RECENT HEALTH LAW NEWS

LabCorp announced on July 22 that it is now offering blood tests directly to consumers online. The clinical lab giant’s “Pixel by LabCorp” platform previously offered self-directed test kits for colorectal cancer and diabetes screening, as well as lipid panels. The service is not currently offered in New York, New Jersey, Maryland or Rhode Island.

On July 17, CVS Health Corp. announced the beginning of human trials of a new home dialysis machine called the HemoCare Hemodialysis System. The company’s CVS Kidney Care unit hopes to shift some of the $35 billion market for end-stage kidney care from outpatient dialysis clinics to patients’ homes.

The HemoCare device was designed by

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

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently issued new guidance on its HIPAA FAQs webpage regarding permissible use and disclosures of protected health information (PHI) by health plans for purposes of care coordination and continuity of care. Health plans are covered entities under HIPAA.

The guidance explains that,

With the political battle over the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) dragging on in Washington, a number of states have recently taken steps to protect their residents from potential instability in the health insurance market. New Jersey is setting up its own state health insurance exchange to replace the federally run healthcare.gov marketplace,

A New York anesthesiologist was indicted on July 9 for conspiring with pharmacies and medical equipment suppliers to defraud the Medicare program and other insurers. Anna Steiner, also known as Hanna Wasielewska, allegedly wrote prescriptions for drugs and durable medical equipment for patients supposedly seen via telemedicine without ever having actually examined or evaluated the

A new federal regulation that would have required companies to disclose wholesale prices of prescription drugs in television advertisements was rejected by a federal court on July 8, one day before the rule would have taken effect. Amgen Inc., Eli Lilly & Co. and Merck & Co. Inc. had filed suit challenging the rule, claiming

FiercePharma reports that patients in doctor’s office waiting rooms who use the office Wi-Fi network may now receive targeted pharmaceutical ads on their smartphones. Semcasting, Inc., a Massachusetts-based data provider, uses a technology called Smart Zones that can deliver messages to the entire audience at a business’s IP address.

The digital ad delivery is far

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expects to release proposed revisions to the federal physician self-referral prohibition (Stark Law) before Labor Day, according to Kim Brandt, CMS’s principal deputy administrator for operations. Brandt was speaking at an industry conference. Potential Stark Law changes were recently discussed here.

CMS had requested input from the

New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced on June 13 that her office had sent cease-and-desist letters to 44 pharmacies that violated the law requiring them to maintain drug retail price lists. State law requires each pharmacy to maintain a list of prices for the 150 most commonly prescribed drugs, update the list at