Court Decertifies Class Action Suit against Henry Ford Health System for Data Breach
The Michigan Court of Appeals recently decertified a class action suit against Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) and its subcontractor, a medical transcription service, for inadvertently disclosing sensitive patient information online. On December 18, 2014, a unanimous three-judge panel reversed the trial court’s denial of summary judgment in favor of the defendants. The court held that an invasion of privacy claim requires an intentional act rather than mere negligence and that the plaintiff’s claims for negligence and breach of contract require proof of an actual injury.
The class consisted of 159 patients who visited HFHS between June 3, 2008 and July 18, 2008. The case arose when the defendant subcontractor made a configuration change to its server which left certain patient records unsecured. As a result, Google’s automated web server, “Googlebot,” indexed the information and made it available for users to search online. The information included each patient’s name, date of service, and diagnoses. The unnamed lead plaintiff alleged that her records revealed a sexually transmitted disease. Read More ›
Categories: Electronic Health Records, Privacy
Share
Supreme Court to Weigh in on Providers’ Rights to Sue for Medicaid Reimbursements
The Medicaid program, a public insurance program serving approximately 66 million low-income Americans, is at risk for losing participating providers who claim they are not being compensated fairly for their services. On January 19, 2015, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Armstrong v. Exceptional Child Center, a case that could impact the rights of healthcare providers to sue states for higher Medicaid payments. Five private companies brought suit against the director of Idaho’s health department, arguing that the state unfairly reimbursed them at rates set in 2006, despite the fact that higher rates have since been approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”).
Federal law provides that state Medicaid programs must ensure payments are “sufficient to enlist enough providers,” but states have discretion to decide what that means. 42 U.S.C. § 1396a(a)(30)(A) (the “Medicaid Statute”). Central to this case is whether providers have a cause of action that allows them to seek enforcement of a federal statute. Read More ›
Categories: Insurance, Medicare/Medicaid, Providers
And Then There Was One: Economic Pressures Squeeze Metro Detroit Hospitals into Consolidation
Reduced reimbursements. A shift toward global payment. A demand for integration, quality of care and medical specializations. In order to compete amidst today’s healthcare market pressures, independent hospitals in Michigan and around the nation are increasingly deciding that they cannot go it alone. A recent Detroit News article reveals how this trend is playing out in Metro Detroit, with one of the region’s last two independent hospitals poised for acquisition.
Observers of Detroit’s healthcare environment are reportedly not surprised by the news that Crittenton Hospital Medical Center has signed a letter of intent to join St. Louis-based Ascension Health, the largest Catholic and nonprofit health system in the nation. With Monroe-based Mercy Memorial Hospital announcing on January 6 that it is joining the ProMedica health care company, the Crittenton deal will leave Doctors’ Hospital in Pontiac as the region’s last remaining independent hospital.
Laura Wotruba, spokeswoman for the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, said that this is not a Michigan issue, but rather a widespread pattern. “[It is] a national trend [and] something we’ve been seeing around the country.” Read More ›
Categories: Electronic Health Records, Health Care Reform, HIPAA, HITECH Act, Hospitals, News & Events, Regulatory
Happy Holidays!
Thank you so much for checking out the Foster Swift Health Care Law Blog. We are taking a short break from posting and look forward to providing you the latest news and information in 2015. Happy Holidays!
Categories: News & Events
Reimbursing Individual Health Insurance Policy Premiums May Result in Significant Penalties for Employers
Employers, including municipal employers, have historically struggled to develop a health insurance benefit program for their employees that provides quality benefits and is cost-effective. After the Health Insurance Marketplace opened for business, many employers recommended that their employees use it to purchase individual health insurance policies, with the promise that the premium costs would be reimbursed by the employer. In fact, such employee reimbursement strategies were aggressively marketed to employers as a solution to reduce costs and comply with the requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). Little did these employers (and marketers) know, such arrangements exposed the employers to significant penalties under the ACA.
In September 2013, the IRS issued Notice 2013-54 that made clear that an employer arrangement that paid for employees’ individual health insurance policy premiums on a pre-tax basis violated the ACA. An employer that offered such an arrangement would be subject to a $100 per day per affected employee penalty ($36,500 per year, per employee).
