officials are conducting against health care providers using expanded health care fraud laws and investigatory and prosecutorial powers granted under the Affordable Care Act and other legislation.

For Help With Compliance, Investigations Or Other Needs

If you need help providing compliance or other training, 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. Ms. Stamer has extensive experience advising and assisting health care providers and other health industry clients to establish, audit, administer and defend billing, referral, privacy, staffing and recruitment and other compliance and risk management policies, to 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, 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/ She also regularly designs and presents risk management, compliance and other training for health care providers, professional associations and others. Her publications and insights 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. Contact Ms. Stamer at (469) 767-8872 or via e-mail here.

About Solutions Law Press

Leave a Comment » | DME, Doctor, Durable Medical Equipment, Hospital, Hospital, Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility, Medicaid, Medicare, OIG, Physician, Prescription Drugs, Real Estate, Reimbursement, Rural Health Care, Stark | Tagged: Anti-Kickback, DME, Health Care Fraud, healthcare provider, home health, Hospital, Physician, referral, STARK | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Recent OIG Audit Reports Provide Insights Where Fraud Audits Likely To Look Next

September 24, 2012

Healthcare providers, Medicare, Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) intermediaries, State Medicaid and CHIP fund recipients, Medicare and Medicaid Advantage Plan and others wanting to get a leg up on potential audit targets likely to draw the attention of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) and their health care fraud auditors and investigators may get valuable insights by monitoring OIG audit reports of Medicare Intermediaries and others. Reports of deficiencies uncovered in these audits and recommendations to tighten procedures and seek repayments often prompt demands for repayment and tighter payment and audit guidelines and procedures.

The following are some of the most recently-issued OIG audit reports:

New York Claimed Some Unallowable Costs for Services by New York City Providers under the State’s Developmental Disabilities Waiver Program (A-02-10-01027)

OIG says the New York State Department of Health (DOH) claimed Federal Medicaid reimbursement for some Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) waiver program services provided by New York City providers that did not comply with certain Federal and State requirements. http://go.usa.gov/rk8V.

Based on sample results, OIG estimates that DOH improperly claimed $7.8 million in Federal Medicaid reimbursement for OPWDD waiver program services during calendar years 2006 through 2008. Federal law authorizes Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) waiver programs. A State’s HCBS waiver program must be approved by CMS and allows a State to claim Federal reimbursement for services not usually covered by Medicaid.

Of the 100 beneficiary-months in the random sample, DOH properly claimed Medicaid reimbursement for OPWDD waiver program services during 86 beneficiary-months. However, DOH claimed Medicaid reimbursement for services that did not comply with certain Federal and State requirements for the remaining 14 beneficiary-months. OIG reported the claims for unallowable services were made because DOH and OPWDD’s policies and procedures for overseeing and administering the waiver program were not adequate to ensure that (1) providers claimed reimbursement only for services actually provided and maintained all the required documentation to support services billed and (2) OPWDD waiver program services were provided only to beneficiaries pursuant to written plans of care.

OIG recommended that DOH:

Refund $7.8 million to the Federal Government and
Work with OPWDD to strengthen policies and procedures to ensure that (a) providers claim reimbursement only for OPWDD waiver program services actually provided and maintain the required documentation to support services billed and (b) OPWDD waiver program services are provided pursuant to written plans of care.

DOH and OPWDD concurred with the recommendations.

Medicare Contractors’ Payments to Providers in Jurisdiction 11 for Full Vials of Herceptin Were Often Incorrect (A-03-11-00013)

OIG reported that most payments for one or more full vials of Herceptin that the Medicare contractors made to providers in Jurisdiction 11 (North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia) from January 2008 through December 2010 were incorrect. Herceptin (trastuzumab) is a Medicare-covered biological drug used to treat breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. http://go.usa.gov/rk9P.

Of the 2,507 selected line items, OIG says 2,029 were incorrect and included overpayments totaling $2.4 million that the providers had not identified or refunded by the beginning of our audit. Providers refunded overpayments on 138 line items totaling $131,000 before our fieldwork. The remaining 340 line items were correct.

The 2,029 incorrect line items included incorrect units of service and a lack of supporting documentation. The providers attributed the incorrect payments to chargemaster errors, clerical errors, and billing systems that could not prevent or detect the incorrect billing of units of service. In some cases, providers could not store unused doses for later use because their pharmacies incorrectly reconstituted the Herceptin. When this occurred, the providers billed Medicare for the entire vial, including waste. The Medicare contractors made these incorrect payments because neither the Fiscal Intermediary Standard System nor the Common Working File had sufficient edits in place during our audit period to prevent or detect the overpayments.

OIG recommended that Palmetto GBA, LLC (Palmetto), the Medicare Administrative Contractor for Jurisdiction 11:

(1) Recover the $2.4 million in identified overpayments,
Implement a system edit that identifies for review line items for multiuse-vial drugs with units of service equivalent to one or more entire vials, and
Use the results of this audit in its provider education activities.

Palmetto concurred with the OIG findings and recommendations and described corrective actions that it had taken or planned to take.

Texas Did Not Report Excess Contractor Profits in Accordance With Federal Regulations (A-06-10-00062)

A Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) is a system of software and hardware used to process Medicaid claims and manage information about Medicaid beneficiaries, services, and providers. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (State agency) contracts with a fiscal agent, Affiliated Computer Services/Texas Medicaid Health Partnership (ACS/TMHP), to process claims through the MMIS. The contract between the State agency and ACS/TMHP requires a prospective price redetermination (PPR) audit to establish whether ACS/TMHP earned profit in excess of the 11 percent allowed by the contract.

OIG reports it found that the State agency did not refund $2.6 million (Federal share) of the $26.7 million in excess profits identified through the PPR audit in accordance with Federal requirements. During fiscal year 2009, the State agency claimed expenditures for 20 MMIS projects with total costs of $71.3 million. All of these expenditures were allowable and claimed at the appropriate reimbursement rate; however, the State agency did not obtain prior approval for 2 of the 20 projects. Also, the State agency did not obtain prior approval for 16 additional projects. The total budgets for the 18 projects for which the State agency did not obtain prior approval totaled $59 million ($32.9 million Federal share). http://go.usa.gov/rkXW.

OIG recommended that the State agency:

(1) Refund to the Federal Government $2.6 million for excess profits related to the PPR audit,
Ensure that prior approval is obtained on future projects as required by Federal regulations, and
Obtain retroactive approval for the 18 projects that did not have the required prior approval from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

The State agency agreed with OIG’s first and third recommendations and described corrective actions it had taken or planned to take. Regarding the second recommendation, the State agency described the process by which it seeks CMS approval for certain projects.

Review of Medicare Outpatient Billing for Selected Drugs at Self Regional Healthcare (A-09-12-02032)

For the 61 line items reviewed, OIG reported that Self Regional Healthcare did not bill Medicare for injections of selected drugs in accordance with Federal requirements, resulting in overpayments totaling $130,000. http://go.usa.gov/rkX.d.

Review of Medicare Outpatient Billing for Selected Drugs at Methodist Healthcare – Memphis Hospitals (A-09-12-02022)

For 60 of the 82 line items reviewed, OIG reported it found that Methodist Healthcare – Memphis Hospitals did not bill Medicare for injections of selected drugs in accordance with Federal requirements, resulting in overpayments totaling $178,000. http://go.usa.gov/rkNY.

Medicare Part D Made Some Incorrect Payments to Community Insurance Inc. for Institutional Beneficiaries in 2008 (A-05-11-00042)

OIG reports that the Medicare Part D program incurred drug costs for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries during Skilled Nursing stays that should have been covered under Part C in 2008. Community Insurance Inc’s incurrence of the $23,000 in gross drug costs as Part D costs had an overpayment effect of $13,000 as well as a $9,000 reconciliation effect at year end. http://go.usa.gov/rkNB.

North Shore Community Health, Inc., Claimed Unallowable Costs Against Recovery Act Grants (A-01-11-01502)

OIG reported it could not determine whether $2 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) grant costs claimed by North Shore Community Health, Inc. (North Shore), was allowable under the terms of the grants and applicable Federal regulations. North Shore did not track and account for Recovery Act expenditures separately from other (Federal and non-Federal) operating expenses; therefore, it could not demonstrate that it spent Recovery Act grant funds for allowable costs. http://go.usa.gov/rk85.

OIG says this deficiency occurred because North Shore did not:

(1) Maintain a financial management system that provided for accurate, current, and complete disclosure of the financial results of its Recovery Act grants and
Separately track and account for Recovery Act funds.

OIG recommended that the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) require North Shore to refund $2 million to the Federal Government, or work with North Shore to determine whether any of the costs that it claimed against Recovery Act grants were allowable, and ensure North Shore:

(1) Develops a financial system that provides for the accurate, current, and complete disclosure of the financial results of each HHS-sponsored project or program and
Tracks and accounts for each grant’s expenditures separately from other operating expenditures.

North Shore stated that it adjusted its internal financial reporting process to be in compliance with Federal requirements.

Under the Recovery Act, P.L. No. 111-5, enacted February 17, 2009, HRSA received $2.5 billion, including $2 billion to expand the Health Center Program to serve more patients, stimulate new jobs, and meet the expected increase in demand for primary health care services among the Nation’s uninsured and underserved populations.

OIG Says Lawndale Christian Health Center Claimed Unallowable Costs Under Recovery Act Grants (A-05-11-00057)

Lawndale Christian Health Center claimed $535,000 that was allowable under the terms of the grant and applicable Federal regulations. However, Lawndale claimed Federal grant expenditures totaling $174,000 that were unallowable. We could not determine the allowability of costs totaling $637,000 according to the OIG. See http://go.usa.gov/rFQP.

Alabama Improperly Claimed Federal Funds for Children’s Health Insurance Program Enrollees Who Had Medicaid or Other Health Insurance Coverage (A-04-11-08008)

OIG reports that Alabama improperly claimed Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Federal financial participation (FFP) for some individuals who were concurrently enrolled in CHIP and Medicaid. The Federal and State Governments jointly fund and administer both Medicaid and CHIP. States may not claim CHIP FFP for individuals who are concurrently enrolled in CHIP and Medicaid or who have other health insurance coverage. See http://go.usa.gov/rFQG.

Based on OIG sample results, OIG estimated that Alabama improperly claimed $1.5 million in CHIP FFP for enrollees who were concurrently enrolled in CHIP and Medicaid from October 1, 2009, through September 30, 2010. Alabama also improperly claimed $153,000 in CHIP FFP for individuals who had other health insurance coverage from October 1, 2009, through September 30, 2010.

OIG says the concurrent enrollment in CHIP and Medicaid occurred because:

Medicaid enrollment could be retroactive for up to 3 months, during which the individual could also have been enrolled in CHIP and
Supplemental Security Income eligibility, and consequent Medicaid enrollment, could be retroactive to the original application date, a period during which the individual could also have been enrolled in CHIP.

Moreover, the State agency did not have adequate internal controls to prevent or promptly correct concurrent enrollments. The CHIP payments that Alabama claimed on behalf of individuals who had other health insurance coverage occurred because State policy allowed for a coordination of benefits between CHIP and other health insurance coverage.

OIG recommended that Alabama:

Refund $1.5 million (Federal share) for FFP claimed on behalf of individuals who were concurrently enrolled in CHIP and Medicaid,
Refund $153,000 (Federal share) for FFP claimed on behalf of individuals enrolled in CHIP who had other health insurance coverage,
Develop additional policies and procedures to prevent or promptly recoup CHIP payments made on behalf of individuals who are identified as enrolled concurrently in Medicaid, and
Revise the current policy that allows for a coordination of benefits between CHIP and other health insurance coverage.

