Archive for January 2020
Federal Health IT Officials Outline Five-Year Plan
The Department of Health and Human Services, led by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), recently released its 2020-2025 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan for public comment. The 28-page plan outlines goals and objectives to ensure that patients have access to their electronic health information (EHR) that allows them to,…
Read MoreOIG Issues Advisory Opinion on Hospital Training Facility
On January 13, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) posted an advisory opinion in which it approved a hospital’s request to provide discounted training to a fire department’s personnel at the hospital’s facility. The hospital asked the government watchdog whether such an arrangement would constitute grounds for the imposition of sanctions under the exclusion authority…
Read MoreDOJ Recovers $2.6B in Healthcare Fraud Settlements, Judgments in 2019
The federal government said it was making healthcare fraud a priority, and from the numbers just released by the U.S. Department of Justice, it appears to be bearing fruit. The DOJ announced last week that it recovered more than $3 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud and false claims in the…
Read MorePharma Giant to Pay $54M to Settle Whistleblower Complaint
Teva Pharmaceuticals earlier this month agreed to pay $54 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit brought against it by two former sales representatives. Charles Arnstein and Hossam Senousy filed suit against the Israeli-based pharmaceutical company alleging it paid speaker fees to neurologists for participation in “sham†speaker programs in exchange for their prescribing the multiple…
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