In the News

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law

Federal prosecutors filed two cases on November 24, 2015, and a federal judge unsealed three others, all in correlation to the same fraudulent health care scheme.  The former Chief Financial Officer (CFO), two orthopedic surgeons, a chiropractor and a health care marketer of (or affiliated with) Pacific Hospital (“Pacific”) in Long Beach, California, pled guilty or have agreed to plead guilty in a nearly $600 million health care fraud scheme that spanned over an eight year period.  The defendants were each charged with their specific involvement in the illegal referring of thousands […]

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law

Rule 64B8-10.001, Florida Administrative Code, was recently updated by the Florida Board of Medicine for the Department of Health (DOH).  The final adopted rule was implemented on November 11, 2015.  This latest version of the rule entitled, “Medical Records of Deceased Physician; Retention, Time Limitations,” adds a mandate to section (1) stipulating additional measures to be taken to ensure access in an evolving practice that now includes electronic medical files.

New Requirement for Retention and Access of Electronically Stored Medical Records.

The new wording states: “Physicians must take proactive measures to ensure that their executor, administrator, personal […]

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law

Medicare will be lowering its payments by one percent in 2016 to 758 hospitals nationwide with high rates of potentially avoidable patient safety incidents.  The penalties are based on an assessment of the frequency of several types of infections, sepsis, hip fractures and other complications.  It is estimated that such penalties will cost hospitals $364 million in the new federal fiscal year, which runs through September 2016.

Over half of the penalized hospitals are repeat offenders from last year.  Among those that will be penalized for the first year since the creation of the 2010 health […]

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law
On February 9, 2016, the D.C. Circuit ordered the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to reconsider a lawsuit seeking to compel the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to meet statutory deadlines for reviewing Medicare claims denials. This order overturns the district court’s December 2014 decision in the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) lawsuit. The district court had decided that judicial intervention was not appropriate in such Medicare administrative cases. The AHA and three hospitals that derive a substantial chunk of their revenue from Medicare, filed the suit seeking relief for Medicare’s […]