Contact Us
Subscribe to this blog via RSS
Join us on LinkedInCategories
- Medical Spas
- medical billing
- No Surprises Act
- Mandatory vaccination policies
- Workplace health
- Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act
- Code Enforcement
- Department of Labor ("DOL")
- Employment Law
- FFCRA
- CARES Act
- Nursing Home Reform Act
- Acute Care Beds
- Clinical Support
- Coronavirus
- COVID-19
- Emergency Medical Services
- Emergency Preparedness
- Families First Coronavirus Response Act
- Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”)
- KBML
- medication assisted therapy
- SB 150
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Legislative Developments
- Corporate
- United States Department of Justice ("DOJ")
- Employee Contracts
- Non-Compete Agreement
- Opioid Epidemic
- Sexual Harassment
- Health Resource and Services Administration
- Litigation
- Medical Malpractice
- House Bill 333
- Senate Bill 79
- locum tenens
- Senate Bill 4
- Physician Prescribing Authority
- Chronic Pain Management
- HIPAA
- Prescription Drugs
- "Two Midnights Rule"
- 340B Program
- EHR Systems
- Electronic Health Records (“EHR")
- Hospice
- ICD-10
- Kentucky minimum wage
- Minimum wage
- Primary Care Physicians ("PCPs")
- Skilled Nursing Facilities (“SNFs”)
- Uncategorized
- Affordable Insurance Exchanges
- Compliance
- Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
- Drug Screening
- Fraud
- Health Care Fraud
- HIPAA Risk Assessment
- KASPER
- Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure
- Kentucky’s Department for Medicaid Services
- Mental Health Care
- Office for Civil Rights ("OCR")
- Office of Inspector General of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (OIG)
- Physician Assistants
- Qui Tam
- Stark Laws
- Urinalysis
- Accountable Care Organizations (“ACO”)
- Affordable Care Act
- Alternative Payment Models
- Anti-Kickback Statute
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”)
- Certificate of Need ("CON")
- Charitable Hospitals
- Data Breach
- Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI)
- False Claims Act
- Federally Qualified Health Centers (“FQHCs”)
- Fee for Service
- Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act)
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)
- Health Professional Shortage Area ("HPSA")
- Hospitals
- HPSA
- HRSA
- Limited Services Clinics
- Medicaid
- Medical Staff By-Laws
- Medically Underserved Area ("MUA")
- Medicare
- Mid-Level Practitioners
- Part D
- Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”)
- Pharmacists
- Rural Health Centers (“RHCs”)
- Rural Health Clinic
- Telehealth
- American Telemedicine Association (“ATA”)
- Criminal Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”)
- Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (“HEAT”)
- Hydrocodone
- Kentucky Board of Nursing
- Kentucky Pharmacists Association
- Qualified Health Care Centers (“FQHC”)
- Telemedicine
- APRNs
- Chain and Organization System (“PECOS”)
- Jimmo v. Sebelius
- Maintenance Standard
- Overpayments
- United States ex. Rel. Kane v. Continuum Health Partners
- Vitas Innovative Hospice Care
- Webinar
- Agreed Order
- All-Payer Claims Database ("APCD")
- Chiropractic services
- Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (“CLIA”)
- Compliance Officer
- Douglas v. Independent Living Center of Southern California
- Drug Enforcement Agency ("DEA")
- Emergency Rooms
- Enrollment
- Essential Health Benefits
- Hinchy v. Walgreen Co.
