Legal & Regulatory Issues

The U.S. Senate has voted to delay the 21 percent Medicare physician payment cut until April 1, according to a news release from the AMA. The House previously approved the 30 day push back.

Congress' inability to pass a Medicare physician fee fix before the March 1 deadline means that Stephen B. Reznicek, MD, a urologist in Cadillac, Mich., has had to start turning away many first-time, non-emergency Medicare patients.

Robert E. Alick, the operator of a used medical equipment sales business and resident of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, pleaded guilty today to five counts of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of corruptly endeavoring to obstruct…

New Mexico insurers would be required to commit 85 percent of premiums toward actual healthcare services, under provisions of a bill passed by the state legislature, according to a story in New Mexico Business Weekly.

Automatic implementation of a 21.2 percent Medicare physician fee cut on March 1 was a surprise to Senate Democrats who were stymied by a lone Republican senator, according to a report by The Hill.

A bill has been introduced in the New Hampshire Senate that would create a three-person commission to set hospital rates, according to a report by the Boston Herald.

In a rare showing of bipartisan agreement, the U.S. House voted 406-19 to repeal health plans' exemption from federal antitrust laws, according to a release from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, Del., has agreed to pay $3.3 million to settle claims made by a whistleblower that the health system allegedly paid kickback to neurologists for referring patients to its Wilmington hospital, according to a report…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration released updates to the availability of propofol injections on its Web site.

George Steven Kooshian, an AIDS physician based in La Quinta, Calif., was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to federal healthcare fraud charges for "subdosing" patients by administering doses of medicine that contained less than the…