The OIG notes Alabama disagreed with all of its recommendations.

South Carolina Claimed Some Unallowable Room-and-Board Costs under the Intellectual and Related Disabilities Waiver (A-04-11-04012)

OIG reports that the South Carolina Department of Health & Human Services (State agency) operates a waiver program that provides long-term care and support for individuals with intellectual or related disabilities. The State agency contracts with the South Carolina Department of Disabilities and Special Needs (the Department) to provide waiver services. The Department provides these services through contractual arrangements with a network of 39 local Disabilities and Special Needs (DSN) Boards.

OIG reported it found that the State agency claimed Medicaid reimbursement of $6.7 million ($4.8 million Federal share) for unallowable room-and-board costs under the waiver program that the Department operated. The State agency claimed unallowable room-and-board costs because neither the State agency nor the Department had adequate controls to:

Ensure that the Department followed applicable Federal law and guidance or its own guidance or
Detect errors or misstatements on the local DSN boards’ cost reports. See http://go.usa.gov/rFQz.

Additionally, OIG says the Department did not prescribe a uniform format for the local DSN boards to follow when preparing the cost reports. Rather, each local board prepared its cost reports in its own format, making it difficult to identify when unallowable costs were claimed.

OIG recommended that the State agency:

Refund to the Federal Government $4.8 million, representing the Federal share of the room-and-board costs that the Department improperly claimed on its waiver cost reports;
Instruct the Department to follow Federal law and its own guidance and remove room-and-board related administrative and general costs from future waiver program cost reports;
Instruct the Department to develop a uniform cost reporting process and require each local board to follow this process;
Instruct the Department to strengthen its cost report review procedures to ensure that it will detect errors or misstatements on the local DSN boards’ cost reports; and
Strengthen its own procedures for reviewing the waiver cost reports submitted by the Department.

The State agency concurred with all of our recommendations and said that it would work with CMS to negotiate repayment of the improperly claimed room-and-board costs.

Review of New Mexico Medicaid Personal Care Services Provided by Coordinated Home Health (A-06-09-00064)

The OIG reported that its audit found that the State did not always ensure that Coordinated Home Health’s (Coordinated) claims for Medicaid personal care services complied with certain Federal and State requirements. Based on sample results, OIG estimated that Coordinated improperly claimed at least $11 million (Federal share) for personal care services during the period October 1, 2006, through September 30, 2008. http://go.usa.gov/rFUW.

According to OIG, personal care services may be provided to individuals who are not inpatients at a hospital or residents of a nursing facility, an intermediate care facility for individuals with intellectual disabilities, or an institution for mental disease. Examples of personal care services include, but are not limited to, cleaning, shopping, grooming, and bathing.

Of the 100 claims in the OIG sample, OIG reported that 54 complied with requirements, but 46 did not. Three of the forty-six claims were partially allowable. The 46 claims contained a total of 60 deficiencies: 49 deficiencies on insufficient attendant qualifications and 11 deficiencies on other concluded that Coordinated improperly claimed $8,000 for the 46 claims.

Based on these findings, OIG recommended that the State:
Refund to the Federal Government the $11 million paid to Coordinated for unallowable personal care services and
Ensure that personal care services providers maintain evidence that they comply with Federal and State requirements.

OIG reported that Coordinated disagreed with almost all of OIG’sfindings, and the State disagreed with OIG’s recommended refund amount. The State also said that some of the documentation requirements are not Federal requirements; they are State requirements, which do not require recovery of payments.

For Help With Compliance, Investigations Or Other Needs

If you need help providing compliance or other training, 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. Ms. Stamer has extensive experience advising and assisting health care providers and other health industry clients to establish and administer medical privacy and other compliance and risk management policies, to 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, 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/ She also regularly designs and presents risk management, compliance and other training for health care providers, professional associations and others. Her publications and insights 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. Contact Ms. Stamer at (469) 767-8872 or via e-mail here.

About Solutions Law Press

Leave a Comment » | DME, Doctor, Durable Medical Equipment, Hospital, Hospital, Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility, Medicaid, Medicare, OIG, Physician, Prescription Drugs, Real Estate, Reimbursement, Rural Health Care, Stark | Tagged: Anti-Kickback, DME, Health Care Fraud, healthcare provider, home health, Hospital, Physician, referral, STARK | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Hospital Chain HCA Inc. Pays $16.5 Million to Settle False Claims Act Allegations That Hospital

September 23, 2012

HCA Inc., one of the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chains, has agreed to pay the United States and the state of Tennessee $16.5 million to settle claims that it violated the False Claims Act and the Stark Statute, the Department of Justice announced September 19, 2012. The settlement agreement and the litigation it resolves are a reminder to hospitals, physicians and other health care providers of the growing readiness of the Justice Department and other federal and state regulators and enforcement agencies to prosecute health care providers for STARK, anti-kickback back or other violations of federal or state health health care fraud laws.

HCA Settlement & Underlying Charges

As alleged in the settlement agreement, during 2007, HCA, through its subsidiaries Parkridge Medical Center, located in Chattanooga, Tenn., and HCA Physician Services (HCAPS), headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., entered into a series of financial transactions with a physician group, Diagnostic Associates of Chattanooga, through which it provided financial benefits intended to induce the physician members of Diagnostic to refer patients to HCA facilities. These financial transactions included rental payments for office space leased from Diagnostic at a rate well in excess of fair market value in order to assist Diagnostic members to meet their mortgage obligations and a release of Diagnostic members from a separate lease obligation.

The Stark Statute restricts financial relationships that hospitals may enter into with physicians who potentially may refer patients to them. Federal law prohibits the payment of medical claims that result from such prohibited relationships.

The civil settlement resolves a lawsuit, United States ex rel. Bingham v. HCA, No. 1:08-CV-71 (E.D. Tenn.), pending in federal court in the Eastern District of Tennessee under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act, which allow private citizens to bring civil actions on behalf of the United States and share in any recovery. As part of the civil settlement, HCA has agreed to pay $16.5 million to the United States and the state of Tennessee, with the federal portion representing $15,693,000 of the settlement amount. The whistleblower will receive an 18.5 percent share.

Also as part of the settlement, Parkridge Medical Center has entered into a comprehensive five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement with the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to ensure its continued compliance with federal health care benefit program requirements.

Settlement Part of Expanding Health Care Fraud Prosecution Efforts

This resolution is part of the government’s emphasis on combating health care fraud and another step for the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative, which was announced by Attorney General Eric Holder and Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in May 2009. The partnership between the two departments has focused efforts to reduce and prevent Medicare and Medicaid financial fraud through enhanced cooperation. One of the most powerful tools in that effort is the False Claims Act, which the Justice Department has used to recover more than $9.4 billion since January 2009 in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs. The Justice Department’s total recoveries in False Claims Act cases since January 2009 are over $13.1 billion.

In announcing the resolution agreement, federal officials emphasized their readiness to prosecute STARK, anti-kickback and other health care fraud statutes.

“The Department of Justice continues to pursue cases involving improper financial relationships between health care providers and their referral sources, because such relationships can corrupt a physician’s judgment about the patient’s true healthcare needs,” said Stuart F. Delery, the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Civil Division.

“Physicians should make decisions regarding referrals to health care facilities based on what is in the best interest of patients without being induced by payments from hospitals competing for their business,” said Bill Killian, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

“ Improper business deals between hospitals and physicians jeopardize both patient care and federal program dollars,” said Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services. “Our investigators continue to work shoulder to shoulder with other law enforcement authorities to stop schemes that imperil scarce health care resources.”

Coupled with the ever-lengthening list of civil settlements like the HCA settlement, and civil monetary penalties, program disqualifications, and criminal prosecutions, these announcements send a strong message to health care providers to review their transactions, referral and other relationships, and billing practices and address potential exposures.

For Help With Compliance, Investigations Or Other Needs

If you need help providing compliance or other training, 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. Ms. Stamer has extensive experience advising and assisting health care providers and other health industry clients to establish and administer medical privacy and other compliance and risk management policies, to 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, 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/ She also regularly designs and presents risk management, compliance and other training for health care providers, professional associations and others. Her publications and insights 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. Contact Ms. Stamer at (469) 767-8872 or via e-mail here.

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Detroit-Area Doctor Charged for Role in Alleged $40 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

September 23, 2012

A Detroit-area doctor was charged and arrested on September 20, 2012 in the Eastern District of Michigan for his alleged leading role in a $40 million Medicare fraud scheme involving physician home visits and home health services. The Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the HHS-Office of Inspector General (OIG) jointly announced the charges. In addition to the arrest, law enforcement agents executed search warrants at three locations and seizure warrants for three bank accounts related to the scheme.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed today in U.S. District Court in Detroit, Dr. Hicham Elhorr, 45, masterminded a $40 million scheme involving the submission of fraudulent claims submitted to Medicare for services that were medically unnecessary and/or never provided through House Calls Physicians (HCP), a physician home visiting service he owned and operated. Elhorr allegedly submitted claims through HCP for physician home visits for patients who were never seen and for visits conducted by doctors who were not licensed. The complaint alleges Elhorr submitted claims to Medicare for physician home visits purportedly rendered when he was out of the country, when beneficiaries were hospitalized or when the beneficiary was dead.

Elhorr is also alleged to have referred Medicare beneficiaries for medically unnecessary home health services, as well as accepted kickbacks from home health agencies in exchange for writing these referrals. According to court documents, since January 2008, HCP has billed Medicare for approximately $9.2 million. In the same time period, HCP has allegedly referred Medicare beneficiaries for home health services that have resulted in approximately $30.8 million of reimbursements from Medicare.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Catherine K. Dick of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The investigations were conducted jointly by the FBI and HHS-OIG, as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan and the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.

Act To Manage Health Care Fraud Exposures

High profile criminal charges like this one tell only part of the story. While important and growing, the OIG and other civil audit and enforcement are targeting both health care providers that engage in overly aggressive billing and treatment practices while scaring legitimate providers into avoiding legitimate care and its billing in treatment areas subject to high audit and underbilling for fear of the costs and risks associated with drawing government scruitiny. Amid this quagmire, legitimate health care providers must carefully document their care and the underlying justification and manage their billing practices to mitigate fraud exposures while also ensuring that their care meets the requisite standards of care to meet professional standards of care. It’s a tough but critical task for which reimbursement is declining.

As health care fraud enforcement remains a lead Federal priority, health care providers face ever-heightening exposures to HEAT task force scrutiny and prosecution.

Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged more than 1,330 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $4 billion.

Along with these criminal investigation and enforcement activities, health care providers also face civil monetary penalty, federal program disqualification and other civil and administrative remedies from billing, reimbursement and other health care fraud, billing audits and other enforcement and audit activities.

HHS’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, is stepping up audits, tightening pre-payment review, stepping up program disqualifications, and taking other steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.

In response to these and other investigation and oversight activities, health care providers should strengthen their compliance practices and oversight and take other special care to position themselves and their billings to defend against possible challenge.

For Help With Compliance, Investigations Or Other Needs

If you need help providing compliance or other training, 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. Ms. Stamer has extensive experience advising and assisting health care providers and other health industry clients to establish and administer medical privacy and other compliance and risk management policies, to 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, 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/ She also regularly designs and presents risk management, compliance and other training for health care providers, professional associations and others. Her publications and insights 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. Contact Ms. Stamer at (469) 767-8872 or via e-mail here.

