Telehealth, Virtual Visits, e-Visits, and Remote Care for Nursing Homes during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE)

The burden on the staff and residents of long-term care facilities, including nursing facilities and skilled nursing facilities, has increased significantly around the country. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), in response to feedback from industry stakeholders, and under new 1135 waiver authorities granted to it in the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, implemented several policy changes to support long term care facilities, including changes enabling practitioners to remotely provide services to these facilities and to remotely supervise on-site providers.

TelehealthRebecca GwiltApril 23, 2020Coronavirus, COVID-19, nursing home, Teleheath, virtual check-in, e-Visit, remote care

Carrie Nixon on the Future of Telehealth in Healthcare Finance News

‘We'll likely need a legislative change for these changes to be permanent,’ said Nixon. ‘There will be more of an impetus now. Once patients have had telehealth, it's likely they won't want to go back.’”

TelehealthCarrie NixonApril 21, 2020Coronavirus, COVID-19, Teleheath, Telemedicine

Webinar and Discussion: Reimbursement and Implementation of Telehealth, Remote Patient Monitoring, and Virtual Check-Ins during COVID-19...and Beyond

Join us for a webinar to explain the most recent regulatory and reimbursement changes around the Remote Patient Monitoring, Telehealth, e-Visit, and Virtual Check-in CPT codes, during COVID-19, and what those changes mean from a practical perspective.

CMS issues Interim Rule on use of Telehealth, Remote Patient Monitoring, e-visits, and Virtual Check-Ins during COVID-19

In response to urgent requests from healthcare providers and digital health services companies, CMS released an Interim Final Rule with comment period (the “Rule”) on March 30, 2020 that eases restrictions around the use of telehealth and other virtual communications technologies to aide response to the COVID-19 public health crisis. The Rule adds reimbursement for over 80 additional services that can now be furnished by telehealth, removes the requirement that Medicare patients have a previously established relationship with the provider billing for telehealth or remote communications services, and allows the “face-to-face” encounters required to initiate some services to be conducted via telehealth.

The #WFH Life: Tips for Working From Home from a Virtual Law Firm

In this unprecedented global outbreak of the novel coronavirus known as “COVID-19,” many people have found themselves working from a new office: their home. Nixon Law Group has been virtual since its inception, and although we have dedicated office spaces for our team to use, most of us spend the majority of our working hours at home.

Firm NewsKaitlyn O'ConnorMarch 23, 2020firm news, remote work, virtual work, work from home

The Future is Virtual—Work, That Is

With the sudden upset in many traditional workplaces due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Carrie and I count ourselves grateful because (1) we are a healthcare innovation firm, and advice regarding telemedicine and remote patient monitoring technology is in high demand these days, and (2) as an already fully virtual company, we have not had to struggle to transition our employees out of an office because we already have the flexibility to serve our clients from any location.

Firm NewsRebecca GwiltMarch 23, 2020firm news, remote work, virtual work, work from home, wfh

Carrie Nixon in the Wall Street Journal: Remote-Care Companies Scale Up to Combat Coronavirus Threat

“Widening use of telehealth and remote monitoring could lead to broader recognition among health-care providers and lawmakers of the value of these technologies and the need to reimburse for them appropriately, even after this crisis subsides, said Carrie Nixon of Nixon Law Group and an advisor to health-care venture firm Empactful Capital.”

TelehealthCarrie NixonMarch 20, 2020Coronavirus, Telehealth, Telemedicine

PODCAST: COVID-19’s HIPAA Impact, Increased Risk From Remote Work

HIPAA Critical: Episode 10 | COVID-19’s HIPAA Impact, Increased Risk From Remote Work, Interview with Carrie Nixon

PrivacyCarrie NixonMarch 19, 2020HIPAA, Coronavirus

Telehealth Waiver eases Medicare Restrictions during COVID-19 National Emergency -- but may not go far enough

When the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2020 was signed into law on March 6th, a provision in the Act that waives the geographic and originating site restrictions on telehealth services for the elderly garnered less attention, but could have a very important role to play in combatting COVID-19 - particularly if the waiver authority is further expanded by Congress. Learn more about the emergency telehealth waivers.

Is Your Digital Health or Remote Patient Monitoring Company Violating the BIPA?

Historically, biometric data – think fingerprint scans to “clock in” and face recognition technology for identifying potential suspects – has been collected by employers, law enforcement, and financial institutions and used for security purposes. As technology evolves and becomes more sophisticated, private companies—including digital health, telemedicine, and RPM companies—are beginning to incorporate biometric data from consumers and patients into their solutions.

NEW! Medicare to Reimburse for Acupuncture Services

On January 21, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a decision (under National Coverage Determination (NCD) 30.3.3) to cover acupuncture for Medicare patients, specifically those with chronic low back pain (cLBP).

