Legal & Regulatory Issues

A bill now on the floor of the Senate would extend $24 billion in enhanced federal aid to state Medicaid programs, according to a report by the Hill.

The American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine has published a practice advisory on local anesthetic systemic toxicity (LAST) called "Guidelines for the Management of Severe Local Anaesthetic Toxicity."

Hospitals not identified in CMS' on-line enrollment system will be required to revalidate enrollment information when billing for Medicare starting on July 4, according to a transmittal from CMS.

Massachusetts officials plan to clamp down on proposals for new medical construction and technology in an effort to control the nation's highest healthcare costs, according to a report by the Boston Globe.

John Cleary, a former employee of Boston-based Partners Healthcare, was sentenced to one year in prison and one year probation for his role in accepting kickbacks from a software vendor in exchange for contracts with the health system, according to…

In May, Christine A. Varney, the Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, addressed the American Bar Association/American Health Lawyers Association Antitrust in Healthcare Conference, where she discussed healthcare antitrust enforcement and competition policy,…

Heart device manufacturer St. Jude Medical, Parma (Ohio) Community General Hospital and Norton Healthcare, in Louisville, Ky., have agreed to pay the U.S. $3.9 million to settle false claims allegations that St. Jude paid kickbacks to two hospitals to obtain…

Congress has extended the generous Cobra subsidies for the uninsured four times since they were implemented in February 2009, but Congress failed to pass a fifth extension before the last extension ran out on June 1, according to a report…

The Independent Payment Advisory Board created by the health reform law is a promising way to preserve the Medicare program and halt skyrocketing medical inflation, but it may not elicit its expected savings and may drive physicians away from Medicare,…

A new AMA survey has found that 17 percent of physicians are limiting the number of Medicare patients in their practices, partly due to the on-and-off-again possibility that their Medicare fees would drop by 21.3 percent, according to a release…