As it had done for previous hurricanes, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently issued a HIPAA Bulletin providing for a limited waiver of HIPAA sanctions and penalties for covered entities in Puerto Rico, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.

Such waivers are primarily intended

On August 16, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) announced the issuance of emergency regulations regarding medical exemptions for school vaccinations. The new regulations went into effect immediately upon their issuance.

Historically, New York State provided two exemptions for state-mandated vaccinations, one for religious considerations and the other for medical reasons. In June

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced on August 15 that health plans offered on health insurance exchanges will be ranked using a five-star quality rating system for the 2020 plan year open enrollment period that begins on November 1, 2019. The ratings will appear on both state-based exchanges and the federal exchange,

On July 29, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its proposed revisions to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for 2020. The Proposed Rule was published in the Federal Register on August 14.

CMS proposed to add three new codes for treatment of opioid use disorder to the list of services that are

On August 6, health insurer MVP Health Care announced an affiliation with Alliance for Better Health to address so-called social determinants of health in the Albany, New York area. The newly formed independent practice association (IPA), Healthy Alliance Independent Practice Association, is one of the first IPAs in the U.S. to focus exclusively on social

The New York State Department of Health (DOH) recently revised its policy regarding the review and approval process for Certificate of Need (CON) applications for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs).

The DOH’s current public need criteria favor the approval of new ASCs because they allow patients to obtain safe, low-cost and convenient surgical services outside a

As parents and healthcare providers prepare for the start of the new school year, there are now more than 26,000 students who will need to get vaccinated as New York has eliminated exemptions from vaccinations due to religious beliefs. New York Public Health Law §§ 2164 and 2165 require students to be immunized against diphtheria,

On July 23, companion legislation was introduced in the House and Senate by Senator Kamala Harris of California and New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler to legalize and tax marijuana at the federal level. The tax revenue from this legislation would support job training, substance abuse treatment, literacy programs, and other services for communities that have been

Based on a recent audit of payments under New York’s Medicaid program, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) estimated in a report that the state made hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to ineligible or “potentially ineligible” beneficiaries.

The audit examined payments to “non-newly eligible” beneficiaries, meaning

In a July 9 Warning Letter to Ceba-Tek, Inc. focused mainly on issues relating to failure to comply with regulations on Good Manufacturing Practices for Dietary Supplements, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) again commented on the issues confronting companies producing and marketing CBD as an ingestible: “It is a prohibited act to introduce