Category: Legal Watch
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Prepare Your Practice for Expanded Information Blocking Requirements
By: Catherine (Cat) Kirkland, Burr & Forman LLP Is your practice ready? Starting October 6, 2022, physicians and group practices will be required to make full electronic health information available for access, exchange, and use to patients (among others) in a reasonable manner. This deadline marks the end of a multi-year phase-in from the U.S.…
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I Have to Correct What?
By Kelli C. Fleming, Burr & Forman, LLP A client recently informed me that their practice was experiencing a large increase in the number of medical record amendment requests it was receiving from patients. My perception is that this is the result of two things: (1) the widespread transition to electronic medical records, and (2)…
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FIVE TIPS FOR MEDICAL DOCUMENTATION YOUR LAWYER WANTS YOU TO KNOW (AND FOLLOW)
By Angie Cameron Smith, Burr & Forman, LLP Good documentation is important for many reasons: continuity of care, compliance, and risk management to name a few. Documentation supports payment for services but can also form the basis of medical malpractice cases, whether it be lack of documentation, improper documentation or poor documentation. Therefore, it is…
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Federal District Court Issues First Court Opinion Regarding EKRA’s Commission Based Payments
By James A. Hoover, Esq., Burr & Forman, LLP A Federal District Judge in the United States District Court, District of Hawaii issued the first court opinion interpreting the prohibition of the payment of commissions by clinical laboratories to employees or independent contractors that was implemented by the Eliminating Kickback in Recovery Act of 2018…
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Supreme Court Rules on Vaccine Mandates
By: Brandy A. Boone, General Counsel of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama The US Supreme Court (“the Court”) recently released differing opinions on the two-part Biden administration vaccine mandate. In Biden v. Missouri1, the Court lifted a US District Court’s stay on enforcement of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS)…
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NEW STATE OF EMERGENCY PROVIDES HEALTHCARE PROVIDER FLEXIBILITIES
By Angie Cameron Smith with Burr & Forman, LLP On July 6, 2021 Governor Kay Ivey allowed the State of Emergency in Alabama to expire. She had previously proclaimed a State of Emergency due to the COVID-19 Pandemic effective March 13, 2020. Along with that proclamation, came the invocation of Alabama’s Emergency Management Act. When…
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Training, Training, Training—The First Line of Defense When it Comes to HIPAA Compliance
By: Kelli Carpenter Fleming with Burr Forman When it comes to HIPAA compliance efforts, the first line of defense in ensuring that protected health information is secured appropriately and compliantly is training your practice’s employees. More often than not, when an inappropriate use or disclosure of protected health information occurs, it is because an employee…
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OSHA Issues COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) for the Healthcare Industry
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) for the healthcare industry on June 21, 2021.[1] The Occupational Safety and Health Act (“the Act”) passed in 1970 and created OSHA to administer the Act. It has been thirty-eight years since OSHA issued its last ETS. That ETS was issued in…
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Potential HIPAA Changes That Would Allow Healthcare Providers to Disclose Phi and Better Protect Patients
by Lindsey Phillips, Burr & Forman On December 10, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) at the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced proposed changes to the regulations implementing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”). The proposed changes, which are set out in the Notice of…
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Physician Recruitment Agreements – What You Need to Know
by Howard E. Bogard Both the federal Anti-kickback Statute and the Stark Law allow a hospital to provide certain financial assistance to aid a medical practice in its efforts to recruit and hire a new physician. Financial assistance can take many forms, including a collection guarantee, net income guarantee and/or payments with respect to a…