In 2024, seven major Stark law indictments contributed to a record-breaking 979 qui tam lawsuits, with False Claims Act settlements and judgments totaling $2.92 billion by the federal government’s fiscal year-end. The enforcement wave was built across five years of…
Author: Patsy Newitt
ASC consolidation is not slowing because independent operators are getting stronger. It’s slowing because the financial math that made acquisitions irresistible no longer works. The roll-up era produced a significant national footprint. Dallas-based United Surgical Partners International, Brentwood, Tenn.-based Surgery…
As new colorectal cancer screening guidance expands the menu of testing options, the American Gastroenterological Association told Becker’s in an email it’s urging patients and providers not to treat all options as equivalent. In a statement following the American Cancer…
A Louisiana nurse practitioner who authored books on Medicare regulations has been sentenced to 87 months in prison for causing more than $12 million in fraudulent Medicare claims for medically unnecessary cancer genetic tests, the Justice Department said in a…
Cardiology is where orthopedics was 15 years ago: a specialty with clear ASC potential, a growing list of eligible procedures and a physician workforce that is largely hospital-employed and watching from the sidelines. Here are six cardiologists and cardiovascular leaders…
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The Pennsylvania Medical Society is hosting its first-ever Independent Practice Summit in Harrisburg, Pa., on June 19, bringing together independent physicians from across the state for a day focused on building sustainable models of physician-led care. The summit comes as…
A federal appeals court has affirmed the dismissal of a False Claims Act lawsuit against Thomas Health System, rejecting allegations that the West Virginia health system’s physician compensation arrangements violated the Stark law and Anti-Kickback Statute. The U.S. Court of…
ASC administrators and physician partners say that block time is the most avoidable margin drain hiding in plain sight. “Holding onto block time ‘just in case’ hurts the bottom line,” Elisa Auguste, administrator of Precision Care Surgery Center in East…
An Arkansas pathology laboratory that set up in-office labs at gastroenterology practices nationwide has agreed to pay $30 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations of paying illegal kickbacks and ordering medically unnecessary testing, the Justice Department said in a…
Gastroenterologists perform more procedures per physician than nearly any other specialty, and the volume carries risk. Colonoscopy remains the most litigated procedure in GI, but the landscape extends to ERCP (endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography), missed diagnoses and wrong-patient errors. Here are…