Patient Assistance Programs (PAPs) provide important help to patients of limited means who do not have insurance coverage for drugs and need assistance covering drug costs, often for chronic illnesses. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services has now issued an advisory bulletin, dated May 21, 2014, … Continue Reading
A new draft order to the French Sunshine Act may soon change some procedures in a way that may help with implementation of the rules, and provide a new timeline for pharmaceutical and medical device companies to disclose specified payments to health care providers.… Continue Reading
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services has issued a proposed rule that would institute several changes to the health care program civil monetary penalty (CMP) regulations. Under the proposed rule, the OIG would have the expanded authority to enforce significant CMPs on providers and suppliers in a variety of scenarios.
Reed Smith has prepared a Client Alert summarizing and analyzing the Proposed Rule, including the various scenarios under which CMPs could be issued under the proposed regulations as well as the changes in technical language proposed by OIG to more clearly define the scope of CMP regulations.… Continue Reading
The health care industry has seen a recent shift towards consolidation, driven in part by legislation such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which encourages integration within the industry. As a result, health care entities are increasingly considering opportunities to merge with or acquire other companies. While this can be an exciting prospect … Continue Reading
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services identifies the underlying purpose of its exclusion authority as to protect federal health care programs and their beneficiaries from "untrustworthy health care providers, i.e., individuals and entities who pose a risk to program beneficiaries or the integrity of these programs." The OIG now has published a new proposed rule that would greatly expand the bases upon which it could affirmatively exclude an individual or entity from participation in federal health care programs.
Reed Smith has prepared a Client Alert that provides an overview of the Proposed Rule, including: proposed revisions to definitions; new grounds for exclusion; clarifications to existing regulations to add mitigating and aggravating factors; early reinstatement procedures; and proposed procedural changes in the OIG's exclusion authorities.… Continue Reading
Two separate instances of unencrypted laptop theft from different health care providers have resulted in two settlements for potential violations of the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. These alleged violations were uncovered following investigations by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR). In the first instance, involving Concentra Health Services, OCR found that Concentra had previously recognized its need for increased encryption on its technological devices but had failed to fully address this issue before the breach. In the second instance, involving QCA Health Plan, Inc. of Arkansas, OCR found that QCA had failed to comply with multiple requirements set forth by the HIPAA Security Rule. Both instances resulted in settlements comprised of financial payments to OCR as well as agreement to Corrective Action Plans that will allow for continued oversight by OCR in regards to HIPAA compliance.… Continue Reading
In a much-anticipated decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last month affirmed the lower court's ruling in favor of the hospital plaintiffs in Allina Health Services, et al. v. Sebelius (D.C. Cir., No. 13-5011, Apr. ___, 2014). The otherwise good news for providers, however, was called into question by the appellate court's instructions as to the proper remedy in the case.… Continue Reading
This post was written by Jillian W. Riley. Earlier this week, FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) published two separate draft guidance documents to advance the dual goals of FDA and industry to provide pathways for medical devices to reach the market quickly while ensuring the safety and efficacy of the product. The … Continue Reading
As highlighted on our Health Industry Washington Watch blog, Reed Smith hosted a dynamic conference on post-acute care in Washington, D.C. in early April. Entitled “Reed Smith 2014 Washington Health Care Conference: Focus on Post-Acute Care,” the conference brought together a panel of experts discussing episodic care, proposed bundling models, and alternative payment and delivery systems; … Continue Reading
In April 2013, an independent review of the regulation of cosmetic interventions in the UK was published, highlighting an insufficient amount of regulation in this industry by the UK government, due in part to the rapid growth of cosmetic procedures in the United Kingdom. Cases such as unauthorized (and potentially defective) materials being used in … Continue Reading
This past year both the U.S. and France enacted substantial new reporting and disclosure requirements under their respective Sunshine Acts, which were designed to increase the transparency of the financial relationships between manufacturers and health care professionals and to allow patients to make more informed decisions regarding their health treatments. The U.S. and French Sunshine … Continue Reading
As mentioned on our Health Industry Washington Watch blog, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (GPO) are currently in the process of submitting detailed 2013 payment and investment interest data to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The submission of this data, as dictated by the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, is intended to highlight certain financial relationships between the manufacturers and GPOs and physicians. With some exceptions, this data will become public by September 1, 2014, at which time the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General, Department of Justice, and relators' attorneys will likely analyze the data to initiate investigations and support complaints under the federal False Claims Act.… Continue Reading
