Legal & Regulatory Issues

The Maryland Court of Appeals has upheld the state's $812,500 limit on malpractice awards for pain and suffering, overturning a lower court's award of a higher amount, according to a report by the Baltimore Business Journal.

Lower Bucks Hospital, a 183-bed facility in Bristol Township, Pa., has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, after losing $14 million in the last three years, according to a report by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A federal grand jury has indicted Lillian Pagkaliwangan and Raymundo Arellano, who are married, of Lakeland, Fla., with conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, according to a report in Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Key Congressional Democrats, along with Pres. Obama, held a nearly day-long session yesterday to negotiate a joint healthcare reform legislation package with the aim of submitting a final plan to the Congressional Budget Office early next week. Negotiations are expected…

In a lawsuit against Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in Houston, six physician-investors in a failed hospital assert that Hermann drove it out of business by threatening to change reimbursement rates with private payors that contracted with the new hospital, according…

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have issued corrections to its list of 2010 HCPCS codes, including new approved procedures for ASCs, description changes and coverage changes, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2010.

A three-judge panel from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is not required under the Freedom of Information Act to provide Medicare claims data to a private company,…

South Carolina regulators will reconsider three certificate-of-need proposals for hospitals in Fort Mill, S.C., as ordered to do so by an administrative law judge, according to a report by the Charlotte Business Journal.

Pennsylvania's two Democratic Senators said the Senate health reform bill would extend for one year a temporary fix of the low Medicare wage index for Pennsylvania hospitals, according to a report by the Scranton (Pa.) Times-Tribune.

The American Society of Anesthesiologists and 74 other provider and beneficiary groups have written a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opposing the inclusion of a Medicare Independent Payment Advisory Board in the final…