A Suffolk County (Mass.) Superior Court judge has ordered insurers Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Fallon Community Health Plan to base premium increases off of 2009 rates, rather than higher figures the plans had hoped to use to determine 2010…
Legal & Regulatory Issues
From 2001-2010, there were nearly 100 different HHS' Office of Inspector General physician self referral and kickback settlements. In just the last two years (2008-2010) there were more than 20 such settlements. At the same time, there has been an…
CMS has announced an estimated 0.1 percent cut in Medicare payments to hospitals for fiscal year 2011, which some have suggested puts into question hospitals' protection in an era of healthcare reform. However, at least one physician argues that the…
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions recently held a hearing on regulating insurance premium increases, and the committee's chairman, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), voiced support for such regulation, according to a report by AHA News Now.
The Council of Medical Specialty Societies, which represents 32 medical professional societies, has released its Code for Interactions With Companies, which provides detailed guidance to medical specialty societies on appropriate interactions with for-profit healthcare companies, according to a CMSS news…
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The AMA has launched an online resource to help physicians claim part of the $350 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit against UnitedHealth Group, according to a release from the AMA.
Mortality rates are a poor measure for ranking hospitals based on quality, according to a new article in the British Medical Journal.
In the first step of Virginia's approval process, a local board endorsed a proposed new hospital by Prince William Health System and rejected plans for a nearby hospital by Sentara Healthcare, according to a report by the News & Messenger.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has rejected a computer-assisted anesthesia system that uses propofol manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, after an advisory panel recommended its approval last May, according to an Associated Press report in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The United States has intervened in a False Claims Act lawsuit alleging that Satilla Regional Medical Center in Waycross, Ga., and Najam Azmat, MD, submitted claims for medically substandard and unnecessary services to Medicare and Medicaid, according to a Department…