Search Results for: Medicare

The Department of Justice (DOJ) Tuesday released a statement that it charged 23 Michigan residents, in two separate cases, for allegedly defrauding Medicare for $61.5 million. The illegal schemes involved paying bribes and billing Medicare for unneeded medical treatments that were never provided. First, a brief background on how this type of Medicare works. A [...]

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The Department of Heath and Human Services (HHS) Wednesday announced an initiative to reduce the “inappropriate” use of antipsychotic drugs in US nursing homes. HHS Secretary Xavier Becrerra linked the improper drug use to erroneous schizophrenia diagnoses and argued that patients without an accurate diagnosis who take antipsychotics are at higher risk for poor care. [...]

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Three Australian class action firms, purporting to represent as many as 9.7 million customers Monday announced a landmark Australian data breach class action plan against insurance provider Medibank after entering a joint cooperation agreement the previous week. The firms, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, Bannister Law Class Actions and Centennial Lawyers, entered the agreement in relation to [...]

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The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Tuesday reversed insider trading convictions against four defendants over leaks from a US healthcare agency. In the 2-1 decision, the court dismissed various fraud and theft charges against former hedge-fund partners Theodore Huber and Robert Olan, political intelligence consultant David Blaszczak and former US Centers for [...]

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Australia Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler Tuesday announced an investigation into the nation’s Medicare system after a joint investigation by expert Margaret Faux, the Australia Broadcasting Corporation, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age alleged that an estimated $8 billion AUD ($5.031 billion USD) is misspent each year. Butler suggested that Faux’s [...]

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The United States Monday filed a lawsuit against Cigna Corporation in the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee for allegedly providing false patient diagnoses to receive increased Medicare payments in violation of the False Claims Act. The defendants include Cigna and its various state companies. The complaint alleges that, while processing home [...]

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Two Australian regulatory bodies Tuesday announced formal investigations into the “cyberattack” security breach of the private information of 9.8 million Singtel Optus Pty Limited, Optus Mobile Pty Ltd and Optus Internet Pty Ltd (Optus) customers. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) released a statement that it has commenced an investigation into whether Optus took [...]

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US District Judge Wesley Hendrix Tuesday enjoined the enforcement of guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions, ruling that the guidance went beyond what is allowable under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). This decision came from the US District Court for the Northern [...]

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US President Joe Biden Tuesday signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law. Biden lauded the act’s sweeping healthcare, tax, and climate reforms. According to Senate Democrats, the IRA achieves eight main objectives: Expands Medicare benefits by ensuring free vaccines and price caps on insulin and out-of-pocket drug costs; Lowers energy costs through tax credits [...]

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