Health Care Law Blog

How Technology is Transforming Healthcare

While the healthcare industry has historically been knocked as slow to adapt to emerging technologies, the technological modernization of the industry is now occurring at a furious pace. From the digitization of health care records, to improved means of communications between doctors and patients, technology is transforming healthcare.

Tech behemoths like IBM, as well as scrappy Silicon Valley startups, have recognized the potential and are pouring resources into healthcare IT. According to data from investment company Rock Health, venture capital funding to healthcare information technology companies for 2014 reached $2.3 billion as of mid-year 2014. That's more than 10 times the nearly $200 million that was invested in healthcare IT in 2007.

One of the healthcare industry's newest tech innovations, called Figure 1, is the brainchild of a doctor named Josh Landy. Figure 1 is an Instagram-style app that allows doctors to share photos of patient conditions with other medical professionals in order to get their opinions regarding diagnosis and treatment. Read More ›

Categories: Physicians, Privacy

Posted by: Julie LaVille Hamlet

  |  Contact Author

Share  | 

HIPAA Deadline Quickly Approaching – Are your Business Associate Agreements Up To Date?

The Final HIPAA Omnibus Rule ("Final Rule"), published January 25, 2013, contains several new requirements for business associate ("BA") agreements. While the requirements went into effect on September 23, 2013, grandfathered BA agreements that were in place prior to January 25, 2013 were deemed to be in compliance for one year. Now that the one year expiration of the deemed compliance is quickly approaching, covered entities and business associates must ensure that their grandfathered BA agreements are updated to comply with the Final Rule before the September 22, 2014 deadline.

To meet the deadline, covered entities and business associates should review and update all existing BA agreements to determine whether they are HIPAA-compliant. The Final Rule also requires business associates to have written BA agreements with their subcontractors that comply with the new requirements. Read More ›

Categories: Compliance, HIPAA

Posted by: Julie LaVille Hamlet

  |  Contact Author

Share  | 

Proposed Bill Would Require Michigan Employers to Provide Information on Reproductive Health Coverage

Michigan legislators Gretchen Whitmer (D- East Lansing) and Gretchen Driskell (D-Saline) plan to introduce a bill in the Senate and House this week entitled the "Reproductive Health Coverage Information Act," which would require employers to provide both prospective and current employees with information about health insurance coverage relating to reproductive health. Read More ›

Categories: Employment

Posted by: Julie LaVille Hamlet

  |  Contact Author

Share  | 

Health Care Providers Face Steep Penalties for Medicare/Medicaid Fraud

So far, July has been a busy month for health care fraud enforcement across the country.

On July 18, Divyesh Patel, owner of Alpine Nursing Care Inc. in North Randall, Ohio, was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and four counts of health care fraud. Patel was also ordered to pay total restitution of $1,939,864 to the Medicaid Program in Ohio. According to court documents, Patel hired Belita Mable Bush as the office manager despite knowing that Bush had been convicted of a health care-related felony and excluded from involvement in billing federal health care programs. From June 1, 2006 to October 18, 2009, Patel conspired with Bush to defraud Medicaid by billing for services that had never been performed or that had been performed by excluded individuals. The conspiracy resulted in losses of approximately $1.9 million to the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Bush was convicted on similar charges and will be sentenced next month. Read about more cases ›

Categories: Fraud & Abuse, Health Care Reform, Hospitals, Medicare/Medicaid, Physicians

Posted by: Julie LaVille Hamlet

  |  Contact Author

Share  | 

New LARA Policy for Professional Services Corporations

The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) Corporations Division has recently implemented a new policy for professional service corporations requiring that the purpose clause in the articles of incorporation includes the type of license held. Previously, only the type of services provided was required.

For example, the purpose clause for a dental practice must now state that the purpose of the corporation is to provide "dental services through a licensed dentist."

This new policy is not stated in any of the LARA materials. However, Foster Swift attorneys and paralegals frequently work with LARA and can help streamline the creation of a professional services corporation by knowing these LARA policy insights.

If you have questions about the new policy or would like assistance with starting a professional services corporation, please contact an attorney at Foster Swift.

Julie C. LaVille authored this article as a Law Clerk.

Categories: Licensing, Physicians, Regulatory

Posted by: Julie LaVille Hamlet

  |  Contact Author

Share  | 

IRS Questioned by House Committee Following Alleged Seizure of Medical Records

On Tuesday, June 11, members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce sent a letter to acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel requesting information regarding how the IRS handles confidential medical information. The letter comes after a recent lawsuit alleging that the IRS illegally seized over 60 million medical records in 2011.

The lawsuit, a class action filed by an unnamed health care provider against 15 unnamed IRS agents, alleges that the agents improperly seized the medical records in violation of the Fourth Amendment during a search executed on March 11, 2011. According to the complaint, the agents seized more than ten million medical records despite knowing that the records were not within the scope of their warrant, (which authorized only the seizure of financial records related to a former employee). The seized records allegedly contained "intimate and private information . . . including psychological counseling, gynecological counseling, [and] sexual or drug treatment." The complaint further alleges that the agents threated to "rip out" the servers containing the medical data if the company's IT personnel did not voluntarily transfer the information to the IRS.  Read More ›

Categories: Health Care Reform, HIPAA

Posted by: Julie LaVille Hamlet

  |  Contact Author

Share  | 

Walgreens Agrees to Record $80 Million Settlement with DEA

On Tuesday, June 11, 2013, the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) announced that it had reached an $80 million civil settlement agreement, the largest in DEA history, with Walgreen Co. (“Walgreens”) to resolve allegations involving an “unprecedented number” of record-keeping and dispensing violations under the Controlled Substance Act (“CSA”). According to the DEA’s Press Release, Walgreens negligently allowed controlled substances, including Oxycodone and other prescription painkillers, to be diverted into the black market. Read More ›

Categories: Compliance, Fraud & Abuse, Hospitals, Pharmacy, Physicians, Regulatory

Posted by: Julie LaVille Hamlet, Johanna M. Novak

  |  Contact Author

Share  |