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Health Law

Healthcare Law Blog

Healthcare law issues including Compliance counseling for HIPAA, Stark law, Anti-kickback Statute, CMP and fraud and abuse defense, healthcare criminal defense, joint ventures, anti-trust, and professional license disputes affecting Mountain West states Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada.
By Greg Piche

Post Frequency: 0.4/day

Last Entry: December 21, 2010 at 18:18:24

THREE INCENTIVE PITFALLS FOR HOSPITAL EMPLOYED PHYSICIANS.

Posted on January 22, 2010
More and more physicians are seeking hospital employment. Health care reform and widely anticipated federal Medicare reimbursement cuts are fueling another round of physician employment fever in hospitals. Some observers predict that as many as eighty five percent of physicians will be hospital employees in the next ten years...

Health Care Log Blog Named Among Top 50 Health Administration Blogs

Posted on January 19, 2010
We just recently received this notification from The Health Hut Blog: I?m writing to inform you of a feature story we recently published o n > our blog, The Health Hut, titled ?Top 50 Blogs to Learn About Health > Administration?. I thought you and your readers at Healthcare Law...

Transplant Follies: Live Liver Lie Leads To Surgeon Indictment

Posted on January 07, 2010
It is a felony to lie to a federal government official concerning an administrative matter or process within his or her jurisdiction. Dr. Richard R.Lopez, M.D., 54, the former head of the liver transplant program at St. Vincent?s Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA was the recipient of a grand...

JUSTICE KENNEDY, THE ?COMMERCE CLAUSE? AND THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF HEALTH REFORM.

Posted on January 05, 2010
There is a lot of ?buzz? in the media and on capital hill these days with Sen.Orrin Hatch and a number of allies aligned to challenge the constitutionality of the Obama Administration's Health Care Reform bill pending reconciliation in the Congress. The principal focus of the attacks seem to be...

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MONTANA AFFIRMS RIGHT TO PHYSICIAN ASSISTED SUICIDE-THROUGH STATUTORY, NOT CONSTITUTIONAL, ANALYSIS.

Posted on January 01, 2010
In a decision filed on the last day of 2009, the Montana Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision concerning the right of a dying patient to a physician assisted suicide though it based its decision on an analysis of Montana statutes and public policy rather than the state Constitutional...

PHYSICIAN PRACTICE GROUP ?COVENANTS NOT TO COMPLETE

Posted on December 30, 2009
The enforceability of covenants not to compete in physician practice group employment agreements vary from state to state. These covenants continue to develop legal angst as courts try to balance the protection of legitimate practice group interests against an individual physician?s right to practice his or her profession in a...

COMPLIANCE CODE OF CONDUCT ? CONTEXT OR PRETEXT

Posted on December 29, 2009
In Mark Thompson v. Quorum Health Resources, Inc., 1:06-cv-001658, (W.D.Kentucky, Bowling Green Div , Dec. 7, 2009), the U.S. District Court rejected the Defendant Quorum?s motion for summary judgment in a retaliation action brought by a former Quorum hospital CEO, who claimed that Quorum terminated him in retaliation for his...

RETURNING VETS - OUTRAGEOUS DELAYS IN VA CARE AND BENEFIT APPEALS.

Posted on December 12, 2009
Pending before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals now is the case of Veterans For Common Sense v. Eric K Shinseki, et al, captioned in the District Court below as Veterans For Common Sense v. James B. Peace, M.D., 563 F. Supp. Ed 1049 (N.D. Cal. 2008) ...

E-PATIENTS AND ELECTRONIC PERSONAL HEALTH RECORDS (?EPHR?)

Posted on December 10, 2009
The cost of health care is an enormous drag on the productivity of American business. When the cost of health care for employers rises to 20% of the cost of doing business in some industries, the structural handcuffs of health care costs can make the difference in economic survival or...

WIFE STATES CLAIM AGAINST DENTAL MANAGEMENT COMPANY FOR DELIVERY OF DRUGS HER SURGEON HUSBAND OVERDOSED ON.

Posted on December 06, 2009
The denial of the defendant?s motion to dismiss in the case of Kim v. Interdent, Inc., No. C 08-5565 SI in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California seems to fall among those odd ?man bites dog? cases that are both perplexing and irrational...

