Little Health Law Blog

Kevin Little speaks to American Osteopathic Association physicians on, Physician as W2 or 1099? Why Proper Legal Classification of a Physician as “Employee” or “Independent Contractor” is Essential.

A Denver area Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) must pay $400,000 in fines and implement a corrective action plan for HIPAA violations that resulted from a hacker’s breach into the health center’s employee emails.  The breach led to theft of electronic protected health information (ePHI) of 3,200 individuals. Although the…

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals denied an appeal and upheld the convictions of a physician assistant and a patient recruiter in Florida for their actions in allegedly defrauding the Medicare program of $200 million in false claims. Both the physician assistant, Roger Bergman, and the patient recruiter, Rodolfo Santaya,…

Prescribing opioids for pain can be a routine part of medical treatment, however, opioids are a national dilemma and though patients may need them for pain management, they are also highly addictive. Some patients being administered these prescriptions are recovering from opioid addictions and face a high-risk of relapse. And,…

Many medical practices and health care services businesses confront circumstances in their business model that justify unique and flexible arrangements with physicians to meet healthcare delivery needs (e.g. call coverage).  Unique situations for health care delivery models lead to creative employment situations that may prompt evaluation of whether treatment of…

On January 19, 2017, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a press release announcing a deal reached with Costco Wholesale to resolve DOJ’s disputed allegations that Costco violated Federal law in filling prescriptions by lax protocol.  The allegations against Costco stem from an investigation by the United States…

The United States Department of Health and Human Resources (HHS) and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) recently issued a joint annual report for 2016 (the Report) providing details about the federal fraud and abuse program and, in particular, annual financial recoveries.  Fraud and abuse law enforcement efforts continued…

The US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) says that it cannot meet the requirements of a federal court order to reduce the horrible backlog of Medicare appeals cases that for many years has plagued the United States and adversely impacted the ability of health care providers to be…

So much focus is placed on the federal “whistleblower” statute, the Federal False Claims Act, that similar acts, such as various States’ versions of the law, are often not as well known.  All have a common thread: they are a tool to recover tax payer money lost to fraudulent acts…

As discussed in part 1 of this post, closing a medical practice can be burdensome and complicated. In the first segment, notification to the licensure board, patients, employees, and DEA was discussed. Some other smaller steps a physician should consider taking to ensure a clean closure include: notifying the practice’s…