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Five More Individuals Charged in Detroit for Alleged Roles in $24.7 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

September 23, 2012

New Charges Bring To A Total of 9 Charged for Their Roles in the Scheme

Charges against five more individuals for their alleged participation in a $24.7 million Medicare fraud scheme involving purported home health and psychotherapy services were unsealed and made public in the Eastern District of Michigan on September 20, 2012 bring to a total of nine individuals now charged in the scheme.

The Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) jointly announced the charges.

DOJ charges in court documents that the scheme allegedly involved a total of more than $24.7 million in fraudulent claims submitted to Medicare for purported home health care and psychotherapy services that were medically unnecessary and/or never provided. Court documents allege that the defendants are operators, employees and marketers associated with home health care and psychotherapy clinics operating in and around Detroit. Defendants charged in the unsealed court documents unsealed today include: Mohammed Sadiq; Jamella Al-Jumail; Firas Alky; Clarence Cooper and Beverly Cooper.

Four defendants charged in the superseding indictment were previously charged and arrested in May 2012 for their roles in the scheme. Defendants previously charged include: Sachin Sharma, Dana Sharma, Abdul Malik Al-Jumail, and Felicar Williams.

The superseding indictment charges all defendants with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud; Sachin Sharma with five counts of health care fraud; Sachin Sharma, Abdul Malik Al-Jumail, Williams, Sadiq, Alky and Clarence Cooper with one count of conspiracy to pay and receive health care kickbacks; and Jamella Al-Jumail with one count of destruction of records in a federal investigation. The superseding indictment also seeks forfeiture from all defendants.

According to the superseding indictment, from January 2007 through April 2012, the defendants operated a large network of purported home health care and psychotherapy companies in the Detroit area through which they conspired to defraud Medicare.

According to court documents, Sachin Sharma, Dana Sharma, Abdul Malik Al-Jumail, Williams, Jamella Al-Jumail, Sadiq, Alky and other alleged co-conspirators incorporated home health care, psychotherapy and other medical service companies to carry out the scheme, including Reliance Home Care, LLC; First Choice Home Health Care Services Inc.; Associates in Home Care Inc.; Haven Adult Day Care Center LLC; Swift Home Care LLC; ABC Home Care Inc.; Accessible Home Care Inc.; and Be Well Home Care LLC. The defendants, along with co-conspirators, allegedly submitted Medicare enrollment applications to let these companies to bill Medicare. Sachin Sharma, Abdul Malik-Al-Jumail, Sadiq, Alky and others allegedly paid kickbacks and bribes to recruiters, including Williams and Clarence Cooper, to get Medicare beneficiaries’ information, which could be used to fraudulently bill Medicare for purported services provided by the companies they operated and controlled. The defendants then allegedly caused these companies to bill Medicare for home health and psychotherapy services, even though these services were not medically necessary and were often not provided.

According to the superseding indictment, the defendants caused Reliance, First Choice, Associates, Haven, Swift, ABC, Accessible and other home health, psychotherapy and medical services companies to bill approximately $24.7 million in claims to Medicare for services that were medically unnecessary and/or not provided. In addition, Jamella Al-Jumail is charged with destroying records relating to Accessible’s Medicare billings upon learning of the May 2012 arrest of Abdul Malik Al-Jumail, her co-conspirator and father.

Clarence and Beverly Cooper, Sadiq and Jamella Al-Jumail were arrested on September 21.

The case is being prosecuted by Fraud Section Assistant Chief Gejaa T. Gobena and Trial Attorney William G. Kanellis. The investigations were conducted jointly by the FBI and HHS-OIG, as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan and the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.

Act To Manage Health Care Fraud Exposures

As health care fraud enforcement remains a lead Federal priority, health care providers face ever-heightening exposures to HEAT task force scrutiny and prosecution. Along with these criminal investigation and enforcement activities, health care providers also face civil monetary penalty, federal program disqualification and other civil and administrative remedies from billing, reimbursement and other health care fraud, billing audits and other enforcement and audit activities.

For Help With Compliance, Investigations Or Other Needs

If you need help providing compliance or other training, 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. Ms. Stamer has extensive experience advising and assisting health care providers and other health industry clients to establish and administer medical privacy and other compliance and risk management policies, to 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, 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/ She also regularly designs and presents risk management, compliance and other training for health care providers, professional associations and others. Her publications and insights 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. Contact Ms. Stamer at (469) 767-8872 or via e-mail here.

About Solutions Law Press

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

AHRQ Issues New Guide for Use of Interactive Preventive Care Record

July 19, 2012

A new guide from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) titled An Interactive Preventive Care Record (IPHR): A Handbook for Using Patient-Centered Personal Health Records to Promote Prevention provides practical steps for healthcare professionals to follow when deploying IPHRs as components of electronic health records. AHRQ and other government and private health care technology advocates hope that the IPHR will help boost and promote care delivery practices that promote health and wellness among patient populations.

AHRQ touts the resource as a guidebook of targeted advice for practice leaders, informatics staff, and practice personnel on selection, implementation and maintenance of electronic health records and practices to help them work as a team to promote full utilization of IPHRs.

To get the handbook, see here.

For More Information Or Assistance

For help reviewing and updating your health care compliance, workforce, internal controls and risk management policies, technology, operations, practices or programs; assessing the strength of your organizations existing operations, risk management and compliance controls under these laws or other healthcare regulatory or operational issues or concerns, please contact Cynthia Marcotte Stamer via e-mail here or via telephone at 469.767.8872. To review and register to receive other helpful updates or for more information about Ms. Stamer and her experience, see 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

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Nextcare Inc. $10 Million False Claims Act Settlement Shows Qui Tam Role In False Claims Act Prosecutions

July 11, 2012

A False Claims Act settlement announced last week with Arizona-based urgent care chain NextCare Inc. provides another illustration of the growing exposure that qui tam and other reports of illegal practices by employees, contractors and other business partners create for health care and other companies.

Last week, Justice Department officials announced that NextCare Inc agreed to pay $10 million to settle federal and state allegations that it submitted false claims initially raised in a lawsuit filed against NextCare Inc. by former NextCare employee Lorin Cohen.

The settlement resolves allegations that NextCare violated the False Claims Act by:

Submitting false claims to Medicare, TRICARE, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, and the Medicaid programs of Colorado, Virginia, Texas, North Carolina and Arizona, by billing for unnecessary allergy, H1N1 virus and respiratory panel testing and
Upcoding when billing for urgent care medical services.

As a condition of the settlement, NextCare Inc. will become subject to a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement with HHS-OIG.

Investigated and prosecuted as part of the Federal government’s highly touted HEAT initiative, the Nextcare Inc. settlement emphasize both the strong commitment by the Department of Justice and HHS to find a prosecute Medicare and Medicaid financial fraud and the growing importance of qui tam actions and other insider reports of legal violations to the success of these actions.

Qui tam and other fraud reports made by employees or other business partners have become a significant tool in the Federal government’s war against health care fraud. Under the False Claims Act, private citizens acting as relators can bring suit on behalf of the United States and share in the recovery. Ms. Cohen will receive $1.614 million as her share of the recovery.

Through the False Claims Act alone, the Justice Department has recovered more than $7.7 billion since January 2009 in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs. The Justice Department’s total recoveries in False Claims Act cases since January 2009 are over $11.3 billion.

In response to the Nextcare Inc. settlement and other enforcement actions, health care providers should strengthen both their health care compliance and employment management processes. In addition to working to promote compliance with the False Claims Act and other health care laws, health care providers need to implement strong internal investigation, audit, and employee and contractor management procedures to help self-discover and address potential compliance or other liability concerns.

As part of these efforts, health care providers generally should not only provide hotlines for reporting suspected fraud or other misconduct. Many health care providers also can benefit by adopting and enforcing strong policies that require employees, contractors and other business partners to timely report and cooperate in the investigation and redress of potential health care fraud or other legal violations, should promptly investigate and redress as needed alleged noncompliance, and should retaliation against individuals making these reports in good faith. GSK and other enforcement actions show that Federal officials are acting on this promise.

For More Information Or Assistance

For help designing, enforcing or defending your organization’s health care compliance, workforce and risk management policies, practices or programs; assessing the strength of your organizations existing risk management and compliance controls under these laws or other healthcare laws and regulations; or in addressing other compliance or health care concerns, please contact Cynthia Marcotte Stamer via e-mail here or via telephone at 469.767.8872. To review and register to receive other helpful updates or for more information about Ms. Stamer and her experience, see 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

Solutions Law Press, Inc.™ 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 find this of interest, you also be interested reviewing some of our other Solutions Law Press resources including:

Pharmas Face New Pressure To Put Patients Before Profits After GlaxoSmithKline Record $3 Billion Health Care Fraud, FDCA Conviction & Settlement

July 11, 2012

Pharmaceutical companies will need to carefully study and consider how to react to “groundbreaking” business practice reforms global health care giant GlaxoSmithKline LLC (“GSK”) has agreed to implement as part of the record $3 billion criminal and civil agreement resolving federal health care fraud and drug marketing charges following its July 2, 2012 guilty plea in U.S. v. GlaxoSmithKline PLC Complaint. Justice Department and Food & Drug Administration (FDA) officials have signaled they expect industry businesses to “follow suit” by adopting business practice reforms that GSK has agreed to implement in the five year Corporate Integrity Agreement it entered into as part of collection of criminal plea agreements and accompanying civil settlements that is resulting in the largest combined federal and state health care fraud recovery in a single global resolution against a pharmaceutical company in the history of the United States. Meeting this expectation will require most pharmaceutical companies to significantly change research and marketing, compensation and other workforce management, board governance and other fundamental business practices well-beyond the reforms already being implemented in response to the past decade’s enforcement war against the industry.

Snapshot of U.S. v. GlaxoSmithKline PLC Civil & Criminal Charges & Settlement

After GSK plead guilty on July 2, 2012 to criminal charges it illegally marketed three drugs, the Federal Court in Massachusetts on July 5, 2012 approved a Justice Department sentencing recommendation that incorporated the settlement agreement. In recommending approval of the settlement agreement, the Justice Department told the Court GSK’s commitment to ‘put patients before profits’ by make sweeping reforms to its marketing and other business practices justified approving the settlement agreement in lieu of imposition of probation or other sanctions.

To resolve the criminal charges, GSK agreed to pay a criminal fine of $956,814,400, and criminal forfeiture in the amount of $43,185,600, for a total amount of $1 billion. Along with its criminal guilty plea, GSK also agreed to pay amount additional $2 billion to the U.S as restitution to the federal health care programs and other civil payments and implement an unprecedented list of business practice changes that will revolutionize its sales, marketing and drug efficacy study practices.

GSK Misdemeanor Guilty Plea

On July 2, 2012, GSK plead guilty to three misdemeanor violations of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA):

Regarding Paxil, GSK plead guilty to distribution of a misbranded drug due to false and misleading labeling, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 331(a), 333(a)(1) & 352(a);
Regarding Wellbutrin, GSK plead guilty to distribution of a misbranded drug due to inadequate directions for use, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 331(a), 333(a)(1) & 352(f)(1); and
Regarding Avandia, GSK will plead guilty to failure to report data to the FDA, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 331(e), 333(a)(1) & 355(k)(1).

The misdemeanor guilty pleas resolved Justice Department criminal charges GSK engaged is a series of serious violations of federal law in the marketing of Paxil, Wellbutrin and Avandia.

GSK $2 Billion Civil Settlement Payments

The criminal sentence approved by the Court is part of a broader series of criminal, civil and administrative agreements reached between GSK and federal officials.

The civil and administrative agreements included in the package deal include three civil settlements that resolve health care fraud and qui tam claims arising from GSK’s marketing, sales and health program billings relating to various drugs.

