Compliance & Legal
Advocate Health Care Network will pay $5.5 million to settle with the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights regarding multiple potential HIPAA violations that involved electronic protected health information, HHS announced.
The University of California regents have agreed to pay nearly $8.5 million to settle two lawsuits alleging a well-known UCLA spine surgeon failed to disclose his conflicts of interest with a leading device maker before using the company's products in harmful surgeries.
Hospital overpaid physicians and rewarded them based on their referral of patients to the facility, the Department of Justice said.
The complaint alleged that certain neurosurgeons employed by UPMC submitted claims for assisting with or supervising surgical procedures when they did not.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) said internal Olympus emails about that decision, detailed for the first time in a Los Angeles Times/Kaiser Health News article on Sunday, were "incredibly disturbing" and the company officials involved should face questions at a Congressional hearing.
Though finances are a great motivator to integrate patient care and focus on quality and outcomes, said Glenn Hirsch, MD, associate professor of medicine and clinical director in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.
While most hospitals have contingency plans in place in case something happens to their electronic health records, less than three-quarters of those surveyed by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General have plans that address testing and revision procedures -- a requirement under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
After two dozen infections were reported in French and Dutch hospitals, the company alerted European customers in January 2013 that a scope it manufactured could become contaminated.
The owner of more than 30 Miami-area skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, a hospital administrator and a physician's assistant were charged with conspiracy, obstruction, money laundering and healthcare fraud in connection with a $1 billion scheme involving numerous Miami-based providers, the United States Department of Justice announced.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is in the spotlight this week as the man Donald Trump has picked to be his running mate. Pence's decisions about health and health care in Indiana have drawn attention from within and outside the state. His record could be important in November, because Trump doesn't have a legislative record at all.