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The Florida Department of Health has closed an investigation against a pharmacist client of the firm after a no probable cause finding was made regarding allegations that the pharmacist diverted controlled substances. The investigation initially began as a DEA criminal investigation, and the firm represented the pharmacist in that investigation as well. The criminal investigation Read more →

Under a recent settlement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Affinity Health Plan, Inc., settled potential violations of the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules for $1,215,780. HHS-OCR’s investigation revealed that Affinity impermissibly disclosed (without consent) the protected health information of up to 344,579 individuals when it returned multiple photocopiers to a Read more →

The Firm has secured the reinstatement of the billing number for a provider that was revoked by Medicare for the last year. Through a combination of appeals and direct interaction with Medicare officials, Medicare agreed to reverse the revocation, finding that the provider had made a good faith effort to comply. The provider was revoked Read more →

Through an aggressive appeal effort, attorney Erin Bengele secured a substantial reduction in a private insurance overpayment demand for a pharmacy client of the Firm. Ms. Bengele prepared a detailed claim-by-claim rebuttal of the purported basis for denial, ultimately reducing the overpayment by two-thirds. Among other things, Ms. Bengele pointed out factual errors by the Read more →

On December 26th, 2013, HHS-OCR announced a $150,000 dollar settlement with Adult & Pediatric Dermatology, P.C.(APDerm), a Concord, Massachusetts-based private practice for alleged HIPAA violations discovered during an HHS-OCR investigation following a reported breach. As background, on October 7th, 2011,APDerm notified HHS that an unencrypted USB memory drive containing protected health information (PHI) had been Read more →