Under the civil settlement agreement, GSK will make sweeping business practice reforms specified in a corporate integrity agreement as well as pay $2 billion in civil damages to federal and state health care programs, which is the largest civil recovery from a drug company in a single global resolution.

Under the settlement package negotiated to resolve these civil claims, GSK has agreed to pay $2 billion in civil damages. The $2 billion of civil damages include:

$1,043,000,000 in civil damages to resolve allegations relating to false claims arising from the off-label promotion and kickback allegations relating to Paxil, Wellbutrin, Advair, Lamictal, Zofran, Flovent, Imitrex, Lotronex and Valtrex;
$657,000,000 in civil damages to resolve allegations relating to misrepresentations about Avandia;
$300,000,000 in civil damages to resolve allegations relating to false reporting of best prices.

The settlement package actually includes three civil settlement agreements.

One civil settlement resolves allegations relating to false claims to federal health care programs resulting from marketing and promotion practices, including off-label marketing of Paxil, Wellbutrin, Advair, Lamictal and Zofran for uses that were not approved as safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration and paid kickbacks to doctors to induce them to prescribe Advair, Flovent, Imitrex, Lotronex, Paxil, Wellbutrin, and Valtrex and other drugs, critically undermining the doctors’ independent clinical judgment.
A second civil settlement resolves allegations that GSK promoted Avandia to physicians and other health care providers with false and misleading representations, causing false claims to be submitted to federal health care programs in the marketing and sale of Avandia.
A third settlement resolves allegations that GSK reported false best prices to the Department of Health and Human Services and as a result underpaid quarterly rebates owed under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. Under federal law, pharmaceutical companies are required to give Medicaid the best price on medications that they offer to any customer. The Justice Department contends that GSK improperly “bundled sales” arrangements that included steep discounts known as “nominal prices” and yet failed to take such contingent arrangements into account when calculating and reporting its best prices to HHS.

Whistleblower Claims Played A Role, Resolved By Settlement

A review of the settlement emphasize both the strong commitment by the Department of Justice and HHS to find a prosecute Medicare and Medicaid financial fraud and the growing importance of qui tam actions and other insider reports of legal violations to the success of these actions.

Qui tam and other fraud reports made by employees or other business partners have become a significant tool in the Federal government’s war against health care fraud. Under the False Claims Act, private citizens acting as relators can bring suit on behalf of the United States and share in the recovery. Furthered in part by a series of qui tam claims, whistleblower suits clearly played a role in many of the GSK charges.

The off-label civil settlement also resolves allegations set forth in the following lawsuits filed against GSK under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the federal False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3730:

U.S. ex rel. Thorpe et al. v. Smith Kline Beecham Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline PLC d/b/a GlaxoSmithKline, Civil Action No. 11-10398 (D. Mass, transferred from D. Colo.) (filed 1/1/03);
U.S. ex rel. Gerahty et al. v. GlaxoSmithKline PLC and SmithKline Beecham Corp. d/b/a GlaxoSmithKline, (D. Mass.), Civil Action Number 03-10641 (D. Mass.) (filed 4/7/03);
U.S. ex rel. Graydon v. GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Civil Action No. 11-10741 (D. Mass.) (filed 6/5/09);
U.S. ex rel. LaFauci v. GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Civil Action No. 11-10921 (D. Mass.) (filed 8/7/09).

Get more details here.

Corporate Integrity Agreement Requires GSK To “Put Patients Before Profits” Thru “Groundbreaking” Business Practice Reforms

Pharmaceutical industry businesses should view with grave concern the statements made by Carmen Ortiz, U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts in announcing agreement that with Federal officials “hope the rest of the pharmaceutical industry follows suit” in “putting patients before profits” by adopting the “groundbreaking” business practice reforms set forth in the a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement with the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services. Given the ongoing aggressive investigation and enforcement of federal drug and health care fraud laws by the Justice Department and Food and Drug Administration and the Justice Department’s stated hope that the rest of the pharmaceutical industry will adopt similar reforms to those GSK has committed to implement in connection with its sentence, pharmaceutical companies will want to carefully examine the “groundbreaking” marketing and other business practice reforms that GSK has committed to implement for insights about what federal prosecutors and regulators expectation expect companies involved in the industry to do to reform their marketing, research and other practices.

In encouraging the Court to approve a total of $1 billion of criminal penalties as the sanction for the criminal charges, Justice Department officials argued GSK’s commitment under the related civil resolution agreement to make “groundbreaking” business practice reforms to ensure better behavior by its sales force, and to ensure full, fair and accurate reporting of scientific data from GSK studies justified the penalty in lieu of probation or other sanctions.

The Justice Department officials announcing the settlement enhanced accountability, increased transparency and wide- ranging monitoring activities conducted by both internal and independent external reviewers. Specifically, among other things, the agreement requires:

Abolishment of incentive sales compensation; instead, the sales force will be compensated based on business acumen, customer engagement, and scientific knowledge of GSK products;
Clawback of up to 3 years of annual performance pay (annual bonus and long term incentives) for executives discovered to be involved in significant misconduct;
Publication of all GSK human research studies, not just those with positive outcomes for GSK drugs;
Publication of final clinical trial protocols to allow outside researchers to meaningfully analyze the results of GSK studies;
Removal of commercial influence on the determination of which GSK studies will be conducted; instead, studies will be conducted on scientific merit;
Removal of commercial influence on the determination of which GSK studies will be published and when; instead, studies will be published when the study is complete, not to create a buzz around a drug;
Annual certifications by the GSK’s Board of Directors that the GSK compliance program is effective, and by GSK’s U.S. President that the compliance measures continue and reportable incidents have been properly reported.

GSK & Other Prosecutions Reflect Need To Tighten Compliance

Pharmaceutical companies take seriously the need to maintain compliance and tighten marketing and other procedures to promote their ability to defend against the growing risk of federal prosecution signaled by the GSK and other enforcement actions.

In announcing the GSK settlement, Justice Department officials touted the GSK case as demonstrating its “continuing commitment to ensuring that the messages provided by drug manufacturers to physicians and patients are true and accurate and that doctors’ decisions as to what drugs are prescribed to sick patients are based on best medical judgments, not false and misleading claims or bad science.”

The GSK and other enforcement actions show that Federal officials are acting on this promise. Even before announcing the $3 billion resolution with GSK, the Justice Department and other federal officials accumulated an impressive and growing record of successful investigation and prosecutions. The Justice Department health care fraud union in Boston that lead the GSK prosecution over the past three years already had recovered more than $5.5 billion in settlements, judgments, fines, restitution, and forfeiture in health care fraud cases under the False Claims Act and the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act before it announced the GSK settlement. Coupled with the overall increase in fraud and FDCA enforcement against pharmaceutical industry providers specifically and health care providers generally nationwide, the GSK decision makes clear that pharmaceutical and other health industry clients need to prepare to withstand ever-tightening expectations and rising enforcement.

In response to the GSK settlement and guilty plea, pharmaceutical companies will need to review their existing and former practices to identify pre-existing and ongoing exposures, and decide what steps to take, if any, to mitigate these risks. In addition to considering what, if any, of the reforms outlined in the GSK Corporate Integrity Agreement to implement and how, these organizations also should consider the workforce management and other internal controls that will help promote compliance with these policies and manage potential whistleblower and other liabilities.

In addition to working to promote compliance with the False Claims Act and other health care laws, pharmaceutical companies and health care providers need to implement strong internal investigation, audit, and employee and contractor management procedures to help self-discover and address potential compliance or other liability concerns. These processes and policies should involve but not be limited to hotlines and other processes for reporting suspected fraud or other misconduct. Most companies also should consider adopting and enforcing strong policies that require employees, contractors and other business partners to timely report and cooperate in the investigation and redress of potential health care fraud or other legal violations, should promptly investigate and redress as needed alleged noncompliance, and should retaliation against individuals making these reports in good faith.

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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Oklahoma’s Harmon Memorial Hospital, Physician Pay $1.5M Qui Tam Health Care Fraud Settlement

June 27, 2012

Harmon County Healthcare Authority (Harmon Memorial Hospital) and Dr. Akram R. Abraham, of Hollis, Oklahoma have agreed to pay $1,550,000 to settle claims of health care fraud of the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Like a $5 million settlement announced with Christus Spohn Health System Corporation earlier in June, the settlement highlights the growing exposures that hospitals and other health care providers face to qui tam actions initiated in response to reports of misconduct made by employers or other business partners. These and a slew of other prosecutions and settlements send a clear signal that health care providers face significant exposure from current or past aggressive practices raising risks of prosecution under Federal or state health care fraud and false claims laws.

Harmon Memorial Hospital Settlement

The settlement jointly announced June 20, 2012 by Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, and Scott E. Pruitt, Oklahoma Attorney General, resolves a lawsuit styled United States of America and State of Oklahoma ex rel. Randy L. Curry v. Harmon County Healthcare Authority, Akram R. Abraham, M.D., P.C., and Akram R. Abraham, M.D., Case No CIV-09-1321-D, filed in Oklahoma City federal court under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the federal False Claims Act (FCA) and the Oklahoma Medicaid False Claims Act (OMFCA).

Randy L. Curry is from Harmon County and served as the hospital Administrator of Harmon County Healthcare Authority (HCHA) from 2008 to 2009. HCHA operates the Harmon Memorial Hospital in Hollis, Oklahoma. Dr. Akram R. Abraham, M.D., is a medical doctor licensed to practice in the Oklahoma who has a medical practice and resides in Hollis, Oklahoma.

The United States and State of Oklahoma alleged that from July 1, 2001, through May 30, 2008, both HCHA and Dr. Abraham violated the FCA and the OMFCA by submitting claims, or causing claims to be submitted, to the Medicare and Medicaid programs that violated the federal “Stark” regulations and Anti-Kickback Statute.

Specifically, the government alleged that there was a prohibited contractual relationship between HCHA and Dr. Abraham resulting in excessive remuneration which was not commercially reasonable in the absence of health care referrals and that HCHA and Dr. Abraham made false certifications that the Medicare and Medicaid claims they submitted were in compliance with federal and state regulations.

The alleged improper remuneration included, but was not limited to, free rent of office space, free billing and staff personnel, reimbursement of uncollected accounts receivable, duplicative per encounter payments for emergency room services, and improper payment of locum tenens physician services. HCHA and Dr. Abraham have each denied liability.

In the settlement, HCHA agreed to pay $550,000 and Dr. Abraham agreed to pay $1,000,000 to resolve the claims. In addition, both HCHA and Dr. Abraham have entered into five year corporate integrity agreements with the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General which requires additional regulatory compliance reporting and monitoring. Under the qui tam provisions of the FCA and OMFCA, Randy Curry will receive a share of the settlement proceeds.

Christus & Other Qui Tam Settlements Rising Risk

The HCHA settlement follows the announcement earlier this month that Christus Spohn Health System Corporation has paid the United States more than $5 million to settle Justice Department and a former executive’s qui tam claims that it profited from violations of the False Claims Act by inappropriately admitted patients to inpatient status for outpatient procedures. HCHA and Christus are just two of a lengthy and growing list of qui tam cases and settlements that reflect the tide of liability arising from qui tam and other whistleblower activities.

Since January 2009, the Department of Justice has recovered over $11.1 billion under the False Claims Act. Of this amount, more than $7.4 billion was recovered in health care fraud matters. Last year, more than 630 qui tam matters were filed with the Department of Justice – more than in any other year in the history of the FCA and an increase of more than 47% since 2009. More than two-thirds of these qui tam cases alleged false claims to government health care programs.

