Pennsylvania Bans Mandatory Overtime for Many Healthcare Employees
Written by Staff
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
The Pennsylvania legislature has enacted a new law that says a healthcare facility, including ASCs and hospitals, cannot — in most cases — require an employee involved in clinical care to work in excess of an agreed to, predetermined and regularly scheduled daily work shift.
How Has USP 797 Affected Your ASC? Take the Survey Now
Written by Stephanie Wasek
Monday, 06 October 2008
You are invited to participate in a national survey regarding awareness of United States Pharmacopeia (USP) 797 and its practical effects on ASCs. USP 797 is the regulation that deals with sterile product handling; its revised standards came into effect on June 1.
Stark Health IT Bill Requires HIT System Standards, Offers Financial Incentives for Adoption
Written by Rob Kurtz
Thursday, 18 September 2008
New legislation introduced by Rep. Pete Stark, chairman of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, would require the government to create standards for an interoperable Health IT system and would provide financial incentives through Medicare to physicians and hospitals which adopt and use electronic medical records systems that meet the standards.
Written by Scott Becker, JD, CPA, Bart Walker, JD, and Elaine Gilmer, JD
Thursday, 18 September 2008
From a regulatory and legal perspective, 2008 has been a year marked by increased scrutiny of physician ownership relationships in the healthcare area. In the surgery center area, the closest impacts in the regulatory and legislative area related to physician ownership are (1) outlawing “under arrangement” types of transactions, (2) outlawing “per-click” relationships, (3) including pain management in the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) work plan for 2008, and (4) implementing a requirement that ownership of physician-owned hospitals be disclosed to patients.
Four Critical Concepts From the Latest Stark Act Regulations
Written by Scott Becker, JD, CPA, and Elissa Moore, JD
Thursday, 11 September 2008
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has, over the last several years, grown increasingly concerned with percentage-based lease arrangements, indirect financial relationships, per click payments and “under-arrangements” transactions. It has long indicated that changes to the Federal Ethics in Patient Referral Act (the “Stark Act”) were required in order to address their concerns. The latest Stark Act rules were released on August 19, 2008, in the Federal Register as part of federal regulations covering a variety of subjects relevant to healthcare providers. The changes to the Stark Act regulations address several concepts that will directly affect physicians, hospitals and the entrepreneurial relationships between and of each. This article briefly discusses four of the more important changes.
California Bill Would Let ASCs Purchase Drugs Wholesale
Written by Rob Kurtz
Friday, 29 August 2008
A new bill under consideration for law in California would clear the way for ASCs in the state to purchase drugs wholesale, but the state has yet to address more pressing issues, such as whether ASCs must be licensed or accredited or both to operate in the state.
Office of Inspector General Issues Advisory Opinion -- Physician/Hospital Joint-Venture
Written by Scott Becker, JD, CPA, and Melissa Szabad, JD
Monday, 28 July 2008
The Office of the Inspector General recently issued Advisory Opinion 08-08. This Advisory Opinion deals with a physician/hospital joint-venture surgery center. Here, the Advisory Opinion was requested because certain physicians who invested in the joint-venture were themselves not ?safe harbor? compliant. In essence, some of the physicians practice principally in an inpatient setting. The OIG, based on the number of prophylactic steps and the overall facts, determined that the joint-venture would pose minimal risk of abuse under the Anti-Kickback Statute. Scott Becker, JD, CPA, and Melissa Szabad, JD, of McGuireWoods served as counsel to the requesting center. Tom Mills and Marion Goldberg of Winston and Strawn and Neal Goldstein of Much, Shelist were also instrumental in assisting the center to obtain the opinion.
Depending on your point of view, HIPAA is either
a boon or a bane: It?s generated a whole new line
of business for many consultants, but has probably
presented a major pain for providers, or ?covered entities.?
What started in the 1990s as a set of guidelines to
allow patients more control over their healthcare destinies
(the ?P? in HIPAA stands for portability, after all) has
generated hundreds of pages of government regulations,
spawned dozens of books and seminars, and resulted in
the deforestation of countless acres to make the paper
required for all medical practices, hospitals and ASCs to
produce and print HIPAA policy manuals.
Plans for a new ASC in Alabama have stumbled when an administrative
law judge denied the application for the facility after hearing arguments from
both sides of the project, according to published reports.
More Charges, Indictments in $154 Million, Largest-Ever Insurance Fraud Scheme Involving ASC
Written by Stephanie Wasek
Thursday, 03 July 2008
The criminal grand jury indictments in the largest medical fraud prosecution in the nation have been unsealed, and the final two defendants have been charged for their role in the Unity Outpatient Surgery Center scheme, in which $154 million was fraudulently billed to medical insurance companies, the California Department of Insurance and the Orange County District Attorney?s Office (OCDA) announced.
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