http://www.doctorslawyer.com Expertise for the specialized medical practice Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:51:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The North Carolina Medical Society has posted a summary of their efforts and accomplishments, along with the Physicians Advocacy Institute, with respect to managed care in 2011. The NCMS states that according to their member surveys, reimbursement issues are the number one frustration for physicians. Read the entire post here. ... http://www.doctorslawyer.com/2012/02/02/north-carolina-medical-society-posts-a-summary-of-their-efforts-and-accomplishments/ The videos will be released each week over a three month period. So far, topics of interest have included compliance programs, the self-referral law, the false claims act, the anti-kickback statute, among others. You can access all of the Provider Compliance Training videos and audio podcasts here. http://www.doctorslawyer.com/2012/02/02/oig-posts-videos-and-audio-podcasts-on-important-compliance-issues/ U.S. to force drug companies to report money paid to doctors by for research, consulting, speaking, travel and entertainment. The full article is here. http://www.doctorslawyer.com/2012/02/02/us-to-tell-drug-makers-to-disclose-payments-to-doctors/ A Washington Post article reports that large insurers, UnitedHealth Group being the biggest example, are quietly buying doctors groups in an effort to more tightly manage the provision of healthcare.  The trend reflects efforts by insurers to control costs by shifting physicians' financial incentives away from performing more procedures and ... http://www.doctorslawyer.com/2011/07/18/line-between-insurers-and-providers-beginning-to-blur/ The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights will settle claims of violations of the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules against the University of California at Los Angeles Health System for $865,500 and a commitment to a corrective action plan.  The complaints filed with OCR alleged that unauthorized ... http://www.doctorslawyer.com/2011/07/13/ucla-health-system-settles-hipaa-privacy-case/ Brooklyn neurologist Dr. Leonard Langman has pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud.  Between January 2006 and December 2009, Dr. Langman defrauded Medicare,  the U.S. Department of Labor, the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board, and the New York State Insurance Fund, ... http://www.doctorslawyer.com/2011/07/12/ny-neurologist-faces-prison-for-health-care-fraud/ On July 6, 2011, Dr. Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health IT at HHS, announced via Twitter that KPMG had been awarded a $9.2 million contract to audit compliance with the Privacy and Security Rules of HIPAA. The contract calls for as many as 150 audits of covered entities and ... http://www.doctorslawyer.com/2011/07/11/kpmg-tapped-by-hhs-to-perform-hipaa-audits/ On June 30, 2011, U. S. Attorney Ripley Rand announced that Ruben and Michelle McLain of Winston-Salem were sentenced in federal court to 24 months’ incarceration and three years of supervised release for charges that include health care fraud; and they must pay over $1.3 million to the IRS to settle ... http://www.doctorslawyer.com/2011/07/08/north-carolina-couple-sentenced-for-health-care-fraud/ The AMA has published its fourth annual  National Health Insurer Report Card.  This report reveals that among the largest health insurers the overall rate of inaccuracy in claims payment has increased since the last report.  The two percent increase over last year brings the overall processing error rate to 19.3 ... http://www.doctorslawyer.com/2011/06/27/insurers-claims-accuracy-rate-drops-according-to-ama/ The Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General has created a webpage resource for providers and consumers regarding Quality of Care Corporate Integrity Agreements.  A Corporate Integrity Agreement (CIA) is entered into by a provider when resolving fraud allegations that may have an impact on quality of ... http://www.doctorslawyer.com/2011/06/22/new-web-page-from-oig/