OIG Work Plan for 2014 Released
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of Health and Human Services released its Work Plan for Fiscal Year 2014 on January 31, 2014, nearly four months later than usual. The OIG issues an annual work plan to identify the office's specific areas of focus and oversight for the upcoming fiscal year. The Work Plan provides valuable insight into the OIG's priorities by describing both new and existing programs that the OIG will undertake in the coming fiscal year. The projects outlined in the 2014 Work Plan will affect several providers, including hospitals, physicians, suppliers, and payors. This article discusses the highlights from the 85-page Work Plan. (Read more...)

Healthcare Fraud & Abuse Series Part III of III: Increasing Scrutiny of Healthcare Fraud & Abuse Laws
The first installment of this three-part Health Capital Topics series discussed the framework of current healthcare fraud and abuse laws - namely, (1) the Anti-Kickback Statute; (2) the Stark Law; and, (3) the False Claims Act, as well as the regulatory thresholds of Fair Market Value (FMV) and Commercial Reasonableness - within the current era of healthcare reform in the United States. The second installment of this three-part series briefly discussed the more notable fraud and abuse violations prosecuted by the federal government. This final segment of the series will examine how the Department of Justice and Office of Inspector General are prosecuting increasingly complex violations of healthcare fraud and abuse laws, and how these prosecutions affect the level of physician compensation deemed to be consistent with FMV. (Read more...)

The High-Tech Patient Room of the Future
Imagine a hospital room where patients are watching television on a wall screen and ordering hospital food on an electronic tablet, while nurses check patients' vital signs, which are illuminated above the hospital bed. This is not an episode of "The Jetsons," but rather, the patient room of the future. NXT Health, a nonprofit organization focused on leading research efforts to impact the future of healthcare, has developed a high-tech hospital patient room - termed the "Patient Room 2020 Concept" - to coordinate patient care through technology and design. (Read more...)

Physician Shortage Series II of III: Surgical Shortages Worsen
In an era of healthcare reform, the demand for physicians is increasing, exacerbated by an aging Baby Boomer population and an influx of millions of newly insured patients entering the healthcare market as a result of Medicaid expansion and the health insurance exchanges. The first installment in this three-part Health Capital Topics series on physician shortages discussed the continuing primary care shortage in the United States. Similar to the decreasing primary care supply, the surgical specialties, which are highlighted in this article, are experiencing critical shortages. Despite efforts through research institutes and the Affordable Care Act to address the surgical shortage problem, studies suggest that this trend will continue. (Read more...)