Tag: legal
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Do You Record Patient Phone Calls? Here’s What You Need to Know.
A physician practice recently inquired about implementing a policy pursuant to which the practice would begin recording phone calls to and from patients and referring providers. The practice of recording phone calls is not uncommon. For example, every time you call a customer service number you are informed that the call “may be recorded for…
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You Need to Know When to Hold ’em and Know When to Merge ’em
With uncertainty in the health care markets and the growing demands on medical practice infrastructure, many physicians are thinking that merging their practice with another might be a worthwhile idea. A merger might be advisable under some circumstances, problematic in other cases, and potentially illegal in certain instances. We will leave the legal issues to…
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The New Department of Justice Initiative: Aggressively Investigating and Prosecuting Opioid-Related Cases
Before joining Burr & Forman, LLP, I was a federal prosecutor for a little over a decade specializing in health care fraud and general white collar matters. In that role, I was the member of a prosecution team that secured guilty verdicts earlier this year against two pain management doctors in Mobile, Ala., following a…
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Physicians Maintain High Standards
By the time this article goes to print, a lot could change, so there’s no apparent use in guessing what will come of the next Repeal and Replace efforts or what’s happening at Main Justice. Nobody knows. The only certainties from Washington are that there will be change in the payment and insurance models, and…
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Have You Properly Obtained Informed Consent?
In June, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a controversial opinion holding that a physician had to have face-to-face interaction with the patient to effectively obtain informed consent. This has raised heightened awareness of a physician’s obligations to obtain informed consent from their patients and caused many to evaluate their own practice of obtaining informed consent.…
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What is the ProAssurance Legal Defense Endorsement?
As a ProAssurance insured, did you know that in addition to medical professional liability coverage your ProAssurance insurance policy also has embedded legal expense coverage for a variety of regulatory risk exposures, certain types of disciplinary proceedings, and other types of covered investigations? It’s called the Legal Defense Endorsement, and it is an automatic part…
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Fraud and Abuse Investigations Should Be Taken Very Seriously
Editor’s Note: Burr & Forman LLP is sharing this information as a partner with the Medical Association and would like physicians to understand that the federal government is being vigilant with all health care fraud and abuse investigations. If you have questions concerning the content of this article, please contact Jim Hoover of Burr &…