RECENT HEALTH LAW NEWS

The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office recently announced that the U.S. Department of Justice has intervened in a whistleblower suit against Life Spine Inc., an Illinois-based manufacturer of spinal implants, devices and equipment. The lawsuit, which seeks damages and civil penalties under the False Claims Act (FCA), claims that Life Spine paid millions of dollars in

A recent study of 51 healthcare providers and 3,003 institutions, published last week on the medRXiv website, revealed widespread noncompliance with HIPAA requirements regarding patients’ right of access to their own medical records. The study was conducted on behalf of Ciitizen Corporation, a medical records storage platform for patients.

The researchers sent record requests to

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

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a Fraud Alert on August 13 regarding a genetic testing scam targeting Medicare beneficiaries. The scammers will offer a “free” screening for genetic testing but then submit a claim to Medicare, which will likely deny the claim as medically unnecessary. The

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