Feb 3, 2023 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Testing, Pathology and Clinical Laboratory Conferences
Healthcare attorneys advise medical laboratory leaders to ensure staff understand difference between EKRA and other federal fraud laws, such as the Anti-kickback Statute More than four years have passed since Congress passed the law and yet the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act of 2018 (EKRA) continues to cause anxiety and confusion. In particular are the differences in the safe harbors between the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and Stark Law versus EKRA. This creates uncertainty...
Jan 25, 2023 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Testing
But insurers are complying under the Transparency in Coverage regulations and that is where discrepancies in the disclosure of prices to the public have been found Despite federal regulations requiring hospitals to publicly post their prices in advance of patient services, some large health systems still do not follow the law. That’s according to a new Transparency in Coverage Report from PatientRightsAdvocate.org (PRA), which found that some hospitals are “flouting” the federal Hospital Price...
Nov 7, 2022 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Testing
Organizations representing clinical laboratories and other critical healthcare providers urged Congress to pass the Saving Access to Laboratory Services Act by January 1, 2023, to prevent deep cuts in reimbursements Lessons about the essential role of clinical laboratories during a pandemic was the central theme in a significant publication released recently. The authors were the presidents of two of the nation’s largest healthcare companies and their goal was to connect the value clinical...
Oct 24, 2022 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Testing
Survey respondents specifically mentioned clinical laboratory charges as part of the balance billing they were receiving Unexpected medical bills—which often include clinical laboratory test and pathology charges—are still arriving in patients’ mailboxes, even though the federal No Surprises Act (H.R.3630) was passed as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 specifically to prevent that from happening. According to a survey conducted by Morning Consult, a global research firm with...
Sep 19, 2022 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Resources, Laboratory Testing
Clinical labs should proactively investigate how a vendor will respond to a data security incident and how quickly, says expert Clinical laboratory managers in New York and surrounding areas should be aware that almost one million protected health information (PHI) records from as many as 28 healthcare providers appear to have been stolen from a medical records company that services these providers. Practice Resources LLC (PRL), a company that provides billing services for dozens of hospitals...
Sep 7, 2022 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Insurers from three states claim pandemic start-up medical lab company charged as much as $979 for SARS-CoV-2 PCR test In an unprecedented move, Blue Cross insurers in three states are suing a clinical laboratory company in Nebraska for test price gouging during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawsuit claims that the lab company charged as much as 10 times more than other labs for similar tests. The interesting twist to the pricing aspect of this story is that the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and...