Meanwhile, the OMFCA went into effect on November 1, 2007, and its focus is solely on fraud perpetrated against the Oklahoma Medicaid Program. Since its passage, over 351 qui tam cases have been filed on behalf of the State of Oklahoma. The State has received over $63.8 million in civil recoveries resulting from cases alleging fraud on the Oklahoma Medicaid system. The Oklahoma Attorney General’s MFCU is the only Oklahoma law enforcement agency dedicated to the investigation and prosecution of Medicaid fraud.

These and other statistics document the HCHA and Christus settlements and their underlying actions are reflective of a concerning rise in qui tam related exposures by health care providers. These and other qui tam actions as well as non-qui tam prosecutions of health care fraud and other compliance related cases, make clear that disgruntled current or former employees, contractors and business partners frequently are key players in qui tam or other prosecutions against health care providers. These “insiders” often know about the skeletons are in health care and other organization’s compliance closets. With many whistleblowers concerned about their own potential liability or axes to grind, the tight economy and job markets and reforms making it easier and more attractive for whistleblowers to bring and recover, qui tam and whistleblower claims are on the rise. Health care providers need to recognize and take steps to respond to these trends and incentives as part of their risk management and compliance efforts.

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 better place their organization in a position successfully to respond and defend against potential investigations or charges. In light of the growing qui tam risks, health care providers also should tighten internal investigation, exit interview and other human resources and business partner oversight, reporting and investigation policies and practices to help identify and redress potential fraud or other qui tam, retaliation and similar exposures early and more effectively.

For More Information Or Assistance

If you need help 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 set up 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 » | Health Care, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Uncategorized | Tagged: false claims act, Fraud and Abuse, Health Care Fraud, STARK | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Supreme Court Now Expected To Release Ruling On Health Care Reform Law Thursday

June 25, 2012

The Supreme Court did not release its ruling on challenges to the constitutionality to the Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) health care reform today. The Supreme Court now is expected to release its much-anticipated decision on a series of consolidated challenges to the ACA on Thursday. Thursday is the last day that the Court can issue rulings before the Justices end their term. They are not scheduled to return until the new 2012 Session begins in October.

Regardless of how the Supreme Court rules, it is clear that health care reform will remain a key point of debate for the upcoming election and in Congress. With opinions sharply divided about health care reform among members of the public and budget challenges looming, members of Congress from both parties have made clear that they expect to continue to wrangle over the reforms. Whether or not the Supreme Court rules any part of the law unconstitutional, Republicans and Democrats in Congress largely share support of the mandates and other reforms scheduled for implementation before 2014. To the extent that ACA survives its pending constitutional challenges, implementation of the law will progress. To the extent that the Supreme Court ruling would adversely impact these provisions, Republican and Democrat leaders alike have indicated an intention to act quickly to reenact many of these provisions. In the meanwhile, regardless of the status of the law, market and state law reforms implemented in anticipation of the law inevitably will prevent a reversion to pre-ACA status regardless of the Supreme Court’s rulings.

Project COPE: Coalition On Patient Empowerment & Coalition For Responsible Health Care Quality

Amid the continuing debate and uncertainty, Americans more then ever need to stay involved in the discussion. Project COPE: Coalition on Patient Empowerment & the Coalition for Responsible Health Care Quality are coalitions of individuals and organizations that share the belief that every American and American organization has a stake, and something to contribute to our ability to find and implement the best options for ensuring that the U.S. health care system provides quality, affordable health care.

Health care impacts every individual and every organization in America. Consequently, every American citizen and organization including but not limited to health care providers, employers, insurer, and community organizations should take part. 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 or speak up.

Project COPE urges and invites each individual and organization speak up to help communicate and act to make health care work for themselves, their families and others when you can and share your input to help preserve and continue to develop real meaningful improvements to our health care system by joining Project COPE: Coalition for Patient Empowerment here by sharing ideas, tools and other solutions and other resources.

For More Information Or Assistance

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. 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

OIG Invitation To Comment On Possible Changes To Provider Self-Disclosure Protocol Invaluable Opportunity To Provide Feedback

June 20, 2012

Health care providers and other interested persons have until to submit recommendations and other input in response to the Solicitation of Information and Recommendations for Revising OIG’s Provider Self-Disclosure Protocol (“RFR”) published by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) on June 20, 2012 here. Prompt response to this invitation by the August 17, 2012 deadline established by OIG provides a valuable opportunity for health care providers and others who have concerns or other perspectives about the current Protocol as used by the OIG in connection with its enforcement of federal health care fraud laws.

Protocol Intended To Be Tool To Resolve Civil Monetary Penalty & Other Health Care Fraud Exposures

While OIG touts the Protocol as a valuable tool to providers for resolving certain health care fraud exposures through self-disclosure, physicians, hospitals and other health care providers often are critical of the Protocol and its application by the OIG for deterring self-disclosure by providers by being unduly punitive to providers using the protocol to self-report and self-correct potential violations.

Originally published by OIG in 1998, the Protocol as later supplemented by a series of letters to providers currently defines the opportunity that OIG offers to health care providers to disclose potential fraud to resolve Civil Monetary Penalty and federal health care fraud exposures under Federal law through self-disclosure.

The potential liability exposures for health care providers accused of running afoul of these federal health care fraud laws are substantial and growing. Under the Civil Monetary Penalties Law (“CMPL”), 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7a, and other provisions of the Social Security Act, health care providers face significant criminal and civil risk for violation of federal health care fraud laws. Among other things, risk the assessment of CMPs, exclusion from participation in all Federal health care programs or both if they knowingly and willfully:

Offer or pay remuneration to induce the referral of or solicit or receive remuneration in return for the referral of Federal health care program business in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute (42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7b(b));
Present or cause to be presented a claim that the person knows or should know is for a service for which payment may not be made under 42 U.S.C. § 1395nn, the physician self-referral or “Stark” law. 42 U.S.C. § 1395nn(g)(3); or
Engage in certain other prohibited activities under federal healthcare fraud laws.

For an Anti-Kickback violation, the OIG may seek a penalty of up to $50,000 for each improper act and damages of up to three times the amount of remuneration at issue (regardless of whether some of the remuneration was for a lawful purpose). 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7a(a). With the federal government expanding fraud enforcement and tightening federal anti-fraud laws as part of its broader effort to control federal health care spending, OIG and other federal regulators are stepping up enforcement of these and other federal health care laws. OIG touts the Protocol as offering a valuable opportunity for health care providers to resolve potential health care fraud liabilities by self-disclosing under the Protocol.

The Protocol provides guidance on how to investigate this conduct, quantify damages, and report the conduct to OIG to resolve the provider’s liability exposure under OIG’s civil money penalty (CMP) authorities. Since its original publication in 2009, OIG has supplemented its guidance by issuing three Open Letters to Health Care Providers to supplement and clarify the Protocol and its application, including:

In 2006 announcing an initiative to encourage disclosure of conduct creating liability under OIG’s ant kickback and physician self-referral law CMP authorities.
In 2008, issuing additional guidance and requirements for Protocol submissions to increase the efficiency of the Protocol, including new requirements for the initial submission and specific time commitments from the provider, as well as announcing he presumption of not requiring a compliance agreement as part of settling a cooperative and complete disclosure.
In 2009, announcing it would no longer accept disclosure of a matter into the Protocol that involved only liability under the physician self-referral law in the absence of a colorable anti-kickback violation and announcing a minimum $50,000 settlement amount for kickback-related submissions.

You can review this guidance governing the Protocol here and see examples of past settlements under the Protocol here.

Many Providers, Industry Leaders Express Concerns About Protocol

OIG characterizes the Protocol as offering health care providers “specific steps, including a detailed audit methodology, that may be undertaken if they wish to work openly and cooperatively with the OIG to efficiently quantify a particular problem and, ultimately promomote a higher level of ethical and lawful conduct throughout the health care industry. In the RFR, OIG credited the Protocol with allowing OIG to resolve over 800 disclosures resulting in recovering over $280 million to the Federal health care programs over the past 14 years. In the RFR, OIG reports that it believes this experience reflects the Protocol to be a highly valuable tool, which added and refined guidance would strengthen to the benefit of the provider community and the efficient resolution of Protocol matters. OIG now is announcing plans to further revise the Protocol to provide additional guidance. Accordingly, OIG is soliciting comments, recommendations, and other suggestions from concerned parties and organizations on how best to revise the Protocol to address relevant issues and to provide useful guidance to the health care industry.

For providers with concerns about the Protocol and its value to providers as a tool for resolving health care fraud, the invitation should provide a welcome opportunity for feedback. While OIG perceives the Protocol with these later refinements as a valuable tool to OIG and providers in identifying and resolving known or suspected health care fraud, stiff penalties and restrictions on the Protocol have engendered widespread criticism of the Protocol by many providers and health industry advisors. See, e.g. Voluntary Disclosure-Look before You Leap; HHS Office of Inspector General Sweetens Its Self-Disclosure Protocol. For these and other reasons, many health care providers and health industry advisors view the Protocol as now configured and applied as counterproductive to its stated goals. Critics often argue that the punishment of self-reporting providers discourages self-reporting and self-correction by providing too little reward and almost certain punishment to providers who chose the self-correction path.

Although OIG’s expectations about the Protocol and opportunities for improvement and those of many providers may be widely disparate, all parties with concerns or other opinions are urged to share their input in response to the RFR. The RFR invitation provides an invaluable opportunity both to share feedback with OIG, as well as to create a record of concerns that would be available to share with members of Congress and other leaders to the extent the OIG fails to adequately address these concerns.

For More Information Or Assistance

For help in responding to the RFR; reviewing and updating your Stark Law, Anti-Kickback Statute, or other health care compliance and risk management policies, practices or programs; assessing the strength of your organizations existing risk management and compliance controls under these laws or other healthcare laws and regulations; or in addressing other compliance or health care concerns, please contact Cynthia Marcotte Stamer via e-mail here or via telephone at 469.767.8872. To review and register to receive other helpful updates or for more information about Ms. Stamer and her experience, see 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 » | Anti-KickBack, Health Care, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, OIG, Physician, Stark | Tagged: Health Care Fraud, OIG, Provider Self-Disclosure | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Nonprofit CEO Convicted Of Embezzling Medicaid Funds Intended For Mentally Disabled Care

June 18, 2012

Former Chief Executive Officer of Evelyn Douglin Center for Serving People in Need (EDC) Seibert Phillips faces sentencing to up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing over $600,000 from the charity. The prosecution and conviction of Phillips by the New York Attorney General demonstrates that Medicaid and other health care fraud investigation and oversight by states is thriving along side the much more widely reported federal health care fraud inititives.

Evelyn Douglin Center is a Medicaid-funded corporation which provides care and services to mentally disabled New York City residents. Among other things, it operates supportive and supervised alternative housing and provides residential habilitation and day habilitation programs for those in need. EDC is reimbursed in part by the New York State Medicaid program. Over a five year period, while Chief Executive of EDC, which he founded in 1999, Phillips secretly diverted over $600,000 in Medicaid checks made payable to EDC into a fraudulent account he opened in the corporation’s name. Phillips thereafter used this account for himself, funding frequent personal travel, cars and even his dog trainers. EDC’s Board of Directors was unaware of the secret account and cooperated in the investigation leading to Phillips’s arrest and conviction.

Phillips’s arrest and conviction arises out of the Attorney General’s prior investigation of EDC which concluded last year with a $5 million settlement. Medicaid rules required EDC to draft and maintain daily reports detailing the specific services it provided to Medicaid recipients. The investigation uncovered that, for a five year period ending in 2009, EDC altogether failed to create many of the records. As part of its settlement agreement, EDC also agreed to reconstitute its Board of Directors and to retain a monitor for five years to ensure its compliance with all applicable Medicaid rules and regulations.

