The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed signed into law by President Obama impacts providers in several ways. One of the areas of impact to providers is the expansion of the Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) Program. The Act expands the RAC Program to Medicaid by requiring that each state…
For the first time, Michigan providers must charge patients less than the previous year for copies of medical records. The Michigan Medical Access Act of 2004 regulates the access to and disclosure of medical records. Under the Act, the Department of Community Health has the responsibility to adjust on an…
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) was issued in order to establish programs by which health IT technologies will be tested and certified. Such programs were mandated by the HITECH Act, which provides incentive payments to providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record (EHR) technologies. Companion regulations…
A final rule published by the Department of Health and Human Services expanded the scope of the National Practitioner Data Bank to now include disciplinary information on all licensed health care professionals, including nurses, podiatrists, chiropractors, and physician assistants. Prior to this new rule, the databank, established under the federal…
On Monday March 1st, a 21% Medicare physician payment cut went into legal effect. However, the Obama administration directed Medicare billing companies to stop processing claims for 10 business days in order to provide lawmakers with extra time to create a solution. On March 2, 2010, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of…
On January 5, 2010, Governor Jennifer Granholm signed legislation that expands the chiropractic scope of practice in the state of Michigan. The expansion is designed to restore the scope of practice that existed prior to when the Public Health Code was rewritten. Chiropractors in Michigan may now treat neuromuscular, skeletal…
On February 19, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm issued an Executive Order creating an independent Office of Health Services Inspector General (OHSIG) within the Department of Community Health. The Executive Order will become effective on October 1, 2010. Governor Granholm will have the responsibility to appoint the Health Services Inspector General.…
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed suit against Health Net of Connecticut, Inc. for its alleged failure to secure private medical and financial information involving 446,000 Connecticut enrollees. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act authorizes state attorneys general to bring actions on behalf of the…
February 22, 2010: In a report released last week, CMS revealed that Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) referred two cases of potential fraud to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) during the RAC Demonstration Program between March 2005 and March 2008. The published report states…
February 2010: In November 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2000, a bill that blocks a 21.2 percent physician-payment cut. Specifically, the bill would amend the Social Security Act to reform the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rates (SGR) payment system for physicians. The…