On April 4th, 2014, Reed Smith will host its inaugural Washington Health Care Conference at The Mayflower Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. With a keynote from Dr. Norman Ornstein, this year's conference will focus on post-acute care, bringing together leading industry professionals for a discussion on several important issues. Limited seating is still available for this complimentary program. If you are interested in registering, please email Lindsay Korenich at lkorenich@reedsmith.com.… Continue Reading
Reed Smith Partner Larry Sher authored a post on the Drug and Device Law Blog about a recent decision in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a False Claims Act (“FCA”) case brought against Omnicare, United States ex rel. Rostholder v. Omnicare, Inc., No. 12-2431, 2014 WL 661351 … Continue Reading
As mentioned on our Health Industry Washington Watch blog, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it will hold a public hearing on March 25 and 26, 2014 to receive input on the current processes for reviewing over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. In the announcement, the FDA concedes that the current OTC drug review “needs … Continue Reading
We have been reporting for some time on issues involving the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) scrutiny of physician-owned distributors (PODs). In March 2013, we analyzed an OIG Special Fraud Alert on PODs and in October we reported on an interesting challenge to the Fraud Alert filed by a medical device manufacturer in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. That suit argued that the Fraud Alert unfairly and unconstitutionally burdened the plaintiff's First Amendment rights of free speech and due process. In this post, we report on the disposition of that case, and several other related POD developments.… Continue Reading
This post was written by John Tan, Amy Yang, and Crystal Xu. In late December, China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), the successor organization to the Ministry of Health, issued two sets of anti-corruption regulations for the health care industry: the 2013 Regulations on the Establishment of a Commercial Bribery Blacklist for the … Continue Reading
On December 11, 2013, CMS released an advance notice of proposed rulemaking soliciting comments on specific practices for which civil monetary penalties may or may not be imposed for failure to comply with Medicare Secondary Payer reporting requirements. Among other issues, CMS is seeking comments and proposals on mechanisms and criteria that it would use to evaluate whether and when it would impose penalties for noncompliance with Medicare Secondary Payer reporting requirements.… Continue Reading
As mentioned on our Health Industry Washington Watch blog, the Food and Drug Administration issued a final guidance document on January 16, 2014 which provides specific recommendations on the content and format of Dear Health Care Provider (DHCP or “Dear Doctor”) letters. The recent guidance finalizes a draft guidance FDA published in November of 2010. To read … Continue Reading
The Privacy and Security Tiger Team, a subcommittee of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT's HIT Policy Committee, has recommended that the Office for Civil Rights of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services abandon its May 2011 proposed rule to require covered entities to provide patients with a list of workforce members who have accessed protected health information contained in an electronic designated record set, concluding that the rule is overbroad and lacks value.… Continue Reading
Reed Smith’s Global Regulatory Enforcement Law blog features a post on the recent launch of the new state portal in France. "The implementation of the French transparency regulation: first good news?," written by Reed Smith partner Daniel Kadar, discusses how the portal will allow health care companies to more easily disclose transparency information to the French government … Continue Reading
After receiving more than 2,000 comments to its April 2013 Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the Department of Health & Human Services has proposed to amend the HIPAA Privacy Rule to expressly permit certain covered entities to report to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System ("NICS") the identities of individuals who are prohibited by federal law, for mental health reasons, from possessing firearms (commonly referred to as the "mental health prohibitor").
OCR has cited concerns that the existing HIPAA Privacy Rule may be preventing some state entities (which likely perform both HIPAA-covered and non-covered functions) from reporting to the NICS the identities of individuals subject to the mental health prohibitor. Therefore, HHS has proposed to add to the Privacy Rule new provisions at 45 CFR § 164.512(k)(7), which would permit certain covered entities to disclose the minimum necessary demographic and other information for NICS reporting purposes.… Continue Reading
According to a report published by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) on November 21, 2013, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is not adequately overseeing and enforcing the HIPAA Security Rule. The OIG's report concluded that OCR failed to provide for periodic audits to ensure that covered entities were in compliance with the Security Rule, and failed to consistently follow its investigation procedures and maintain documentation needed to support key decisions made during investigations conducted in response to reported violations of the Security Rule.… Continue Reading
The theft of an unencrypted flash drive has led to an agreement by Adult & Pediatric Dermatology, P.C., of Concord, Mass., to pay $150,000 to the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules. This case marks the first settlement with a covered entity for not having policies and procedures in place to address the breach notification provisions of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, passed as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.… Continue Reading