MONTANA SUPREME COURT AFFIRMS INJUNCTION AGAINST HOSPITAL SUSPENSION OF PHYSICIAN WHO DENIED IT ACCESS TO HIS FAMILY?S PRIVATE MEDICAL RECORDS.

Posted on November 28, 2009
The Montana Supreme Court affirmed the issuance of a preliminary injunction restraining Community Medical Center, a hospital in Missoula, Montana for suspending the medical staff privileges of a hospitalist whose only offense was to refuse to grant unrestricted access to his family?s medical records to a hospital subcommittee...

PERSONAL MEDICAL RECORDS (?PHR?): PROMISE AND PITFALL

Posted on November 27, 2009
Hospitals, Physicians and other health care providers continue to struggle with the cost, interoperability, access and security issues related to adoption of Electronic Health Records (?EHR?). The Obama administration is very much behind the development of EHR for its anticipated quality improvement and cost reduction benefits...

OREGON FINDS EXISTENCE OF PHYSICIAN/PATIENT RELATIONSHIP IN NEUROSURGEON?S TELEPHONE CONSULT WITH EMERGENCY ROOM.

Posted on November 24, 2009
In the absence of a contract or direct physician/patient contact, when does a telephone consult ripen into a professional relationship? The general rule seems to be that in the absence of some connection with the patient, merely listening to another physician?s description of a patient?s symptoms and offering a professional...

Greg Piche' To Speak on Functional Brain Imagery in address to Colorado Trial Lawyers Association.

Posted on November 19, 2009
Greg Piche" will address the Colorado Trial Lawyer Association at their Program entitled "Simple Solutions for Success in Brain Injury Cases" on November 20, 2009. The program is being held at the Four Points by Sheraton SE, in Denver. His subject will be "The Effective Use of Functional Brain Imagery...

ABORTION RIGHTS: SOPHIE?S CHOICE FOR PROCHOICE WOMEN IN HEALTHCARE REFORM?

Posted on November 16, 2009
ABORTION RIGHTS: SOPHIE?S CHOICE FOR PROCHOICE WOMEN IN HEALTHCARE REFORM? The House of Representatives passed its healthcare reform bill on November 7, including an amendment proposed by Representative Bart Stupak (D) Michigan and Rep. Joe Pitts (R) Pennsylvania excluding any coverage for abortion in the government run plan or in...

COLORADO MEDICAL POT LAW ALL SMOKE?

Posted on November 15, 2009
The good news for Colorado Medical Marijuana smokers is that the Colorado State Constitutional Amendment making possession of pot more medically qualified users and their ?personal care providers? is Constitutional. The bad news is that it is still illegal to sell it...

GENERAL COUNSEL LIABILITY IN HEALTH CARE ETHICS AND COMPLIANCE OVERSIGHT.

Posted on July 09, 2009
It is not easy being General Counsel for a health care system and growing more difficult with the advent of Corporate Integrity Agreement and Public Securities Obligations. It is also dangerous and unwise to accept responsibility for Chief Compliance Officer as well as Chief Legal Officer...

THE INTERNET, MYSPACE, MEDICAL PRIVACY AND FAMILY FEUDS.

Posted on June 26, 2009
Two recent and unrelated cases this month involved the unlawful access to private medical records and the posting of them on the internet on MySpace in order to inflict pain in the prosecution of family feuds. Both feuds involved Asian families. In Hawaii, Rhonda Wong-Fernandez, a 22 year old mother...

THE ?AVIATION? MODEL IN HEALTHCARE AND AIR FRANCE FLIGHT 447

Posted on June 14, 2009
In the 1980s the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (?CAST?) determined that eighty five percent of aviation accidents and fifty two percent of all fatal aviation accidents were the result of cognitive error by pilots. CAST pushed for the use of systems, checklists and foolproof communication systems to reduce the human...

Greg Piche' and Joan Ditges RAC Audit Audioconference Scheduled for June 18, 2009

Posted on June 12, 2009
Greg Piche' and Joan Didges, R.N. will present an audioconference on RAC Audits captioned "How to Guard Your Practice from Medicare RAC Audits." on June 18, 2009 at 1:00 P.M. ET. The Webinar is sponsored by Part B News and Decsion Health. Further Information can be found at http://www...

