In our Georgia business and healthcare law firm, we have noticed that cases involving Medicare fraud and billing compliance issues are published on virtually a daily basis, underscoring the critical need that physicians, nurses and other care providers and billing professionals exercise caution and vigilance in billing Medicare or other third party payers. For example, last week in Dallas, Texas, two physicians and three nurses were sentenced to prison for submitting fraudulent claims to Medicare through a home healthcare agency. The financial harm and potential billing fraud and serious “zero tolerance policy” of the Office of the Inspector and Federal Government for Medicare fraud has enhanced the financial and legal risks to healthcare providers and billing companies for all billing discrepancies. The OIG published its 2018 National Health Care Fraud Takedown providing the following statistics, which reflect law enforcement efforts to combat healthcare fraud and abuse:
Fraud and Abuse Update: Billing Schemes and Medicare Fraud and the OIG’s National Health Care Fraud Takedown
On October 16, the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health and Homeland Security’s Office of Cybersecurity and Communications announced a partnership to address cybersecurity issues related to the utilization of medical devices. As healthcare professionals continue to rely on computer-based systems to monitor and treat patients effectively, cybersecurity threatens providers and hospital systems. Confusion regarding the role of the FDA in medical device security, and questioning the accountability of manufacturers in terms of security issues, are two of the key factors concerning health IT professionals. The possibility of potential threats continues to grow alongside the need for data management for network security. The 
In July 2017, Georgia passed House Bill 249, transitioning the state’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) from the Drug and Narcotic Agency to the Department of Public Health. “The goal of the Georgia PDMP is to reduce the misuse of controlled substances and to promote proper use of medications used to treat pain, as well as to help diminish duplicative prescribing and overprescribing of controlled substances,” said Georgia Department of Public Health Commissioner Patrick O’Neal, MD. The new mandates call for providers to utilize the PDMP system for prescriptions of opioid and benzodiazepine medications. Now, prescribers of CII medications are required to review a patient’s PDMP information every 90 days, unless the patient meets 
In early August, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published an updated set of guidelines stating that hospitals will now be required to annually publish a list of charges online. CMS 
Today, the United States Department of Justice announced by 
Genetic testing companies, such as 