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It is not appropriate to make a broad recommendation for a public disclosure process for adverse events in hospitals, according to a recent memorandum from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) will audit a number of the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS) programs involving health IT incentives, according to its 2010 work plan. The review also will involve health IT programs funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
Written by Jeff Byers
The Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General (OIG) will commence new studies regarding Medicare Part B imaging payments and the appropriateness of many emergency department scans, according to the recent OIG Fiscal Year 2010 Work Plan.
A report from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for Evaluation and Inspections for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and State Operations indicates that the Medicaid Statistical Information System was unable to capture many data elements that can assist in fraud, waste and abuse detection between 2004 and 2006.
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has released a report expressing concern about the over-utilization of ultrasound devices in specific U.S. counties.
Even though federal law requires it, nearly half of all U.S. hospitals fail to report to the National Practitioner Data Bank when a physician's admitting privileges have been revoked or restricted for more than 30 days, according to a report from consumer watchdog group Public Citizen.
The U.S. government has reached a settlement with cardiologists Richard A. Cohn, MD, Lee Goldberg, MD, and Timothy M. Marshall, MD, of Tucson, Ariz., contending that from January 2007 to October 2007, they submitted payment claims to the Medicare Program in violation of the physician self-referral law, or Stark Law.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has reported that medical transcription service provider MedQuist has paid the United States $6.6 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that it overbilled federal government clients.
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The Department of Justice has announced that Wheaton Community Hospital, the city of Wheaton, Minn., and Stanley Gallagher, MD, have agreed to pay $846,461 to settle a whistleblower suit charging that they violated the False Claims Act.
The FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) does not use adverse event reports in a systematic manner to detect and address safety concerns about medical devices, according to an October report from the Office of Inspector General (OIG).
Written by Justine Cadet
 - CMS supports NCD coverage of FDG-PET for cervical cancer - OIG cautions CMS about ultrasound overuse
The failure of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) replacement scheduling application development program is part of a pattern of larger agency system problems related to the implementation and management of IT projects, according to a report by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
Fifty-three people have been indicted for schemes to submit more than $50 million in false Medicare claims in the continuing operation of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force in Detroit, according to an announcement made Wednesday by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and FBI Director Robert Mueller.
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Health and Human Services has entered into a civil monetary penalty settlement with West Valley Imaging Limited Partnership of Las Vegas, and its principals, William L. Boren, MD, and Luke S. Cesaretti, MD, over claims of Medicare fraud.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has intervened in a whistleblower suit filed in the District of New Mexico against Community Health Systems and three of its hospitals in New Mexico.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has taken limited actions to ensure that covered entities adequately implement the HIPAA Security Rule of 1996, and has not provided effective oversight or encouraged enforcement of the rule, according to a new report from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
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The use of health IT to reduce rehospitalizations will be welcome but also disruptive, said Stephen Jencks, an independent consultant in healthcare safety during a Feb. 24 webinar on the potential use of health IT to mitigate rehospitalizations, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
During the Health IT Standards Committee meeting on Feb. 24 in Washington, D.C., the Clinical Operations Workgroup sought to gather comments on proposed recommendations on implementation specifications for content exchange, vocabulary and code set standards for the Interim Final Rule of meaningful use.
In 2006, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), a branch of the FDA, began examining the number of medical device reports they received. Over the past two years, the number of submitted reports has increased, sparking a demand for the CDRH to make a move to electronic reporting.
A new hospital breaking ground usually isn’t breaking news. But the vision of patient care at one new facility, tentatively named Palomar Medical Center West (PMC West), is currently illegal under California state law.