Phillips’s secret account came to light during an Attorney General investigation of EDC. Phillips pled guilty today to Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class C Felony which carries a maximum penalty of five to fifteen years in state prison. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Phillips will be sentenced to five years of probation, pay back restitution totaling $445,000 to EDC, and perform 500 hours of community service. He will be sentenced on August 7, 2012. Get more details here.

The Phillips conviction is one of a growing list state and federal prosecutions of health care and other organizations and individuals for violations of federal or state health care fraud or other laws. Driven both by federal program mandates and daunting state health care entitlement program budget expenditures, state regulators and law enforcement teams across the United States increasingly are active and vital participants in the expanding federal and state war against health care fraud and other health care provider misconduct. See e.g., Health Care Providers Also Should Guard Against Rising Exposures To State Health Care Fraud & Other Enforcement Risks.

Health Care Providers Must Act To Manage Risks

For More Information Or Assistance

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. 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

Health Companies Looking To Raise Funds Beware: Old Practices & Forms May Need Update For Securities Law Changes

June 7, 2012

Health care entrepreneurs and other businesses looking to raise investment from private investors without registration in accordance with applicable federal and state securities laws requirements for publicly traded investments need to exercise care that their practices meet all requirements, particularly in light of recent changes to the regulations.

For example, health care, health care IT and other businesses looking to raise capital in a private versus publicly registered context often plan to rely upon the restriction of offers and sales to individuals who qualify as “accredited investors” and other compliance with the accredited investor exemptions to registration requirements under federal and state securities laws.

When planning to raise capital, however, reliance on past experience and recycling old documents can be risky. Due to recent changes in the accredited investor regulations, however, businesses intending to rely upon the accredited investor exception may need to update their accredited investor questionnaires and other practices to avoid unintentionally running afoul of modified rules.

On December 21, 2011, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopted final rules that amended the “accredited investor” definition in the rules under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

The recent regulatory amendments respond to securities laws changes enacted by Section 413(a) of the U.S. Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”).

Among many other changes it enacted, Dodd-Frank requires the definition of “accredited investor” in the Securities Act rules to exclude the value of a person’s primary residence for purposes of determining whether the person qualifies as an “accredited investor” on the basis of having a net worth in excess of US $1,000,000.

Securities Act Rules 215 and 501, as amended, in response to Dodd-Frank now define “accredited investor” to include, among other things, any natural person whose individual net worth, or joint net worth with that person’s spouse, exceeds US$1,000,000, excluding the value of the investor’s primary residence. SEC regulations provide guidance about the application of this revised requirement.

Because of the change to the accredited investor requirements of federal securities laws, investor questionnaires may need to be updated to reflect the new definition. Investors relying on the net worth category of the accredited investor definition may also need to get valuations of their residences to determine their fair market value and may also need to disclose the value of any mortgages thereon and the timing of when such mortgages were incurred to confirm accredited investor status.

The changes to the accredited investor exemption rules is just one of many changes in securities registration exemption, reporting, and other requirements. Protect yourself and your business. Review your practices and documentation to confirm they are up to date and compliant before you get started and keep a careful eye on compliance and out for more changes coming down the pike on an ongoing basis.

Interested persons can see a copy of the SEC’s final rule here.

For More Information Or Assistance

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. 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

Wichita Kansas Physician, Practice To Pay $1.5 Million To Settle False Claims Act

May 25, 2012

Federal officials earlier this week charged a Boston-area man with illegally concealing material information from Medicare. Blessing Sydney Iwuala, 53, was indicted on charges of knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing, or covering up by trick, scheme or device a material fact from Medicare.

The Indictment alleges that Iwuala was the owner of Above All Home Care and Supply, Inc. (Above All), a supplier of durable medical equipment (DME) in Braintree. In 2008, he submitted an application to Medicare to supply Medicare beneficiaries with DME. In the application, Medicare required that Iwuala identify any individual who had an ownership interest, was a managing employee, or had a partnership interest in Above All. Iwuala only identified himself and his wife in this section. Iwuala certified that the information in the application was true, correct, and complete, and he certified that he would notify Medicare if he became aware that any information in the application was not true, correct, or complete.

It is alleged that at some point, but by no later than Jan. 19, 2009, Iwuala entered into an arrangement with another individual, identified in the indictment as JN, with respect to Above All. JN had a medical supply company as well, but in or around June 2008, Medicare had suspended JN’s privileges to supply DME to Medicare patients. Iwuala and JN allegedly entered into an agreement whereby JN obtained orders for the overwhelming majority of patients who received medical equipment from Above All. It is alleged that JN handled numerous aspects of these orders, including billing Medicare for the orders using Above All’s names, and that Iwuala sent to JN a substantial portion of the Medicare payments to Above All.

On May 6, 2009, a Medicare representative performed a site visit at Above All. By this point, all of the Medicare beneficiaries handled by JN had received their equipment, Above All had begun billing Medicare for claims, and Iwuala had begun to send money to JN and JN’s associates. During the site visit, Iwuala filled out a questionnaire. In one of the items, Iwuala was required to list “all management and owners” of Above All. Iwuala listed himself as the “sole owner” of the company, concealing from Medicare JN’s involvement with the company. If Medicare had been aware of JN’s involvement with Above All, it would not have paid for any Above All orders. Thus, it is alleged that Iwuala knowingly and willfully falsified, concealed, and covered up by trick, scheme, and device from Medicare JN’s true involvement with Above All. In 2009, Above All billed Medicare for more than $1 million of DME, and Medicare paid more than $400,000 for these claims.
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If convicted, Iwuala faces up to five years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine and restitution to Medicare.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Susan J. Waddell, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Health and Human Services made the announcement today. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David S. Schumacher of Ortiz’s Health Care Fraud Unit.

As part of a broader effort to control Medicare and other federal health care program costs, Federal and state officials are conducting an ever-growing war on health care fraud. To help this effort, legal reforms and new resources granted under the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (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.

To target resources to highly suspect behaviors, CMS has implemented the new Fraud Prevention System, which uses advanced predictive modeling technology to fight fraud. The system has been screening all Medicare fee-for-service claims before payment is made since June 30, 2011. Much like the predictive technologies used in the credit card industry, the Fraud Prevention System uses advanced technology to identify “suspicious behavior and billing irregularities.” By streaming claims on a prepayment basis, CMS and its investigative partners are able to more efficiently identify fraudulent claims and respond quickly to emerging trends.

Using these data mining an a host of other new fraud fighting resources created under the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act) and other recently enacted laws, the HEAT Task Force and other federal health care fraud investigators are enjoying record successes in deploying these tools to achieve successful health care fraud prosecutions. Government’s health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered nearly $4.1 billion in taxpayer dollars in Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 according to the FY 2011 Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program Report jointly released by HHS and the Justice Department on February 14, 2012.

In addition to the data mining tools, other new tools helping to boost the success of federal health care fraud investigation and prosecution include:

Tough new rules and sentences for criminals
Enhanced screening and other enrollment requirements
Increased coördination 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

Wielding these and other tools, Federal and state health care fraud fighters are racking up a growing list of successful prosecutions and settlements against a broad range of health care providers that they say have defrauded the health care system. See, e.g. Ambulance Worker Gets 46 Month Sentence For Defrauding Medicare By Running Company As Disqualified Person;Temple To Pay $1,088,574.93 To Resolve Exposures From Voluntarily Disclosed Improper Health Care Billings;Former Orthofix Executive Pleads Guilty To Anti-Kickback Law Violations;Houston-Area Nurse Gets 97 Month Sentence For Role In $5.2 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme; Health Care Providers Get Nailed For Using False Statements To Defraud Medicaid, Bankruptcy Court; Texas Medical Supply Medical Supply Company Owner Convicted Of Violating Anti-Kickback Statute Could Get 5 Years; Texas Healthcare Operator’s Guilty Plea To Bankruptcy Fraud Conspiracy Highlights Broad Prosecution Risks.

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.

Health Care Providers Must Act To Manage Risks

For More Information Or Assistance

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. 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

Wichita Kansas Physician, Practice To Pay $1.5 Million To Settle False Claims Act

May 25, 2012

Roger W. Evans, M.D. and his company, EECP Heart Center of Kansas, Inc. (EECP) will pay $1.5 million to settle allegations that Evans and EECP submitted false claims to the Medicare program. Evans is owner and president of EECP. The prosecution of and settlement and EEPC settlement of the Wichita, Kansas physician provides another demonstration of the breadth and scope of Federal health care fraud detection and enforcement.

Evans operated several clinics across Kansas and provided enhanced counterpulsation therapy, an in-patient service for the treatment of coronary artery disease. The United States contends that from July 2005, through June 2009, Evans submitted claims to Medicare for services when Evans was not actually present at the clinics and did not provide direct supervision of the procedures as required by Medicare.

During ECP treatment, a patient is placed on a treatment table and the patient’s lower trunk and lower extremities are wrapped in a series of compressive air cuffs which inflate and deflate in synchronization with the patient’s cardiac cycle. The cuffs compress blood vessels in the calves and thighs to increase blood flow and improve cardiac function. A full course of ECP therapy usually consists of 35 one-hour treatments which may be offered once or twice daily, usually five days per week.

According to the terms of the agreement, Evans and his company will pay $1.5 million to settle False Claims Act charges wuithout admitting any wrongdoing.

In addition to the data mining tools, other new tools helping to boost the success of federal health care fraud investigation and prosecution include:

Tough new rules and sentences for criminals
Enhanced screening and other enrollment requirements
Increased coördination 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

Health Care Providers Must Act To Manage Risks

For More Information Or Assistance

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. 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

Ambulance Worker Gets 46 Month Sentence For Defrauding Medicare By Running Company As Disqualified Person

May 18, 2012

On May, 15, 2012, ambulance worker Ivan Tkach, 30 was sentenced to 46 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his role in a scheme to defraud Medicare and the U.S. Government. Tkach pleaded guilty January 10, 2012 to giving false statements in his application for reinstatement to the Medicare program in 2009, and to paying illegal kickbacks to a secretary at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, all in relation to a private ambulance company’s involvement in a health care fraud scheme. In addition to the prison term, Tkach must pay restitution in the amount of $1.26 million to Medicare.

Tkach was indicted along with his boss Ilya Sivchuk who was convicted by a jury in November 2011. Tkach was excluded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2004 from providing services under the Medicare Program due to his prior criminal convictions, yet continued to operate Advantage Ambulance Company and drive patients in ambulances. Tkach ran Advantage with the knowledge of Ilya Sivchuk, who also made false statements regarding the nature of Tkach’s employment to federal agents. In addition, Tkach gave kickback payments in 2008 to a worker at a Philadelphia kidney dialysis center in exchange for patient referrals to Advantage. Advantage Ambulance has a new owner. Ilya Sivchuk is awaiting sentencing. See Ambulance Company Worker Sentenced To Prison Term for Fraud Scheme.

Health Care Providers Must Act To Manage Risks

As part of these efforts, health care providers should carefully credential workers and other service providers to avoid running afoul of these prohibitions. Federal law prohibits health care providers from billing Medicare or other federal programs for services provided by disqualified persons as well as from otherwise filing false claims with Medicare. The Tkach prosecution and conviction shows that Federal prosecutors are serious about enforcing these prohibitions.