TWENTY-FIVE STEPS IN DEFENSE OF RAC AUDITS.

Posted on June 06, 2009
Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) are in the process of saddling up for the nationwide roll out of their Medicare payment recoupment mission. Here are twenty-five recommended proactive steps to circle the wagons and defend the RAC threat. 1. Develop and implement a written audit defense plan- the government bounty hunters...

RAC AUDITS AND NEW FEDERAL FALSE CLAIMS ACT EXPOSURE.UNDER THE FRAUD ENFORCEMENT RECOVERY ACT OF 2009 (?FERA?).

Posted on May 30, 2009
The federal squeeze of health care providers is underway. Federal Medicare recovery ?bounty hunters,? the Recovery Audit Contractors (?RAC?), are marshalling resources for the anticipated, algorithm primed, data mining hunt for Medicare overpayments from hospitals, physicians, DME companies, hospices and other providers, which is likely to bloom in the second...

INTERNET MEDICINE: PART VII ? PUBLIC, PROPRIETARY AND PRIVACY TENSIONS IN MEDICAL DEVICES.

Posted on May 25, 2009
The front page of the New York Times today carried a story by Pam Belluck on a hospital?s promotional webcast of Shila Renee Mullins?s brain surgery to extract a malignant tumor, which raised conflicting opinion is about the wisdom, benefit and ethics of the public dissemination of personal medical information,...

INTERNET MEDICINE: PART VI ?CHALLENGES TO DATA SECURITY IN INTERNET MEDICAL DEVICE INFORMATION LINKS.

Posted on May 19, 2009
The growing interoperability between medical devices and electronic medical records gives rise to new opportunities in the transmittal and collection of vital medical data. New vulnerabilities arise as well. Last month, the Internet Storm Center sponsored by SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security Institute) warned that the Conflicker worm had infected...

INTERNET MEDICINE: PART V ?TELEMEDICINE AND THE VIRTUAL DOCTOR VISIT.

Posted on May 11, 2009
According to Dr. Roy Schoenberg, M.D., founder of the telemedicine company, American Well, Inc., the Obama administration?s stimulus plan for investment in local community broad band digital capability has far more potential to impact the development of 21st century medicine than the electronic medical records subsidies...

Internet Medicine Part IV: ?Health 2.0.?

Posted on May 06, 2009
?Health 2.0? or ?Medicare 2.0? relates to a new paradigm in the relationship between patients and physicians, in particular the application of Web 2.0 interconnectivity tools or social media technology to the provision of health care. One of the ironies of this movement is the emphasis on sharing rather than...

BOOK REVIEW: Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman, M.D., FANTASTIC VOYAGE: LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO LIVE FOREVER, Rodale 2004.

Posted on May 03, 2009
Aubrey de Grey, the British biomedical gerontologist who recently appeared on 60 Minutes and gave a lecture on ?Why We Age and How We Can Avoid It? on TED is convinced that we now have the resources to repair metabolically damaged tissue so as to be able to live for...

INTERNET MEDICINE PART III: FTC issues Notice of Rule Regarding Breach of Security of Personal Health Records.

Posted on April 27, 2009
There is a growing proliferation of on-line personal health records companies who undertake to warehouse and store personal health records for consumers on line. Four of the most prominent of these companies are Google Health, Microsoft Health Vault, RevolutionHealth Health Records and WebMD Personal Health Records...

INTERNET MEDICINE PART II: PHYSICIAN CHAT ROOMS

Posted on April 26, 2009
One of the growing phenomena related to the practice of medicine and the internet is the introduction of physician chat rooms in real time on the web. In new forums like Sermo, approximately 90.000 physicians can currently log on line and discuss clinical issues in real time and obtain broad...

INTERNET MEDICINE ? PART I: The New Concierge Practice.

Posted on April 19, 2009
President Obama?s strong support for the proliferation of Electronic Medical Records (?EMR?) notwithstanding, there remains enormous residence to the digitalization of medical documentation by many physicians who have been in practice over ten years. That resistance is based on cost, complexity, utility, inertia and fear...

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