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The administration has a new rule regarding health insurance companies. They announced that they wil need to give their customers the estimated out of pocket costs for prescription drugs and also disclose the negotiated price they paid to get the drugs. This rule only will apply to non-fed med insurers and would start in 2022. The administration believes that more transparency will bring down the cost of the drugs. The publishing would start in 2022 and the patient requests for cost would start in 2024.
The OIG has issued a special fraud alert regarding speaker programs. This is because they have convicted many recently of receiving large amounts of money for giving speeches or was it for prescribing drugs. They are warning physicians to take heed if offered speaking gigs. Some of the things the feds are looking for in a program are the amount of information actually given, whether alcohol or an expensive meal is provided, where is the program held, how many programs the company sponsors on the same subject, who is attending the programs and of course the amount received by the speaker, is it fair value.
The administration has made two new final rules regarding prescription rugs. The first is tying what meds dispensed in a physician's office to the lowest paid in economically disadvantaged countries, the most favored nations. The second is to require drugmakers for band name pharmacy meds to give Medicare patients the rebates that now go to the middlemen. The former would go into place in January 2021 and the latter the following year.
California has issued guidelines for hospitals to begin testing all employees once a week for Covid. This begins with ICU and ED workers by next week. By the following week ALL employees must be tested weekly. Top
The OCR has fined Dr. Rajendra Bhayani, an ENT in Regal Park, New York, $15,000. He had not given a patient her medical records even after being asked to by the OCR. He finally did it and then paid the fine. How dumb is that?
The OCR has fined the University of Cincinnati Medical Center $65,000 for not giving a patient her medical records in a timely manner. Top
DISCLAIMER: Although this article is updated periodically, it reflects the author's point of view at the
time of publication. Nothing in this article constitutes legal advice. Readers
should consult with their own legal counsel before acting on any of the
information presented.