Holland & Hart Healthcare Law Blog

RAC AUDITS AND NEW FEDERAL FALSE CLAIMS ACT EXPOSURE.UNDER THE FRAUD ENFORCEMENT RECOVERY ACT OF 2009 (“FERA”).

The federal squeeze of health care providers is underway. Federal Medicare recovery “bounty hunters,” the Recovery Audit Contractors (“RAC”), are marshalling resources for the anticipated, algorithm primed, data mining hunt for Medicare overpayments from hospitals, physicians, DME companies, hospices and other providers, which is likely to bloom in the second half of this year. Those that attempt to mislead the government or its computer toting agents in order to limit the harvest are facing additional potential exposure under the Federal False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. §3729-3733 (“FCA”).

INTERNET MEDICINE: PART VII – PUBLIC, PROPRIETARY AND PRIVACY TENSIONS IN MEDICAL DEVICES.

The front page of the New York Times today carried a story by Pam Belluck on a hospital’s promotional webcast of Shila Renee Mullins’s brain surgery to extract a malignant tumor, which raised conflicting opinion is about the wisdom, benefit and ethics of the public dissemination of personal medical information, even if consensual, and the public access to dramatic interventional medical procedures. Some hospitals are featuring twittering during operations in order to apprise relatives and others of the progress of thee procedure in real time.

INTERNET MEDICINE: PART VI –CHALLENGES TO DATA SECURITY IN INTERNET MEDICAL DEVICE INFORMATION LINKS.

The growing interoperability between medical devices and electronic medical records gives rise to new opportunities in the transmittal and collection of vital medical data. New vulnerabilities arise as well. Last month, the Internet Storm Center sponsored by SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security Institute) warned that the Conflicker worm had infected approximately ten million internet devices including MRIs. SANS is a cooperative research and education organization that since 1989 has specialized in information security technology training and awareness.

The Conflicker worm attacks holes in Windows OS with advanced malware techniques. It is the largest worm infection since the SQL Slammer worm. Many of the infected devices were not designed for internet connectivity. The efficacy of the infection repair is complicated by a FDA regulation which limits the ability to issue an internet “patch” for 90 days, and apparent triumph of law over common sense in crisis with a unique and unanticipated need.

INTERNET MEDICINE: PART V –TELEMEDICINE AND THE VIRTUAL DOCTOR VISIT.

According to Dr. Roy Schoenberg, M.D., founder of the telemedicine company, American Well, Inc., the Obama administration’s stimulus plan for investment in local community broad band digital capability has far more potential to impact the development of 21st century medicine than the electronic medical records subsidies. Witness the recent announcement of an agreement between a new, high end, but remote real estate development near Bozeman Montana, Ameya Preserve, and SwiftMD for SwiftMD (see www.swiftMD.com )  to become the sole telemedicine supplier to the 300 family subdivision, currently under construction.. The homes are scheduled to be wired with all the technical components for the online subscription telehealth service. 

Internet Medicine Part IV: “Health 2.0.”

“Health 2.0” or “Medicare 2.0” relates to a new paradigm in the relationship between patients and physicians, in particular the application of Web 2.0 interconnectivity tools or social media technology to the provision of health care.  One of the ironies of this movement is the emphasis on sharing rather than protecting or hiding health care information.  The www.patientslikeme.com  website sponsors  patients as partners with their physicians in assembling and sharing information related to specific diseases.  Patientslikeme assembles and aggregates patient information related to 5 chronic illness categories: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS); Parkinson’s Disease, HIV/AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis and Mood Disorders.  Participants share treatment experiences, drug side effects, new treatment regimens and even organize and participate in their own clinical trials. 

BOOK REVIEW: Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman, M.D., FANTASTIC VOYAGE: LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO LIVE FOREVER, Rodale 2004.

Aubrey de Grey, the British biomedical gerontologist who recently appeared on 60 Minutes and gave a lecture on “Why We Age and How We Can Avoid It” on TED is convinced that we now have the resources to repair metabolically damaged tissue so as to be able to live for 1000 years.  He believes that it is possible for a 50 year old to “pull out of the dive” of aging based on current and immediately anticipated technology.