Health eSource October 2019

    Vol. 16 No. 2  

    Healthcare & Pharmaceutics

    Chair's Column: Navigating Stark and AKS: Resources from the ABA

    John H McEniry IV, Fagron North America, Fairhope, AL

    As you know, comprehensive proposed updates to the already complex Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute regulations were recently released. Health Law Section (“HLS”) Vice Chair Clay Countryman remarked that yesterday morning felt like a birthday party thrown by CMS and OIG where health lawyers get to unwrap each rule, study its impact, and identify new opportunities available for their clients. CMS and OIG undoubtedly provided us with a lot of information to digest! Fortunately, the HLS is ready to fill you in on what you need to know about both sets of proposed rules.

    Featured Articles

    Health

    CMS Proposes Changes to Open Payments Reporting Requirements

    By Ashlie Heald, Esq., Athena Compliance Partners, LLC., Lexington, KY

    On August 14, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the CY 2020 Revisions to Payment Policies under the Physician Fee Schedule and Other Changes to Part B Payment Policies (Proposed Rule). The Proposed Rule would, in part, make changes to the CMS regulations implementing the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (Section 1128G of the Social Security Act) requirements effective for data to be collected in calendar year (CY) 2021 and reported in CY 2022.

    Health

    Long and Winding Road: Federal Court Reasserts Supremacy of PSQIA over Florida Amendment 7 in Medical Malpractice Discovery

    By Earl E. Googe, Jr., Esq., Smith Hulsey & Busey, Jacksonville, FL

    It is a basic legal construct: federal law trumps state law. And yet, for Florida medical malpractice attorneys, that precept has been challenged in the past several years. Through cases percolating from state trial courts to the Florida Supreme Court, federal laws governing confidential status of patient safety work product have been pitted against state constitutional amendments asserting a patient’s right to know.