September, 2012

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Department of Health (DOH) Asking Suspended Florida Massage Therapists to Voluntarily Relinquish Their Licenses

The Health Law Firm

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law, and Christopher E. Brown, J.D. On September 19, 2012, Florida state authorities announced the suspension of more than 80 massage therapists’ licenses. They are accused of fraudulently obtaining their licenses based on fake documentation obtained from a staff member at the Florida College of Natural Health, in Pompano Beach, Florida.

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Remedies for Violation of HIPAA Privacy Rights and Medical Confidentiality - Part 1

The Health Law Firm

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. I receive many questions and e-mails about possible violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's (HIPAA) Privacy Regulations and Security Regulations, and breaches of confidentiality of medical records and medical information. I will attempt to explain and clarify this issue a little in this short blog.

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Three Charged with Child Abuse After Miami Imposter Injures Teen with Illegal Dental Work

The Health Law Firm

George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. A Miami man, his wife and their daughter have been charged with child abuse following two alleged dental procedures that left a 14-year-old girl permanently disfigured. According to a number of sources, the three were arrested on September 12, 2012, at their home-operated dental office.

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25 Arrest Warrants Issued by Polk County Sheriff’s Office with Connection to Pill Mill Investigation

The Health Law Firm

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office issued 25 arrest warrants in connection to an ongoing pill mill investigation involving a medical clinic in Winter Haven, Florida. On September 19, 2012, the sheriff’s office announced that ten suspects in the case have been arrested, and 15 suspects with arrest warrants remain at large.

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HIPAA Compliance: Can Your Organization Avoid Costly Government Penalties and Fines?

Colington Consulting was established in 2013 and helps organizations achieve HIPAA compliance and ensures clients stay current with the latest enforcement trends. We provide a full range of HIPAA compliance services and consulting. What separates us from our competitors is our knowledge of HIPAA compliance regulations and their application to each of our client’s particular scenarios and requirements.

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You Might Be A Disruptive Physician If.Avoiding the Disruptive Physician Label - Part 2

The Health Law Firm

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. This is the second blog dedicated to physicians who are accused of being a disruptive. To read part 1 on the types of conduct that might make you a "disruptive physician," click here. Consequences of Disruptive Physician Behavior. According to one article on the subject by a physician leader, the consequences of disruptive behavior by a physician in a hospital are as follows: Disruptive physicians und

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Fake New York Plastic Surgeon Convicted for Performing Surgeries on Patients Without a Medical License

The Health Law Firm

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. A fake New York plastic surgeon was convicted on September 7, 2012, for performing cosmetic surgeries between April 2011 and December 2011, without a medical license. He’s also accused of completing the surgeries without general anesthesia and permanently disfiguring his patients.

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Contracting 101: Tips for Physicians and Health Professionals - Part 3

The Health Law Firm

By Christopher E. Brown, J.D. and George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. This blog is the third in a series intended to provide an introductory review of the basics of contracting for physicians and health professionals, primarily by discussing employment agreements. We will highlight many of the common provisions found in employment contracts, along with many of the mistakes and pitfalls that we see in our day-to-day practice.

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Florida Suspends 81 Massage Therapists’ Licenses

The Health Law Firm

By Joanne Kenna, J.D., R.N., and George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. According to a number of sources, state authorities have announced the suspension of more than 80 massage therapists’ licenses, who appear to have fraudulently obtained their licenses with the help of an employee at the Florida College of Natural Health.

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Alachua County Woman Arrested for Exploiting 11 Disabled Adults

The Health Law Firm

By Dr. Thu Pham, O.D., Law Clerk, The Health Law Firm Attorney and George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. A former employee of an organization that provides services to developmentally disabled adults in Alachua County, Florida, was arrested on June 15, 2012, according to the Attorney General’s (AG) Office.

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Walgreens Distribution Center in Florida Served with an Immediate Suspension Order from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)

The Health Law Firm

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. On September 14, 2012, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) blocked the Walgreens distribution center in Jupiter, Florida, from shipping oxycodone and other controlled drugs to its pharmacies in Florida and the East Coast with an immediate suspension order, according to the DEA.

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The Big Payoff of Application Analytics

Outdated or absent analytics won’t cut it in today’s data-driven applications – not for your end users, your development team, or your business. That’s what drove the five companies in this e-book to change their approach to analytics. Download this e-book to learn about the unique problems each company faced and how they achieved huge returns beyond expectation by embedding analytics into applications.

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You Might Be A Disruptive Physician If.Avoiding the Disruptive Physician Label - Part 1

The Health Law Firm

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. I have never read a Jeff Foxworthy book, and I have never watched more than a minute or two of one of his comedy routines, so my apologies to him in advance. However, I find his comedy routine about rednecks (or what I know of the little bit I have heard) to be a good vehicle for conveying what might be a joke to many, but should be taken very seriously, especially by one accused of being a disruptive

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Consequences of Having Your Massage Therapy License Revoked (Or Relinquishing it after Notice of an Investigation)

The Health Law Firm

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. Many massage therapists, when confronted with an investigation against their license, do not fight the charges, sometimes they decide it is cheaper and easier just to give up their license. Either choice is likely to be a mistake. A charge can be filed causing an investigation to be opened against a massage therapist by many different sources and often without any supporting evidence.

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Contracting 101: Tips for Physicians and Health Professionals - Part 2

The Health Law Firm

By Christopher E. Brown, J.D., and George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law This blog is the second in a series intended to provide an introductory review of the basics of contracting for physicians and health professionals, primarily by discussing employment agreements. We will highlight many of the common provisions found in employment contracts, along with many of the mistakes and pitfalls that we see in our day-to-day practice.

