Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. is in the crosshairs of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on two separate matters. On August 18, the DOJ announced that it filed a lawsuit against Teva and an affiliate, Teva Neuroscience Inc., under the False Claims Act for violations of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. The suit alleges that the

Earlier this month, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a bill to limit the scope of immunity for healthcare facilities (including nursing homes and hospitals) and healthcare professionals for future non-COVID-19 related services. The bill reversed protections that had been included in a state budget bill at the height of New York’s coronavirus

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently warned healthcare providers and organizations about a new phishing scam that targets HIPAA Compliance Officers. Postcards are being mailed to various healthcare organizations that appear to be an official communication from OCR, stating that a mandatory HIPAA compliance risk assessment must

An August 19 blog post on Fitbit’s website discussed preliminary results of the company’s COVID-19 study suggesting that Fitbit devices can detect signs of the disease before symptoms are noticed. The 100,000-person study found more than 1,100 positive cases of COVID-19, of which nearly 50% were detected at least one day before participants reported symptoms.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York has blocked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from enforcing a new rule that limited sex discrimination in healthcare to discrimination based on gender as determined by biology. The rule, discussed in detail here in June, did not recognize sexual orientation

A recent article in Part B News, “How to craft provider contracts that deal with board sanctions — and protect the practice,” discussed how physician practices can protect themselves against instances in which their doctors get sanctioned by the state medical board. Rivkin Radler’s Chris Kutner was quoted in the article.

Chris pointed out that

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic since mid-March, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) worked quickly to issue emergency guidance that allowed temporary expansion of payment for telehealth services and provided certain flexibility in providing telehealth services. The COVID pandemic has significantly increased awareness of the benefits of telehealth, as many patients have