On December 27, 2020, former President Trump signed into law the No Surprises Act, which aims to protect healthcare consumers from surprise billing. The act went into effect on January 1, 2022.
January 18, 2022 [ READ MORE ]
Recently, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a rare Special Fraud Alert pertaining to medical device and pharmaceutical speaker programs. The OIG defines speaker programs as "company-sponsored events at which a physician or other health care professional makes a speech or presentation to other health care professionals about a drug or device product or a disease state on behalf of the company." The sponsoring company typically pays the speakers an honorarium.
February 2, 2021 [ READ MORE ]
On April 1, 2020, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker released his most recent Executive Order where he declared that Health Care Facilities, Health Care Professionals, and Health Care Volunteers are immune from civil liability for any injury or death that allegedly arises from providing assistance to the State in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
April 14, 2020; Updated April 27, 2020 [ READ MORE ]
This post is an update to a March 20, 2020, post, "HHS Waives Telehealth Restrictions for Medicare Beneficiaries to Expand Access to COVID-19 Treatment."
April 6, 2020 [ READ MORE ]
In response to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar issued a limited waiver of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Effective March 15, 2020 at 6:00 p.m., a covered hospital will not be subject to sanctions or penalties arising from noncompliance with the following provisions.
March 24, 2020 [ READ MORE ]
On March 6, 2020, President Trump signed the $8.3 billion Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act into law, which provided $500 million in waivers for certain Medicare telehealth restrictions during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
March 20, 2020 [ READ MORE ]