Criminal Action Taken Against Vermont Ultrasound Technologist for Accessing Records Without Authorization

By Tatiana Melnik The Rutland Herald of Vermont, reports that Kathy Tatro was sentenced in a Bennington, Vermont criminal court on Friday, November 23, 2012, to a suspended jail term of 6 to 12 months, 2 years of probation, 160 hours of community service, a $2,000 fine, and ordered to write a letter of apology …

Federal Trade Commission Takes Aim at Pharmaceutical Industry “Product Hopping”

By James M. Burns Declaring that “The potential for anticompetitive product design is particularly acute in the pharmaceutical industry,” on November 21 the FTC filed an amicus brief in Mylan Pharmaceuticals v. Warner Chilcott Public Limited Company (E.D. Pa.), urging the court not to accept the view that “product-hopping” (the practice of repeatedly reformulating a …

Anti-Kickback Statute and On-Call Payments to Physicians

By Keith C. Dennen EMTALA requires hospitals to provide “appropriate” medical examination and treatment to individuals who come to the emergency room.  Medicare requires hospitals to provide a list of doctors who are “on-call” to provide this treatment.  Doctors, particularly specialists, are refusing to be “on-call” unless they are paid for this service.    What does …

In Reversing the Dismissal of a Healthcare Data Breach Class Action, the Eleventh Circuit Shows the Importance of Encryption

By Tatiana Melnik In early September 2012, the Eleventh Circuit decided Resnick v. AvMed, Inc., reversing, in part, a motion to dismiss, and thereby permitting a class action against AvMed, a Florida health plan provider, that arose from the theft of unencrypted information to move forward. Specifically, the Court ruled that: (1) plaintiffs claiming actual …

Federal Antitrust Review Applies to Health Insurance Mergers

By James M. Burns This is a summary version of an article authored by James Burns that was originally published in the October 2012 edition of Managed Healthcare Executive.  A link to the full article is set forth below. On July 9, WellPoint and Amerigroup, two prominent health insurers, announced that they intended to merge …

Providers Must Enter into BA Agreements with Vendors who Transmit, Maintain, Use or Have Access to PHI

By Tatiana Melnik The Stage 2 Meaningful Use requirements make clear that the federal government is continuing its push to require healthcare providers to use information technology. The requirements also make clear, however, that patient privacy and security has not been sidelined. With this emphasis on making information available to patients online, providers must remember …