RECENT HEALTH LAW NEWS

On September 15, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced five new settlements relating to enforcement of HIPAA’s right of access rule. Under HIPAA, patients have the right to timely access to their medical records, as recently discussed here.

A HIPAA covered entity must respond to a patient’s

In United States ex rel. Cimznhca, LLC v. UCB, Inc., the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals weighed in on a Circuit Court of Appeals dispute over the correct standard to apply to the government’s decision to dismiss a qui tam lawsuit under the False Claims Act (FCA). The authority of the government to dismiss an action,

Amazon recently introduced the Halo fitness tracker, its first entry into the health wearables market currently dominated by Fitbit and the Apple Watch. Amazon’s previous efforts to move into the healthcare industry have included the acquisition of online pharmacy PillPack in 2018, the mysterious Haven initiative with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, and various other

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on August 27 that New Jersey-based Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas Inc. agreed to pay $500,000 to resolve allegations that its former subsidiary, Viztek LLC, misrepresented the capabilities of its electronic health records (EHR) software, which caused users of the software to file false claims with the federal government.

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