2019 Pharma and Device Highs and Lows

Welcome to January 2020! I am Tommy Miller, I am Senior Counsel, and life science practice lead here at Nixon Law Group. Today I want to walk you through what I think are the highs and lows of 2019, specifically related to the legislative and regulatory actions taken in the pharmaceutical and medical device space.

FDATommy MillerJanuary 13, 2020Life Sciences and Biotech, drug pricing, CBD, FDA

Principal Care Management (PCM) Reimbursement under the 2020 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule

The 2020 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (the “Final Rule”), released on November 1, 2019, finalized two new codes in a new category of reimbursement titled “Principal Care Management” (PCM) Services. The new codes will be effective as of January 1, 2020, and provide reimbursement for managing a patient’s care for a single high-risk disease or complex chronic condition.

Mythbusters, Amendments, and Proposed Regulations to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018

For nearly two years, digital healthcare companies and data brokers from across the country have been preparing to comply with California’s newest data privacy law—the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA). Companies are making determinations about the applicability of this law to their operations, developing inventories of the types of consumer information they collect, and implementing operational and procedural changes in order to comply with the requirements of the law’s requirements. For those companies whose operations are not subject to the CCPA law, some have determined that it may be a strategic advantage to voluntarily adhere to some of the CCPA’s requirements, as they are likely to be adopted by other states (and even the Federal Government) as privacy legislation continues to proliferate. If you are a digital healthcare company or healthcare data broker and you’ve not initiated these conversations within your company, now is the time.

Sharing Personal Healthcare Data: Why Google’s Relationship with Ascension Health is the “New Normal”

The lines between health data and consumer data are increasingly blurred as more technology companies venture into healthcare analytics and data processing. Why does this matter? Because there are state and federal laws protecting healthcare data collected by a person’s insurance company or physician, but for-profit companies that may collect healthcare and other sensitive person data are often not subject to these laws. In addition, healthcare companies subject to state and federal healthcare privacy laws are increasingly leaning on third party technology companies to derive value or insight from the healthcare data they collect in ways that would surprise many consumers.

PrivacyTommy MillerNovember 18, 2019google ascension, google mayo clinic, google healthcare privacy

Proposed Anti-Kickback Statute “Patient Engagement and Support” Safe Harbor: Implications for Remote Patient Monitoring and other Care Management Services Vendors

In this article on the proposed changes to the fraud and abuse regulations, we focus on OIG’s proposed Patient Engagement and Support safe harbor to AKS and CMP and discuss how this new safe harbor may affect care management services vendors such as Chronic Care Management (CCM), Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), Transitional Care Management (TCM), and Behavioral Health Integration (BHI) services vendors.

How to Get Paid for Patient "e-Visits" under the 2020 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Final Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for CY 2020 (the “2020 MPFS”) on November 1, 2019. The 2020 MPFS finalizes six new CPT codes for e-Visits, providing new opportunities for physician practices to be reimbursed for conducting digital health assessments and evaluations for their patients and for remote patient monitoring companies to add these capabilities to their platforms.

CMS Finalizes Changes to Remote Patient Monitoring in the 2020 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Final Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for CY 2020 (the “2020 MPFS”) on November 1, 2019, finalizing some important changes relating to Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) services, but leaving many questions unanswered as of yet.

Proposed Anti-Kickback Statute "Care Coordination Arrangements" Safe Harbor: Implications for Remote Patient Monitoring and Care Management Services

In this article, we focus on the proposed Care Coordination Arrangements safe harbor to the Anti-Kickback Statute and discuss how this new safe harbor may affect vendors of care management services such as Remote Patient Monitoring, Chronic Care Management services, Transitional Care Management services, and Behavioral Health Integration services.

The “Lower Drug Costs Now Act”: See Change Possible for State and Federal Drug Transparency and Pricing

Despite division along party lines and industry pushback, the House of Representatives has passed legislation (H.R. 3), the “Lower Drug Costs Now Act”, which would require the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to establish a “Fair Price Negotiation Program” responsible for negotiating Medicare payments for some of the most expensive drugs available to Medicare beneficiaries.

What You Need To Know

HIPAA Critical: Episode 10 | COVID-19’s HIPAA Impact, Increased Risk From Remote Work, Interview with Carrie Nixon

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What You Need To Know

HIPAA Critical: Episode 10 | COVID-19’s HIPAA Impact, Increased Risk From Remote Work, Interview with Carrie Nixon

Nixon Gwilt Law216 Apple Blossom Court, Suite 200Vienna, VA 22181

Nixon Gwilt Law
216 Apple Blossom Court, Suite 200
Vienna, VA 22181