Category: Legal Watch
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COVID-19 State Liability Protection Bill to Be Filed
Alabama State Senator Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) is preparing to file a bill today to provide liability protection to physicians, health facilities and businesses from claims arising from COVID-19 and the state’s response to the pandemic. “These are unprecedented times and the Legislature must take swift action to protect physicians and businesses from COVID-19 frivolous lawsuits,”…
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Summary of Liability Protection from Starnes, Davis Florie, LLP
Starnes, Davis, Florie, LLP has drafted a summary with some guidance on documentation for physicians concerning some protection in response to potential liability issues facing physicians during the COVID-19 declared emergency. Governor Ivey’s March 13, 2020 Proclamation declared a state public health emergency. The Proclamation grants certain immunity from lawsuits if a provider in a covered…
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Summary of Telehealth Waivers as of April 1, 2020
By: Jim Hoover, Burr & Forman, LLP The changes made to the requirements for telehealth services since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have been swift and substantial. For the first several weeks, it seems changes were made almost daily. As time has passed, the changes to telehealth have stabilized enough that a summary of…
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The Privacy Vulnerabilities of Zoom Software and Potential Alternatives
Over the past month, as more nationwide “Shelter at Home” orders have been issued and more companies have transitioned to telework, the need for online meetings and webinars has skyrocketed. To accommodate this new way of doing business, many have turned to a platform called Zoom. The problem? No one bothered to read the fine…
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Charting & Documentation During the Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic
The world’s memory of this virus will be different when lawsuits are filed two years from now and juries try the cases two to three years after that. The acuteness of the issues, the confusion, the limited resources and the changing daily directives will not be remembered in any meaningful detail. Accordingly, the Risk Management…
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Shift in Patient’s Right to Access Medical Records
By: Kelli C. Fleming, Burr & Forman The Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”), the government agency tasked with HIPAA compliance and enforcement, recently announced a change impacting a patient’s right to access his/her medical records—a change which is, given OCR’s history, surprisingly favorable to providers. One of the long-standing premises of HIPAA has been a…
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Appropriate Use Criteria for Advanced Diagnostic Imaging
Contributed by: Gregg Everett, Gilpin Givhan The Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) was passed in 2014. PAMA required the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to establish a program that promotes “Appropriate Use Criteria” (AUC) for advanced diagnostic imaging. AUC’s are evidence-based criteria that assist professionals who order and furnish certain imaging services…
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Striking Your Best Deal: Things to Look at on the Front End of Negotiating an EHR Vendor Contract
Article Contributed by Christopher L. Richard, Gilpin Givhan, PC Backdrop Imagine you’re selling your practice . . . or leaving your practice . . . or retiring. You want to continue to have access to the patient records you’ve maintained through the practice over the years, and in fact, you have an obligation to do…
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Top 4 Dos and Don’ts For Audits and Investigations
In the spirit of college football season and the inevitable argument about which four college football teams are in the college football playoffs, this article addresses the undisputed top 4 dos and don’ts that physicians should follow during an audit or investigation. I have represented countless medical practices and individual physicians with a variety of…
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Changes Coming to AKS, Stark and CMP Laws
On October 9, 2019, the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published proposed rules to revise the Stark Law, Anti-Kickback Statute and Civil Monetary Penalty Statute. These statutes create criminal and civil penalties for certain financial arrangements involving providers. According to OIG and CMS, the goal of…