Categories: Employee Benefits, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance Exchange
U.S. Supreme Court will hear ACA subsidies case
On Nov. 7, the U.S. Supreme Court decided it would hear a case concerning the health insurance subsidies provided to millions of Americans under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. A June 2015 decision is expected in the case of King v. Burwell, which challenges the Internal Revenue Service’s authority to regulate tax-credit subsidies for coverage purchased through health insurance marketplaces established by the federal government (such as the Michigan health insurance marketplace). Nationwide, more than four out of five people who have received coverage through a federal marketplace are getting a tax credit. Read More ›
Categories: Health Care Reform, Health Insurance Exchange, Tax
"Right to Try" Becomes a Reality in Michigan
On Friday, October 17, Governor Rick Snyder signed the Right to Try Act, which allows patients to try experimental drugs and other treatments before they have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The law gives patients with advanced illnesses access to drugs that successfully cleared Phase 1 of an FDA approval. Phase 1 testing seeks to establish a drug's safety and profile and evaluates possible side effects. It involves 20-80 volunteers and lasts approximately one year. Read More ›
Categories: Hospitals, Insurance, Physicians, Providers
PPACA's Employer Mandate Draws Near…Non-Calendar Plans Beware!
As is well known by now, transitional relief from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's Employer Mandate in 2015 is available for certain applicable large employers that sponsor non-calendar year health plans. This transitional relief allows the employer to avoid penalties for those months of 2015 that predate the first day of the non-calendar plan year. What is not so well-known, however, are the requirements that must be met in order for the employer to be entitled to receive the transitional relief. Read More ›
Categories: Compliance, Employee Benefits, Health Care Reform, Providers
HHS Addresses Treatment of Same-Sex Spouses Under HIPAA
Last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) issued guidance addressing the treatment of same-sex spouses under the HIPAA Privacy Rule in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor.
In Windsor, the Supreme Court held Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”) to be unconstitutional. Section 3 of DOMA had excluded same-sex marriages from recognition under federal law.
As a result of the Windsor ruling, legally married same-sex spouses are entitled to additional rights under several federal regulations, one of which is the HIPAA Privacy Rule ("Rule"). The Rule provides certain protections to family members of patients. In its guidance, OCR clarifies that legally married same-sex spouses are family members for the purposes of the Rule, regardless of where they live. Read More ›
Pioneer ACO Results Present a Fuller Picture of the Program's Promise
Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) are still a relatively new concept in the healthcare world. ACOs emerged in 2011 as a result of an initiative by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), as we documented in our blog articles ACO Regulations Finally Released, Braving the New Frontier of Accountable Care Organizations, and Final ACO Regulations are Released - Is this the Beginning of a New Era for Health Care?
While what exactly is an ACO is still kind of nebulous, ACOs generally are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who voluntarily join forces for the purpose of providing coordinated care to Medicare patients. The goal of ACO’s coordinated care is to ensure that patients, especially the chronically ill, receive the correct care at the right time, while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors. ACOs that achieve cost saving from providing timely and accurate care that meet quality benchmarks share in Medicare savings. Lofty and worthy goals, no doubt. Read More ›
Categories: Accountable Care Organizations, Medicare/Medicaid
Categories
- Patents
- Criminal
- HITECH Act
- Did you Know?
- Medicare
- Licensing
- Electronic Health Records
- Providers
- Cybersecurity
- Physicians
- Regulatory
- Tax
- Employee Benefits
- Digital Assets
- Accountable Care Organizations
- Compliance
- Health Insurance Exchange
- Retirement
- Department of Labor
- Affordable Care Act
- HIPAA
- Alerts and Updates
- Medicare/Medicaid
- Lawsuit
- Audits
- 6th Circuit Court of Appeals
- Technology
- Workers' Compensation
- Fraud & Abuse
- Hospice
- News
- Legislative Updates
- Regulations
- Medicaid Planning
- Employment
- COVID-19 and Workers' Compensation
- Labor Relations
- Contracts
- Health Care Reform
- Pharmacy
- Hospitals
- Privacy
- Long-Term Care
- Insurance
- Billing/Payment
- News & Events
Best Lawyers® 2021
Congratulations to the attorneys of the Health Care practice group at Foster Swift Collins & Smith, PC for their inclusion in the Best Lawyers in America 2021 edition. Firm-wide, 44 lawyers were listed. Best Lawyers lists are compiled based on an exhaustive peer-review evaluation and as lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed; inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Health Care practice group members listed in Best Lawyers are as follows:
- Jennifer B. Van Regenmorter, Holland
To see the full list of Foster Swift attorneys listed in Best Lawyers 2021, click here.