With Justice Antonin Scalia’s death on February 13, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court will continue to hear and decide cases with only eight justices. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, has said that the Senate will neither hold hearings nor vote on a replacement for Justice Scalia until after President Obama leaves office on January 20, 2017. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have echoed McConnell’s position. The Supreme Court can function with only eight justices. As … [Read more...]
Switch to ICD-10 Not A Cure-All For Healthcare Fraud
The World Health Organization is the public health arm of the United Nations. Since 1948, WHO has been responsible for updating the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), a worldwide system for collecting, processing, classifying and processing statistics about diseases. The most recent version of the ICD is ICD-10, or tenth edition, which WHO published in 1999. The U.S. Center for National Health Statistics adapts the ICD to create the ICD-CM, which is used by U.S.-based healthcare … [Read more...]
Feds take strong action to protect whistleblowers from overzealous confidentiality agreements
Many companies require their employees to sign confidentiality agreements that prohibit the employees from disclosing non-public information about the company to outsiders. In general, these confidentiality agreements aim to protect a company’s proprietary information that gives it an advantage over its competitors; things like trade secrets, inventions, customer lists and strategic plans. Recently, however, a growing number of companies have included language in their confidentiality … [Read more...]
SEC Compliance Office to Focus on Exchange-Traded Funds in 2016
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations recently announced its priorities for 2016. The OCIE conducts examinations of the securities industry with the goal of improving the integrity of the capital and securities markets. The OCIE focuses on improving compliance, preventing fraud, monitoring risk and advising the full Commission on policy. One of the OCIE’s priorities for 2016 is to closely examine exchange-traded funds, known as ETFs. An ETF … [Read more...]
Inspector General Report Provides Strong Clues on Trends in Healthcare Fraud
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the federal agency that runs the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Within the Department, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is charged with preventing fraud on the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and identifying and holding accountable those that have abused their role as healthcare providers. OIG conducts audits, investigations, and evaluations of Medicare and Medicaid, and works closely with attorneys within HHS and at the U.S. … [Read more...]