2016 Nerve-of-a-Burglar Award

Competition for the 2016 Nerve-of-a-Burglar Award was fierce, with health care providers constantly coming up with new and different ways to scam Medicare and Medicaid.  Nevertheless, we have a clear winner: the Michigan physician charged with an array of fraudulent Medicaid schemes that included ordering …

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Nurse’s Age Discrimination Case May Proceed

A California federal court has rejected a hospital’s motion for summary judgment in a case brought by a former nurse who claims she was fired for being too old. Seventy-year-old Lavon Ramsey had worked at Fairchild Medical Center for 14 years and was rated “commendable range” on her most recent …

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Not Everyone Wants to Be on TV

It turns out that not everyone wants to be on television.  New York-Presbyterian found that out the hard way. Back in 2011 the hospital allowed a television camera crew inside treatment areas to record footage for the ABC show “NY Med.”  The New York Times quotes a hospital spokesman as saying that the …

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Federal Trade Commission Releases New Mobile Health Apps Interactive Tool

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in conjunction with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the HHS Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and the Food and Drug Administration, have developed a new web-based interactive tool to assist developers of health-related mobile apps identify …

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A Recap of National Health IT Week

National Health IT Week wrapped up on Friday.  This may have been the most eventful week in the ten year history of the event, which is organized by the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS).  Below are a few of the highlights (each of which could likely carry its own blog post): Stage 3 …

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Get Your Questions Ready

A lot has changed since the HIPAA Privacy Rule was finalized in 2002 and the HIPAA Security Rule was finalized a year later in 2003.  The iPhone had not been released (that happened in 2007), Apple had just released the iTunes store, the first “do not call” list law was passed, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was …

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