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This post was provided by Debbie Juhnke in Husch Blackwell’s Information Governance group.

According to a recent KPMG report on data loss, the healthcare industry’s greatest exposures for data loss are hard copy loss/theft, PC theft, and social engineering, ranking first (in a tie), second, and third against other sectors respectively for percentage of data…

This post was contributed by Erik Flom and Edward Manzo, intellectual property lawyers at Husch Blackwell.   

Companies having inventions to patent should seriously consider filing their patent applications at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on or before Friday, March 15th – the “Ides of March.” This is the final day that entirely new applications can be filed and still be treated under the current patent system. There are five, simple reasons why you might want to meet the deadline:

  1. An applicant under the current system is entitled to prove a date of “invention” that is earlier than the application filing date. The earlier the date of invention, the more likely it is that you will be able to overcome some prior art references or to win a priority contest against a later inventor who filed an earlier application.
  2. Because the definition of “prior art” changes under the America Invents Act, prior art that can be cited against patent applications with an effective filing date after March 15, 2013, generally expands in scope. Unless that prior art derives from the applicant, it cannot be overcome except in narrow circumstances. Often, such prior art is not known until it arises in patent litigation. If the patent has an effective filing date before March 16, 2013, then the patent owner can attempt to overcome some of the prior art on the basis of dates of invention.

On January 31, 2013, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the health care organizations selected to participate in the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative (“BPCI”).  BPCI was created by the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) healthcare reform law to assess whether bundling payments for services in a single episode of care can…

On January 17, 2013, the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services issued its final rule modifying the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) privacy, security, enforcement, and breach notification rules under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. The final rule…

Recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a settlement with the Hospice of North Idaho (HONI) for potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Security Rule.  The settlement, which was for $50,000, is unique because it is the first settlement involving a breach of electronic…

In response to the deadly incidents with a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts that is blamed for a meningitis outbreak that sickened more than 500 people and caused at least 36 deaths, potential federal legislation has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Two bills have been introduced in the U.S. House of Representative that…

We have heard it many times before: The average American will consume 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving Day.  The New York Times Thanksgiving Help Line is reporting that the often-cited 4,500 number may be overstated.  According to the report, that number is cited by the Calorie Control Council, which is a diet foods industry group.  Tara…

Hopefully all of our nursing home clients know by now that CMS and the OIG have psychotropic drug use by nursing home residents on their radar.  A recent case filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ)  raises another concern that nursing homes may not have considered.  A Chicago psychiatrist was charged with violating the False Claims…