- ICD-9
- Kentucky Senate Bill 7
- Medicare Part D
- Minors
- Ophthalmological services
- Physician Compare website
- Re-validation
- Texting
- 2014 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (“PFS”)
- 501(c)(3)
- Affinity Health Plan
- Appeal
- Cadillac tax
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Chronic Care Management
- Community health needs assessment (“CHNA”)
- Compounding
- Condition of Participation ("CoP")
- CPR
- Denied Claims
- Dispenser
- Drug Quality and Security Act (“DQSA”)
- Federation of State Medical Boards (“FSMB”)
- Food and Drug Administratio
- Form 4720
- Grace Period
- HealthCare.gov
- Home Medical Equipment Providers
- House Bill 3204
- Individual mandate
- Inpatient Care
- Kentucky Medical Practice Act
- Kindred v. Cherolis
- Kynect
- Licensure Requirements
- Long-term care communities
- Long-Term Care Providers ("LTC")
- Medicare Shared Saving Program (MSSP)
- Mobile medical applications ("apps")
- Model Policy for the Appropriate Use of Social Media and Social Networking in Medical Practice (“Model Policy”)
- National Drug Code ("NDC")
- National Institutes of Health
- New England Compounding Center ("NECC")
- Nonprofit hospitals
- Outsourcing facility
- Personal Service Entities
- Physician Payments
- Ping v. Beverly Enterprises
- Power of Attorney ("POA")
- Prescriber
- Qualified Health Plan ("QHP")
- Social Media
- Spousal coverage
- State Health Plan
- Sustainable Growth Rate (“SGR”)
- UPS
- “Superuser”
- "Plan of Correction"
- Advanced Practice Registered Nurses
- Arbitration
- Audit
- Business Associate Agreements
- Business Associates
- Call Coverage
- Daycare centers
- Decertification
- Department of Medicaid Services’ (“DMS”)
- Division of Regulated Child Care
- Doe v. Guthrie Clinic
- EHR vendor
- Employer Group Health Plans
- Employer Mandate
- ERISA
- Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
- False Billings
- Group Purchasing Organizations ("GPO")
- Health Professional Shortage Areas (“HPSA”)
- Health Reform
- Home Health Prospective Payment System
- Hospitalists
- House Bill 104
- Intermediate Sanctions Agreement
- Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange
- Kentucky House Bill 217
- Licensed practical nurses (LPN)
- List of Excluded Individuals and Entities
- LLC v. Sutter
- Low-utilization payment adjustment ("LUPA")
- Meaningful use incentives
- Medicare Administrative Coordinators
- Medicare Benefit Policy Manual
- Network provider agreement
- Nonroutine medical supplies conversion factor (“NRS”)
- Nurse practitioners (NP)
- Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (“ONC”)
- Part A
- Part B
- Patient Autonomy
- Patient Privacy
- Payors
- Personal Health Information
- Physician Recruitment
- Physician shortages
- Provider Self Disclosure Protocol
- Quality reporting
- Registered nurses (RN)
- Residency Programs
- Self-Disclosure Protocol
- Senate Bill 39
- Senate Finance Committee Report
- State Medicaid Expansion
- Statement of Deficiency ("SOD")
- Trade Association Group Coverage
- Upcoding
- Autism/ASD
- Center for Disease Control
- Compliance Programs
- Critical Access Hospitals (“CAHs”)
- Essential Health Benefits (“EHBs”)
- Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act ("GINA")
- Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)
- Kentucky House Bill 159
- Kentucky Primary Care Centers (“PCCs”)
- Managed Care Organizations (“MCOs”)
- Medicare Audit Improvement Act of 2012
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”)
- Recovery Audit Contractors (“RAC”)
- Small Business Health Options Program (“SHOP”)
- Sunshine Act
- Abuse and Waste
- Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan programs (“CO-OPS”)
- Free Conference Committee Report
- Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program
- House Bill 1
- House Bill 4
- Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services
- Kentucky Health Care Co-Op
- Kentucky Health Cooperative (“KYHC”)
- Kentucky “Pill Mill Bill”
- Pain Management Facilities
- Employee Agreement
- Health Insurance
- Healthcare Regulation
- Health Care Law
McBrayer Blogs
Showing 178 posts in Health Care Law.
With Great Power, Comes Great Liability?