For Legal Representation or More Information

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. 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 » | 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: controlled substance, DEA, disqualified provider, Drug Testing, drugs, false claims act, Health Care, Health Care Compliance, Health Care Fraud, HEAT, licensure, Medicaid, Medical Board, Medicare, pain management, pharmacist, pharmacy, physical therapy, Physician | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Temple To Pay $1,088,574.93 To Resolve Exposures From Voluntarily Disclosed Improper Health Care Billings

May 18, 2012

Dr. Joseph Kubacki and Temple University Of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education (“Temple”) have agreed to pay the United States a combined $1,088,574.93, resolving Temple’s voluntary disclosure that it improperly billed the United States for medical services provided by residents but that Temple billed as though they had been performed by attending physicians. The settlement resolves charges brought in response to the voluntary disclosure by Temple of the improper billing in question.

The False Claims Act makes it illegal for any person or entity to present a false or fraudulent claim to the United States for payment and/or to retain overpayments that were improperly received. Federal programs only reimburse hospitals for services which attending physicians performed or which attending physicians were present for the critical portions. Those physicians certify that they were present when the critical portion of the services were performed as part of the charting and billing process.

Dr. Kubacki, formerly the Chairman of Temple’s Ophthalmology Department, was convicted by a jury on August 22, 2011 of 73 counts of health care fraud, 73 counts of false statements in health care matters, and four counts of wire fraud. The evidence at his trial showed that he billed the United States for performing services that were performed by residents when he was not even physically present in the hospital. The settlement with Temple pertains both to this fraud and to other fraud discovered in Temple’s plastic surgery department, where attending physicians were present in the hospital at the time services were performed but were not actually present for the critical portions of the services for which they submitted claims.

Although Temple trained its physicians in charting and billing requirements, this training did not prevent the fraud from occurring.

In light of Temple’s voluntary disclosure and self-audit, and upon the evaluation of Temple’s compliance structure by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, Temple will continue to implement its corporate compliance program without the need for a Corporate Integrity Agreement overseen by the Office of the Inspector General.

This resolution is part of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s Special Focus Team Health Care Initiative. The case was investigated civilly by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General and Assistant United States Attorneys Paul Kaufman and Susan Dein Bricklin. Dr. Kubacki was prosecuted criminally by Assistant United States Attorneys Anthony Kyriakakis and Matthew Hogan.

For more details, see United States Settled With Temple University and Dr. Joseph Kubacki Over Improper Billing.

Leave a Comment » | Academic medicine, Doctor, false claims act, Health Care, Health Care Finance, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Medicare | Tagged: Corporate Integrity Agreement, False Claims, false claims act, Health Care, Health Care Fraud, Medicare, Medicare Fraud, Reimbursement | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Former Orthofix Executive Pleads Guilty To Anti-Kickback Law Violations

May 18, 2012

Thomas P. Guerrieri has pleaded guilty in federal court before U.S. District Judge Rya W. Zobel for violating the Anti-Kickback statute. Guerrieri was the former vice-president of sales at a medical device company, Orthofix, that sold bone growth simulators. His sentencing is scheduled for July 11, 2012 at 2:30 p.m. He faces up to five years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine and forfeiture.

Had the case proceeded to trial, the Government would have proven that Guerrieri facilitated signing up a surgeon in New York to a “consulting” agreement with the company to induce the surgeon to prescribe the company’s bone growth stimulators. The surgeon was paid tens of thousands of dollars by the company, but provided little or no consulting services in return. The surgeon was supposed to document his services in time sheets provided to the company, but for years he did not fill out these forms or provide any legitimate consulting services, even though he was paid every month.

In or about Aug. 2007, the surgeon became concerned about increased government scrutiny of consulting arrangements such as his. The surgeon, Guerrieri, and a territory manager for the company decided to create and backdate time sheets going back to 2006 to make it seem as though the surgeon filled out these forms contemporaneously and performed legitimate consulting services. In addition, at the surgeon’s request, Guerrieri and the territory manager obtained a letter from the company’s general counsel indicating that the surgeon was compliant under his consulting agreement, which was not true. Guerrieri did these things to induce the surgeon to continue to order bone growth stimulators from the company.

In addition, Guerrieri and others executed a scheme to pay Michael Cobb, a RI physician’s assistant, for each bone growth stimulator ordered by Cobb. The surgeon had delegated to Cobb the choice of which stimulator his patients received. For years, the device company paid Cobb $50-$100 for each stimulator that his surgeon prescribed. In Sept. 2008, the device company issued a policy expressly prohibiting any payments to anyone who works for a surgeon that prescribes the company’s products. Guerrieri and others were concerned that if they could no longer pay Cobb under the new policy, the company might lose Cobb’s business. Thus, Guerrieri, and others, devised a scheme where Cobb continued to be paid for each order, but the payments were made by a vendor of the device company, making it more difficult to trace the paper trail back to the device company. Cobb is also charged with violating the Anti-Kickback law. His plea hearing is set for April 19, 2012 at 3:15 p.m. before Judge George A. O’Toole, Jr.

Federal regulators credit sophisticated statistical profiling and other new fraud investigation tools with playing a key role in the federal health care fraud investigation that lead to the arrest on health care fraud indictments today (February 28, 2012) of a Dallas-area physician, the office manager of his medical practice, and five home health agency owners. The Dallas-area defendants charged in the indictments unsealed today face health care fraud charges related to their alleged participation in a nearly $375 million health care fraud scheme involving fraudulent claims for home health services. In a related action, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) suspended an additional 78 home health agencies (HHA) associated with defendant Roy based on what CMS views as credible allegations of fraud against them.

Federal officials say today’s arrests and CMS suspensions resulted from Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations conducted by the Health Care Fraud Prevention & Enforcement Action Team (HEAT). HEAT 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 anti-fraud laws around the country. Justice Department officials say the conduct charged in this indictment represents the single largest fraud amount orchestrated by one doctor in the history of the HEAT initiative.

Legal reforms and new resources granted under the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (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

Using these expanded tools, the HEAT Task Force and other federal health care fraud investigators are enjoying record successes in deploying these tools to achieve successful health care fraud prosecutions. Government’s health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered nearly $4.1 billion in taxpayer dollars in Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 according to the FY 2011 Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program Report jointly released by HHS and the Justice Department on February 14, 2012.

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

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. 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

Abbott Labs To Pay $1.5 Billion to Resolve Criminal & Civil Investigations Of Off-Label Promotion Of Depakote

May 18, 2012

Abbott Laboratories Inc.will pay $1.5 billion to resolve its criminal and civil liability after pleading guilty to federal charges it unlawfully promoted the prescription drug Depakote for uses not approved as safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration.

According to a Justice Department announcement May 7, 2012 here, the resolution – the second largest payment by a drug company – includes a criminal fine and forfeiture totaling $700 million and civil settlements with the federal government and the states totaling $800 million. Abbott also will be subject to court-supervised probation and reporting obligations for Abbott’s CEO and Board of Directors.

Health Care Providers Must Act To Manage Risks

Over the past decade, Federal officials have stepped up enforcement of federal rules prohibiting off-label promotion of prescription drugs. Beyond the examples provided by the criminal and civil penalties assessed in these matters, the corporate integrity agreements that generally are imposed as part of the plea or other resolution agreements reached as part of these investigations provide insights about the types of mechanisms that Federal officials expect pharmacedical companies to implement and administer as part of their compliance efforts. Pharmaceudical companies and others involved in the marketing and promotion of medications should review and evaluate the adequacy of their existing compliance practices in light of these prosecutions and resulting corporate integrity and make appropriate adjustments to their practices, policies and management controls where warranted.

For Legal Representation or More Information

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. 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 » | 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: controlled substance, DEA, Drug Testing, drugs, false claims act, FDA, Health Care, Health Care Compliance, Health Care Fraud, HEAT, licensure, Medicaid, Medical Board, pain management, pharmacist, pharmacy, physical therapy, Physician, Prescription Drugs | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

CMS Likely To Tighten Audits & Reimbursement After OIG Says “Extremely High” Retail Pharmacy Billings To Medicare Part D Warrant Close Scrutiny

May 18, 2012

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) is recommending a “strong response” to improve Medicare Part D oversight of retail pharmacy prescriptions by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) based on findings of a recent study. See here. OIG says that “extremely high” prescription drug billings by many retail pharmacies merit scrutiny under medical necessity or other grounds.

Under the Medicare Part D program, CMS contracts with private insurance companies, known as sponsors, to provide prescription drug coverage to beneficiaries who choose to enroll. According to OIG, OIG has issued several reports that OIG has found that Part D had limited safeguards in place in the 6 years since Part D began.

In response to these concerns, OIG recently conducted a study based on an analysis of prescription drug event records. Sponsors send these records to CMS for each drug dispensed to beneficiaries enrolled in their plans. Each record has information about the pharmacy, prescriber, beneficiary, and drug. OIG analyzed all of the records for drugs billed by retail pharmacies in 2009 and developed eight measures to describe Part D billing and to identify pharmacies with questionable billing.

Based on this study, OIG reports that retail pharmacies each billed Part D an average of nearly $1 million for prescriptions in 2009. According to OIG, the study revealed “questionable billing” by more than 2,600 of these pharmacies. OIG reports that these pharmacies had ‘extremely high billing” for at least one of the eight measures developed and applied by OIG For example, many pharmacies billed what OIG characterized as “extremely high” dollar amounts or numbers of prescriptions per beneficiary or per prescriber. The Miami, Los Angeles, and Detroit areas were the most likely to have pharmacies with questionable billing.

Although OIG concedes that some of this billing may be legitimate, OIG believes that pharmacies that bill for extremely high amounts call for further scrutiny The OIG report expresses concern that these high dollar prescription drug billings could mean that a pharmacy is billing for drugs that are not medically necessary or were never provided to the beneficiary.

Accordingly, OIG is recommending that CMS: (1) strengthen the Medicare Drug Integrity Contractor’s monitoring of pharmacies and ability to identify pharmacies for further review, (2) provide additional guidance to sponsors on monitoring pharmacy billing, (3) require sponsors to refer potential fraud and abuse incidents that may warrant further investigation, (4) develop risk scores for pharmacies, (5) further strengthen its compliance plan audits, and (6) follow up on the pharmacies identified as having questionable billing. CMS concurred with four of the recommendations and partially concurred with the other two.

Private health plans and other payers are likely to review the study to determine whether it provides justification for closer scrutiny of prescription drug claims made to private payers.

Whether or not private health plans follow suit, retail pharmacies and other providers should anticipate that CMS will increase scrutiny and challenges of prescription drug charges submitted to Medicare Part D. Accordingly, retail pharmacies and the physician and other providers prescribing medications likely to be billed should tighten documentation and other procedures to defend against possible medical necessity and other challenges.

The continuing focus and success of federal health care fraud and related 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. The prosecutions of Giventer and Shavabskaya highlight that health care providers and their leaders need to manage prosecution risks under a broad range of laws in addition to focusing on management of the widely recognized exposures to prosecution under federal health care fraud laws,

Health Care Providers Must Act To Manage Risks

For Legal Representation or More Information

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. 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 » | 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: controlled substance, DEA, Drug Testing, drugs, false claims act, Health Care, Health Care Compliance, Health Care Fraud, HEAT, licensure, Medicaid, Medical Board, Medicare, Medicare Part D, pain management, pharmacist, pharmacy, physical therapy, Physician, prescription drug, retail pharmacy | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Houston-Area Nurse Gets 97 Month Sentence For Role In $5.2 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

May 18, 2012

A Houston-area home health nurse will serve a 97 month prison sentence for her participation in a $5.2 million Medicare fraud scheme according to a May 16, 2012 announcement by the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Health and Human Service (HHS). The sentence is the latest in a growing series of reminders to health care providers and others of the growing risk of imprisonment and other consequences that can result from the submission of inappropriate Medicare or other health program claims.

