July, 2015

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Responding to Medicaid Audits - Practical Tips

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 Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) —Office of Inspector General and Bureau of Medicaid Program Integrity—is the Florida agency responsible for routine audits of Medicaid health care providers. The agency ensures that the Medicaid program was properly billed for services.

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DOH Issues a New Abandoned Medical Records Alert

The Health Law Firm

By Michael L. Smith, R.R.T., J.D., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law and George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law The Florida Department of Health is experiencing an increase in the number of reports regarding abandoned medical records. In an effort to curb this trend, The Florida Board of Medicine has issued an alert to educate doctors regarding the retention and disposition of medical records.

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Podiatrist/Attorney Did Not Put His Best Foot Forward: Multiple Professions Can Mean Multiple Problems

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 Shelby Root. Thomas Philpot, a former Lake County Clerk of Court in Indiana, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2013 for theft and mail fraud. Philpot's conviction was the result of his alleged theft of federal funds to pay himself bonuses in connection with the work he performed.

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UCLA Health Network Says It Was a Victim of Criminal Cyberattack

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. UCLA Health claims it was a victim of a data breach that may affect as many as 4.5 million people. What Did the Attackers Retrieve? Hackers accessed parts of the UCLA Health network, which contain personal and medical information. This included customers’ and patients’ names, addresses, social security numbers, health insurance IDs and diagnosis and treatment records.

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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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The Health Law Firm Attorneys Often Represent Medical Professionals in Last Minute Depositions and Hearings

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 Our attorneys often receive calls from health care professionals regarding the possibility of representing them on short notice at a Board hearing or at a deposition related to a health care matter. We Take Last Minute Cases. There are some law firms that refuse to represent a client at a hearing unless given plenty of advance notice and preparation time.

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Study Finds ACA Plans Have a Third Fewer Providers than Employer-Based Plans

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 new study found that consumers who bought insurance on health exchanges last year had access to one-third fewer doctors and hospitals than people with traditional employer-provided insurance. Consulting firm Avalere Health conducted a study that provides a statistical basis which supports anecdotal reports from consumers and others.

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More Trending

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Florida Hospital Faces Two Data Breach Lawsuits

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 Florida Hospital is facing two possible class action lawsuits. Each one of the lawsuits involves separate data breaches of patient information over the past four years. The lawsuits are both pending in the Orange County Circuit Court. Two Breaches Over Four Years.

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Congress Sends Plea to HHS to Issue Medicaid Equal Access Regulations

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 House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Senate Committee on Finance both recently sent a letter to Secretary Burwell urging the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to actually issue the Medicaid Equal Access regulations. The regulatory guidance was proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

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Marijuana Policy Growing in 2015 as More States Preparing to Legalize

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 Marijuana policy has increasingly developed through the years. Today, 23 states have legalized medical marijuana and four states have approved recreational marijuana, including D.C. During 2015, the country and foreign nations will see big changes involving marijuana policies, according to a recent Brookings Institution report.

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South Florida Nursing Home Chain to Pay $17M in Whistleblower Suit

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 Miami-based nursing home chain has agreed to pay a record $17 million to settle a False Claims Act suit that was brought by its former Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The United States Attorney's Office claims that Plaza Health Network, formerly known as Hebrew Homes, allegedly doled out illegal payments to physicians for referrals of Medicare patients from 2006 through 2013.

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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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Are You Being Investigated for Health Care Fraud? Would You Know it if You Were?

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 Shelby Root Due to the large dollar amounts involved in health care, the great costs of many medical procedures and treatments and the complexity of payment plans, there are those who may attempt to take advantage and defraud the government or others. However, there are also those who just make honest mistakes in billing or whose billing personnel make mistakes; unfortunately, these honest errors m

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Food Truck Owners Must Possess a State-Issued to License in Order to Operate

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 Following is a summary of a recent administrative hearing case on an issue relevant to health law, decided by the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH). Department of Business & Prof'l Reg., Div. of Hotels and Restaurants v. Clinton Green , DOAH Case No. 14-2557 (Corrected Recommended Order Aug. 20, 2014).

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Agency’s Failure to Provide Teacher Hearing Notice Violated Due Process and Requires Reversal

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 following is an appellate court case summary from The Florida Bar Administrative Law Section Newsletter, Vo. 36, No. 4 (June 2015). Facts: Bates appealed a final order revoking his educator's certificate by the Education Practices Commission, arguing that the Commission failed to afford him proper notice of his informal hearing.

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Ready or Not, It’s Irregular Behavior Season.

The Health Law Firm

By Lenis L. Archer, J.D., M.P.H., and George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law Every year at regular intervals, our firm receives calls from panicked medical students and residents about a recent letter they have received, alleging irregular behavior on standardized medical examinations. This letter may come from the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), or the Educational Commission

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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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Clinical Research on Illegal Dispensing of Controlled Substances

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 Shelby Root On July 2, 2014, the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) denied a DEA research registration application of an Arkansas clinical research company. The DEA found that the individual who would be primarily responsible for ordering and storing controlled substances was "surprisingly unaware" of the requirements imposed by the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and DEA r

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Health Facility Entitled to Attorney's Fees Against AHCA in Defending Medicaid Overpayment Case

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 following is a summary of a recent administrative hearing case on an issue relevant to health law, decided by the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH). FACTS: Via three Final Audit Reports dated July 10, 2013, AHCA advised the Chrysalis Center that it had overbilled the Medicaid program by $284,535.83 for community mental health services.

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Don’t Be Afraid to Invoke Your Fifth Amendment Rights: Why You Should

The Health Law Firm

By: Vivionne N. Barker, J.D., George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law During a criminal proceeding, an accused individual has the right to remain silent or "plead the Fifth.” This theory has been commonly referred to as an individual's right to not be compelled to be a witness against himself or to avoid self-incrimination.

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Florida Information Protection Act (FIPA) Has More Stringent Notice Requirements than Federal Law

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 In 2014, the Florida Legislature passed, SB 1524, which was signed into law on June 20, 2014. It became effective on July 1, 2014. This law, codified as Section 501.171, Florida Statues (2014), contains broader provisions than federal law for providing notice when there is a breach of or accidental release of personal individuals' information.

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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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Federal Employees Need to be Aware of These Warnings During an OIG Interview

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 Shelby Root Federal employees are subject to criminal investigations and criminal prosecutions by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) within their respective federal agencies. The OIG of an agency routinely investigates and helps prosecute wrongdoing.

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