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Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Pulls Controlled Substance Licenses from Two Central Florida CVS Pharmacies

The Health Law Firm

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) revoked the registrations (controlled substance licenses) from two CVS pharmacies in Sanford, Florida, on September 12, 2012, according to a number of sources. The two pharmacies will no longer be able to fill prescriptions for drugs such as oxycodone, Dilaudid, Vicodin, Ritalin and Xanax.

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Everything You Wanted to Know About FACIS, but Didn’t Know to Ask

Speaker: Amy Anderson

FACIS® helps organizations mitigate patient and organizational risk. Maintaining compliance and safeguarding against fraud and abuse in today’s changing healthcare landscape can be challenging. Most healthcare organizations screen and monitor providers against the OIG but that’s only ONE of FACIS®’ primary sources. FACIS® pulls data for every taxonomy from the lowest level employee to the highest level licensed professional.

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Dentist and Two Pharmacists From Central Florida Face Drug Charges for Prescribing and Dispensing Painkillers

The Health Law Firm

By Danielle M. Murray, J.D., and George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. The Lakeland Ledger reports that Polk County Sheriff’s Detectives arrested a dentist and two pharmacists on September 5, 2012, in three unrelated cases dealing with illegally prescribing and dispensing painkillers. The sheriff’s office said the three arrests are part of its efforts to target prescription drug abuse.

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South Florida Mental Health Clinics Under Scrutiny by the Office of Inspector General for Medicare Fraud

The Health Law Firm

By Lance O. Leider, J.D., and George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. On August 16, 2012, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report on questionable billing by mental health centers. The report focuses on the nation’s mental health clinics that overbilled Medicare in 2010, some by tens of millions of dollars.

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The 25 Biggest Mistakes Massage Therapists Make After Being Notified of a Department of Health Complaint

The Health Law Firm

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. The investigation of a complaint which could lead to the revocation of a massage therapist's license to practice and the assessment of tens of thousands of dollars in fines, usually starts with a simple letter from the Department of Health (DOH). This is a very serious legal matter and it should be treated as such by the massage therapist who receives it.

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Former Medical Examiner Arrested for Allegedly Keeping Human Body Parts in Self-Storage Facility

The Health Law Firm

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. A former medical examiner, who is accused of keeping the body parts of more than 100 people in his Pensacola storage facility, was arrested September 7, 2012. He now faces a felony charge of improper storage of hazardous waste, a misdemeanor charge of “nuisance injurious to public health” and driving with a suspended license, according to a number of sources.

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Ensure Continuous Patient Care: How to Avoid Disruptions Due to Ransomware

The industry has seen an increasing pace of ransomware, zero-day, and remote-code execution attacks. Learn how to defend against these against these attacks in this eBook.

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Florida Teenager Found Guilty of Impersonating a Physician’s Assistant (PA)

The Health Law Firm

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. An 18-year-old Florida teenager was found guilty on August 30, 2012, of impersonating a physician’s assistant (PA) and practicing medicine without a license. According to the court case, he will be sentenced on November 14, 2012, and faces up to 25 years in prison on the felony counts.

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Ex-Florida Hospital Employee Faces Federal Charges For Accessing More Than 700,000 Patient Records

The Health Law Firm

By: Lance O. Leider, J.D., and George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. Federal court records from August 13, 2012, show that a former Florida Hospital employee faces fraud-conspiracy charges after he illegally accessed patient records in a solicitation scheme, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The breach in patient information was first thought to involve 2,000 patients, but according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) affidavit, more

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The OIG Reads My Blog! (And Probably Yours, Too)

The Health Law Firm

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. As a participant in many listservs, including those of the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA), I had always been warned to watch what I said online as the OIG, the FBI and other law enforcement authorities and regulators monitored these. Not that I really believed this, and this was unnecessary, because who would be dumb enough to say anything that might cause problems for himself or herself (

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Contracting 101: Tips for Physicians and Health Professionals - Part 1

The Health Law Firm

By Christopher E. Brown, J.D., and George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. This blog is the first in a series intended to provide an introductory review of the basics of contracting for physicians and health professionals, primarily by discussing employment agreements. We will highlight many of the common provisions found in employment contracts, along with many of the mistakes and pitfalls that we see in our day-to-day practice.

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Generative AI for Contracts Is Here: New Tools to Accelerate Drafting and Editing

The emergence of generative AI is reshaping the landscape of contract management, enabling businesses to generate and negotiate legal agreements with greater ease and speed. In this on-demand webinar, Hal Marcus, VP of Product Marketing at Evisort discusses how Evisort's generative AI transforms contract creation and negotiation, empowering legal teams to streamline processes while reducing risk.

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Director of Florida Center for Developmentally Challenged Adults Charged with Medicaid Fraud

The Health Law Firm

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. The director of a center for developmentally challenged adults in Okaloosa County, Florida, was arrested on August 16, 2012, for allegedly fraudulently billing Medicaid for more than $270,000 for services under the Medicaid Developmentally Disabled Waiver Program, according to the Attorney General’s (AG) office.

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Seven Tips to Speed Up the Medicare Prepayment Review Process

The Health Law Firm

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law. For Medicare providers, being notified of an impending audit is not welcome news. Being notified of a prepayment review is even worse. In a prepayment review, the health care provider must submit documentation to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) contractor before ever receiving payment.

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Pharmacists: Please, Please, Please Talk to an Attorney Before You Talk to an Investigator

The Health Law Firm

By Christopher E. Brown, J.D. In Florida, You DO NOT Have to Speak to an Investigator! Despite mailing out hundreds of thousands of postcards and letters to pharmacists, throughout Florida, we continue to receive calls from new clients and from potential clients, after they have already spoken to and made critical harmful admissions against their own interests to investigators.

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