Ezinne Ubani, the former director of nursing at Family Healthcare Group, a Houston home health care company, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas in the Southern District of Texas to 97 months in prison, followed by three years supervised release. Ubani also was ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution jointly and severally with her codefendants. Ubani was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and two counts of making false statements following a May 2011 trial.

According to the evidence presented at trial and in court documents, Family Healthcare Group purported to provide skilled nursing to Medicare beneficiaries. Family Healthcare Group paid co-conspirators to recruit Medicare beneficiaries for the purpose of filing claims with Medicare for skilled nursing that was medically unnecessary and/or not provided. The evidence showed that Ezinne Ubani falsified documents to support the fraudulent payments. After the Medicare beneficiaries were recruited, other co-conspirators fraudulently signed plans of care stating that the beneficiaries needed home health care when in fact they knew the beneficiaries were not home-bound and not in need of skilled nursing.

Ubani is the seventh defendant sentenced in connection with this scheme. Three other defendants, Clifford Ubani, Princewill Njoku and Cynthia Garza Williams, await sentencing in the Southern District of Texas.

Feds Continue To Turn Up HEAT on Health Care Fraud

The investigation and prosecution that lead to Ubani’s sentence are part of a growing number of prosecutions and convictions resulting from the federal HEAT Task Force. Empowered with new data mining, statistical profiling and other new fraud fighting resources created under the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act) and other recently enacted laws, the HEAT Task Force and other federal health care fraud investigators are enjoying record successes in deploying these tools to achieve successful health care fraud prosecutions.

according to Justice Department officials, since their inception in March 2007, Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations in nine locations have charged more than 1,330 defendants who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for more than $4 billion. Government’s health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered nearly $4.1 billion in taxpayer dollars in Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 according to the FY 2011 Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program Report jointly released by HHS and the Justice Department on February 14, 2012. Furthermore, this trend is likely to continue. Federal officials say the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers along side the ongoing investigatory and enforcement activities of the HEAT Task Force and other federal and state agencies.

Health Care Providers Must Act To Manage Risks

For More Information Or Assistance

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. 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 help 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

Health Care Providers Get Nailed For Using False Statements To Defraud Medicaid, Bankruptcy Court

May 18, 2012

Two unrelated Federal felony prosecutions and convictions of Texas-based health care providers announced this week illustrate the risks that health care and other businesses and their leaders run for coloring the truth in health care billings, court filings or other dealings. The convictions highlight the advisability for health industry and other business leaders both to exercise care to avoid engaging in potentially actionable misrepresentations when signing billing, court pleadings or other official documents, as well as implement appropriate documentation and review procedures to minimize liability risks to their organizations and themselves that may arise from reliance upon represenations of staff or others which turn out to be untrue.

On May 16, 2012, Laredo, Texas dentist Dr. Carlos Armin Morales-Ryan and his wife orthodontist Dr. Nelia Patricia Garcia-Morales pleaded guilty to a criminal information admitting they made false statements on bills to Texas Medicaid. These guilty pleas follow the May 14, 2012 guilty plea entered by Michael Giventer to conspiracy to commit bankruptcy fraud by misrepresenting his ownership and control in health care businesses.

Texas Dentist/Orthodontist Couple Convicted of Making False Statements on Bills to Texas Medicaid

On May 16, 2012, dentist Morales-Ryan and his orthodontist wife Garcia-Morales pleaded guilty to a criminal information admitting they made false statements on bills to Texas Medicaid.

Morales-Ryan and Garcia-Morales owned and operated Orthogenesis International Centre, a Laredo dentistry and orthodontics business. A substantial portion of their business was targeted to rendering services to Medicaid-eligible children. Applicable Texas law and Medicaid regulations required the doctors to be present in their offices when services were rendered on Medicaid patients as a prerequisite to receiving payment for the services from Medicaid. Similar consumer protection laws and regulations are applicable to most types of physicians for many of the services they render in Texas, regardless of whether the patient is or is not a Medicaid beneficiary.

Morales-Ryan’s signed plea agreement states that though he and Garcia-Morales were in Hawaii on October 12, 2007, he falsely represented to Medicaid that he performed an evaluation and management of a new patient on that date claiming entitlement to payment. However, at the time he made this false representation to Medicaid, he and Garcia-Morales knew the statement was false and that neither of them performed that service on or about that date. Similarly, Garcia-Morales admitted that though she and Morales-Ryan were en route to the U.S. Virgin Islands on March 23, 2007, she falsely represented to Medicaid that she performed an orthodontic retention on that date claiming entitlement to payment. However, at the time she made this false representation to Medicaid, she and Morales-Ryan knew the statement was false and that neither of them performed an orthodontic retention on or about that date.

As a result of their plea agreements, they will be sentenced to five years probation and will pay restitution in the amount of $686,545 to the State of Texas Health and Human Services Commission – Office of Inspector General.

Court records reflect that this is not the first time Morales-Ryan has been in legal trouble. Morales-Ryan previously was convicted of 13 counts of practing medicine without a license for performing non-dentistry and non-non-oral and maxillofacial surgeriescosmetic surgery procedures including including: tummy tucks, liposuction, and breast augmentation. See here.

The Texas State Board of Dental Examiners previously suspended the license to practice dentistry of Morales-Ryanin Texas. See here.

Giventer Conspiracy To Commit Bankruptcy Plea

On May 14, 2012, Michael Giventer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bankruptcy fraud. Giventer’s wife, Julia Shavabskaya, previously pleaded guilty to the same charge on April 30, 2012.

Justice Department officials charged that from on August, 2002 to July 2010, Giventer caused the incorporation of two business entities, Ambucare Inc. and Open Diagnostic Imaging Inc., as holding companies to receive income from clinics providing various forms of health care services to individuals who were covered by Workers’ Compensation insurance.

Ownership of both Ambucare and Open Diagnostic Imaging was placed solely in the name of Shvabskaya. Through these two companies, Giventer received income from a number of these clinics, such as Valley Center for Pain and Stress Management, Functional Pain Center, Palladium for Surgery and Valley Comprehensive Pain Management. Unrelated court records reflect that at least one of these organizations, Valley Center for Pain and Stress Management during the period was accused by insurer TML Intergovernmental Risk Pool of seeking worker’s compensation benefits for medically unnecessary services. Valley Comprehensive Pain Management v. TML Intergovernmental Risk Pool (May 19, 2004).

On November 4, 2005, Giventer filed for bankruptcy under chapter 7 in the Southern District of Texas. During the bankruptcy, Giventer was required to file under penalty of perjury various Schedules consisting of assets, debts, liabilities and a Statement of Financial Affairs in which he was required to disclose among other things, his income, debts, property and transfers of property. In some of the documents, Giventer indicated he did not own an interest in Ambucare, Open Diagnostic Imaging and other properties and assets. In truth, however Giventer controlled, managed and received income from these entities and made all decisions about how their income would be distributed. Shavabskaya falsely testified that she owned the companies and that Giventer did not own or operate them. Additionally, both Giventer and Shavabskaya knew and falsely denied under oath any ownership interest in these entities in order to deceive, frustrate and prevent creditors and the bankruptcy Trustee from identifying and collecting assets as part of the bankruptcy estate to be distributed for the benefit of creditors.

Sentencing of both Giventer and Shavabskaya on the bankruptcy fraud conspiracy guilty pleas is scheduled on September 24, 2012. Each faces a maximum sentence of up to five years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000.

Health Care Providers Must Act To Manage Risks

For Legal Representation or More Information

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. 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

Texas Medical Supply Medical Supply Company Owner Convicted Of Violating Anti-Kickback Statute Could Get 5 Years

May 16, 2012

The owner of a Weslaco, Texas-area medical supply and diagnostic testing company faces sentencing on July 25, 2012 to five years in federal prison without parole and a $250,000 fine after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the federal anti-kickback statute. The successful prosecution of Jose “Joe” Trevino is the latest in a growing list of criminal prosecutions and convictions by Federal officials under the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute.

The Anti-Kickback Statute

The Federal Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits individuals and entities from knowingly and willfully paying or offering to pay, as well as soliciting or receiving, remuneration (money or other things of value) in return for the referral of patients for medical services or items which are benefits under a federal health care program, such as Medicare or Medicaid. Violation of the Statute is a felony offense.

Trevino Conviction

Trevino pleaded guilty on April 24, 2012 to a one-count criminal information charging conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute. According to information presented by the United States at the April 24th hearing, Trevino is the owner of Med-Quick Diagnostics, a medical supply and diagnostic testing facility in Weslaco, Texas. From approximately September 2009 through April 2011, Federal officials charged that Trevino authorized thousands of dollars in illegal kickback payments to an area marketer, Alicia Vasquez, in exchange for Vasquez’s referrals of many Medicare and Medicaid patients to Med-Quick. Trevino paid the kickbacks to Vasquez through a third-party – referred to in the criminal information as “Person A.” The kickbacks were deposited into Person A’s bank account, from where the money was later diverted to Vasquez. Med-Quick subsequently billed Medicare and Medicaid hundreds of thousands of dollars for patients that were illegally referred by Vasquez.

Vasquez previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy and is awaiting sentencing.

Other Federal Anti-Kickback Statute Enforcement

The Trevino conviction is the latest in a growing list of Anti-Kickback Statute prosecutions. Federal enforcement of the Anti-Kickback Statute has increased. On April 19, 2012, for example, Federal prosecutors in Houston charged Floyd Leslie Brooks and Gwendolyn Kay Frank with conspiracy to violation the Anti-Kickback Statute in relation to the massive health care fraud conspiracy that allegedly billed the Medicare and Medicaid programs for more than $45 million.

That action followed the April 9, 2012 guilty plea of former Orthofix vice president of sales Thomas P. Guerrieri to violating the Anti-Kickback Statute in connection with the sale of bone growth stimulators. His sentencing is scheduled for July 11, 2012. He faces up to five years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine and forfeiture. See also, Nine Health Care Professionals, Including Five Doctors, Charged In Kickback Scheme.

Health Care Providers Must Act To Manage Risks

For More Information Or Assistance

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. 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 » | Anti-KickBack, Doctor, E-Prescribing, false claims act, Health Care, Health Care Fraud, Health Care Provider, Hospital, OIG, Physician, Physician Licensing, Prescription Drugs, Reimbursement, Substance Abuse | Tagged: Anti-Kickback, controlled substance, DEA, Drug Testing, drugs, false claims act, Health Care, Health Care Compliance, Health Care Fraud, HEAT, licensure, Medicaid, Medical Board, Medicare, pain management, pharmacist, pharmacy, physical therapy, Physician | Permalink
Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Texas Healthcare Operator’s Guilty Plea To Bankruptcy Fraud Conspiracy Highlights Broad Prosecution Risks

May 16, 2012

The recent guilty pleas of the former operator of Texas-based ambulance and imaging companies and his wife to conspiring to commit bankruptcy fraud shows the risks of misrepresentation in official documents, as well as the diverse range of tools and options that federal officials wield as part of their crusade against what they perceive as wrongdoers in the health care system.

Conspiracy To Commit Bankruptcy Plea

On May 14, 2012, Michael Giventer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bankruptcy fraud. Giventer’s wife, Julia Shavabskaya, previously pleaded guilty to the same charge on April 30, 2012.

Health Care Providers Must Act To Manage Risks

For Legal Representation or More Information

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. 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

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Health Industry Employers High Priority OSHA Enforcement Target

Battle Creek VA OSHA Safety Violations

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