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Diane, a member of the firm’s Executive Board, has passionately served the healthcare industry for a quarter-century. Diane advises clients on strategic planning, corporate matters, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, restructuring, transactional, regulatory and compliance matters.

The U.S. Department of Justice issued a press release (the “press release”) covering today’s announcement by Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations in six cities resulted in charges against 90 individuals, including 27 doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, for their alleged participation in fraud schemes involving approximately $260 million in Medicare false claims.
Continue Reading DOJ: Medicare fraud strike force charges 90 individuals for approximately $260 million in false billing

On August 16, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit dismissed an appeal challenging the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (PPACA’s) restriction on expansion by physician-owned hospitals.  The lawsuit was initially filed in the Eastern District of Texas by the physician-owned hospital trade group (Physicians Hospitals of America) and a physician-owned

On May 3, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Blog posted a delay to the implementation of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act.  CMS stated that, in order to provide time for organizations to prepare for data submission and to sufficiently address the important input CMS received during the rulemaking process, CMS will

Outpatient Surgery Magazine recently published an article describing a case in New Jersey in which an ASC successfully defended an action brought by three physicians who were forced to sell their ownership interests in the ASC due to the physicians’ failure to meet the “one-third procedures test” under the applicable federal anti-kickback statute safe harbor. 

Recently-issued interpretive guidance related to rehabilitation and respiratory care services under hospital Conditions of Participation (CoPs) has prompted the American Hospital Association (AHA) to send a request to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to clarify the confusion caused by the guidance.  Specifically, Transmittal No. 72, issued on November 18, 2011, states that a