Stat Law Update January 2010

FLORIDA PAIN CLINIC REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS JANUARY 4, 2010

Every privately owned pain-management clinic, facility or office that is not licensed under Chapter 395, Florida Statutes must register with the Florida Department of Health as a pain clinic before January 4, 2010.  A clinic with multiple locations must register each location separately.  The registration fee is $150 per application.  Any medical doctor or osteopathic physician working at an unregistered clinic is subject to discipline by the Department of Health.  The Clinic must maintain proof that it has provided each prescribing physician with copies of the Florida Laws and Rules on pain management.  Unfortunately, the applications were not available until December 16, 2009.  The Pain Clinic Registration Application is available from the Board of Medicine Website.  Medical practices should consult their health law attorneys immediately to ensure they are in compliance with the new requirements.

FLORIDA RECOVERS $8.5 MILLION FROM ROXANNE LABORATORIES, INC.

Roxane Laboratories, Inc. and its affiliates agreed to pay the State of Florida $8.5 million to settle allegations of Medicaid fraud.  According to the Attorney General’s Office, Roxanne Laboratories, Inc. “set and reported false and inflated prices for medications dispensed by pharmacies and other providers which were then reimbursed by the Florida Medicaid program.”  The Florida Medicaid Program will receive $4.4 million from the settlement and approximately $1.7 million will be returned to the State’s general revenue fund.

MORE ARRESTS FOR MEDICARE FRAUD IN MIAMI

According to the Miami Herald, Federal agents arrested about 30 more doctors, nurses and healthcare operators in Miami, Detroit and New York for Medicare fraud.  The providers and suppliers are accused of submitting more than $61 million in fraudulent bills to Medicare. 

SENATOR GRASSLEY INVESTIGATING MEDICAL SOCIETIES

On December 8, 2009, Senator Charles Grassley sent letters to numerous medical societies requesting information about those groups’ financial relationships with various industries including the pharmaceutical, medical device, and insurance industries.  Senator Grassley asked the medical societies to provide “an accounting of industry funding that pharmaceutical, medical device companies, foundations established by these companies or the insurance industry” provided to the societies from January 2006 to the present.