On January 10, 2020, a substance abuse treatment clinic manager in Jackson, Kentucky pleaded guilty to violating the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (“EKRA”) by soliciting kickbacks from a toxicology laboratory in exchange for urine drug testing referrals. The kickback involved the substance abuse treatment clinic manager receiving a $4,000 check from the laboratory, as […]
On October 9, 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) revealed its highly-anticipated proposals to update the Physician Self-Referral Law (“Stark”), the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”), and the Beneficiary Inducements Civil Money Penalty (“CMP”) law as part of its Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care. The proposed regulations for Stark and the AKS (and […]
On August 22, 2019, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (“SAMHSA”) and the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced proposed changes to the Confidentiality of Substance Abuse Disorder Patient Records regulations, set forth in 42 CFR Part 2 (“Part 2”). Part 2 protects and prevents access to patient records created by […]
On Friday, May 31, 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice released a press release pertaining to two Chicago-area home health agencies. The owners of the home health agencies plead guilty for their involvement in a kickback scheme through which they improperly obtained nearly $2 million dollars in Medicare reimbursements. The first home health agency, Renaissance […]
In 2012 and 2013, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (the “Cancer Center”) exposed protected health information pertaining to approximately 35,000 individuals. The Cancer Center has been involved in the appeals process regarding penalties imposed by the federal Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) of approximately $4.3 million associated with the HIPAA breaches. The […]