As medical advancements and patients in need of medical care continue to increase, the role of mid-level practitioners becomes even more crucial. While there have been many turns of phrase for these medical professionals, the term “mid-level practitioner” is meant to encompass those non-physician providers, which include advanced practice nurses and physician assistants, among others. In Kentucky, there has been a shortage of primary care providers, which is particularly problematic in the state’s many rural areas. This in turn has led to the push for more autonomy to these integral medical providers. While there are many reasons why this development is an improvement for patients and providers alike, this also leads to more liability exposure. More >
Expanded Certificate of Need Exemptions Poised to Grow Healthcare Industry
In recent months, the Commonwealth of Kentucky has begun to amend the Kentucky Administrative Regulations and the Kentucky Revised Statutes, aiming to deregulate certain healthcare facilities and services to promote growth and expansion of healthcare services to Kentuckians. Kentucky’s ability to regulate the growth of its healthcare industry is based, in part, on the State Health Plan, the Certificate of Need (CON) process and the licensure of healthcare entities through the Office of Inspector General. As a Certificate of Need state, Kentucky-based healthcare providers who wish to initiate or expand healthcare services generally must go through a lengthy and expensive process unless they meet one of the few available exemptions. For years, Kentucky excluded certain physician-owned healthcare entities from both the Certificate of Need process and licensure through a series of strict guidelines established by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services known as the “physician office exemption.” More >
New Kentucky Law Provides More Access to Telehealth
Thanks to recently passed legislation going into effect July 1, 2019, Kentucky providers will have more access to patients via telehealth. Previously, telehealth visits were limited to doctors and high-level practitioners, with patients required to be in a clinical setting for the visit. The new law will allow commercial insurance and Medicaid to pay for telehealth visits in the home as well as pay mid-level providers for telehealth visits. More >
Healthcare Entities: How is Your Cyber Security?
In an evolving world of cyber terrorism where individuals such as Edward Snowden grab headlines by stealing national secrets, it should come as no surprise that protected healthcare information (“PHI”) kept by providers has become a “target rich environment” for foreign governments and individual hackers alike. In addition to threats from outside entities, healthcare providers must also realize and appreciate that state and federal regulatory and statutory requirements govern the creation, maintenance and protection of PHI, including through but not limited to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (“HITECH”) Act. Failure to abide by these complex and stringent rules can lead to significant penalties. More >
CMS Executes About-Face on Pre-Dispute Arbitration Ban
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published a proposed rule on June 5, 2017, that serves as an effective course reversal on pre-dispute arbitration agreements in a long-term care (“LTC”) setting. This caps off an effort by many in the healthcare and nursing home industry to stop the prior rule, which banned such agreements, from taking effect. More >
Compliance Programs for Nursing Facility Providers
Nursing facilities are now required to develop and implement effective compliance and ethics programs under newly-created Section 483.85 of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) §6102. These programs must be in effect by November 28, 2017. These regulatory requirements are highly complex, especially the requirement of annual review and revision of the programs. More >
A New Day for Healthcare in Kentucky
Starting in July, practitioners may be asked to sign for mail from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and open this to discover a “Proposed Complaint.” Thanks to a new and sweeping effort at reform in healthcare in the Commonwealth, Kentucky healthcare providers now need to know what to expect if they receive such a Proposed Complaint. More >
Quality Over Quantity: The Shift from Fee-for-Service to Value-Based Payment Systems
The United States Department for Health and Human Services (“HHS”) recently announced its intention to tie thirty percent of fee-for-service Medicare payments to alternative and value-based payment models by 2016. HHS hopes to increase that amount to fifty percent by the end of 2018. Currently, up to twenty percent of payments are made through alternative models, a substantial increase in a short amount of time since almost no payments were made through alternative models as recently as 2011. Two days after HHS’ announcement, a group of key health care industry stakeholders announced the formation of the Health Care Transformation Task Force, a new industry consortium making a public commitment to transition seventy-five percent of its business between now and 2020 to value-based arrangements. These developments demonstrate the shift from fee-for-service payments based on quantity of work regardless of outcome and signals a larger trend to seek quality over quantity. With the seemingly meteoric rise of value-based care, it is important to understand the ramifications of alternative payment models within the health care industry as a whole. More >
Guidelines regarding APRNs prescribing Hydrocodone
ENROLLMENT: A NEW ENFORCEMENT TOOL?
On December 3, 2014, CMS issued its Final Rule that addresses provider enrollment. These new rules create new tools to police provider enrollment. CMS now has the ability to deny enrollment of providers, suppliers and owners who have been affiliated with an entity that has unpaid Medicare debt. CMS has announced that this provision will help prevent individuals and entities from incurring substantial Medicare debt, leaving the Medicare program, and then re-enrolling as a new business to avoid repayment of the outstanding Medicare debt. CMS has announced that it will only enroll eligible individuals or entities if they repay the debt or enter into a repayment plan. More >
