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Please Click HerePosted on April 21, 2020 by Ruder Ware Alumni
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have issued new recommendations targeted at communities in Phase 1 of the Guidelines for President Trump’s “Opening Up America Again.” The Phase 1 category includes communities with low incidence or relatively low and stable incidence of COVID-19 cases. The new CMS guidelines outline recommendations for a gradual […]
Posted on April 17, 2020 by Ruder Ware Alumni
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published at the end of March new blanket waivers under the federal physician self-referral law (commonly known as the Stark Law) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The waivers were made retroactive to March 1, 2020 in recognition of the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic likely required some providers […]
Posted on September 23, 2019 by Ruder Ware Alumni
Our representation of behavioral health and substance abuse programs has required us to stay in tune to issues involving special confidentiality of patient records under 42 CFR Part 2, also known as the SAMHSA regulations. The SAMHSA regulations were completely recast in two sets of regulatory revisions that were issued in 2017 and 2018. One […]
Posted on June 13, 2019 by Ruder Ware Alumni
Congress has activated a new Anti-Kickback law known as Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act of 2018 (commonly referred to as EKRA). The new Anti-Kickback law applies to arrangements involving recovery homes, clinical treatment facilities, and laboratories. Congressional intent for enacting EKRA was noble. It wanted to clarify that brokering of opioid use disorder patients for […]
Posted on May 30, 2019 by Ruder Ware Alumni
The Affordable Care Act requires any person who has received an overpayment from certain defined government health programs to report and return the overpayment within 60 days after the overpayment is identified. If an overpayment is not repaid, or if a self-disclosure is not made before the expiration of the 60-day period, the overpayment amount […]
Posted on May 28, 2019 by Ruder Ware Alumni
The Department of Justice (DOJ) along with other health care fraud enforcement agencies, continue to send strong signals that they want businesses to police themselves for potential compliance issues and self-disclose where infractions are found. The fact of the matter is the government simply does not have enough resources to track down and take action […]
Posted on May 24, 2019 by Ruder Ware Alumni
How Are Compliance Budgeting and Compliance Officer Autonomy Tied Together When Assessing Compliance Effectiveness? The Department of Justice (“DOJ”)’s compliance program evaluation identifies the need to allocate sufficient revenues to the compliance program as one of the key issues that indicates compliance program effectiveness. The issue of resource allocation has been identified since the early […]
Posted on May 21, 2019 by Ruder Ware Alumni
HIPAA, as a body of regulations protecting the confidentiality of patient health care information, has been branded very effectively. Most staff at your average health care facility know about HIPAA and that it protects the confidentiality of a patient’s health care information. They understand they cannot go home and discuss patients they treat and that […]
Posted on May 20, 2019 by Ruder Ware Alumni
The Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) recently released an update (April, 2019) to its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (Evaluation). The Evaluation was first introduced in 2017 to provide guidance for prosecutors to consider when conducting investigations, determining whether to bring charges, and negotiating plea and other agreements. The Evaluation […]
Posted on May 13, 2019 by Ruder Ware Alumni
Well, it’s a start. New Medicare rules kicked in starting January 1, 2019 that are aimed at focusing less provider time on paperwork and more on patient care in inpatient rehabilitation facilities. Any change that reduces paperwork in this overregulated area is welcome, but the actual impact of the announced changes are incremental at best. […]