This author tackles the question: Are corporations taking on excessive enterprise risks by failing to make prudent investments in their compliance and ethics functions?
We have all heard about big data breaches: millions of customer records at risk, credit monitoring for an extended period of time, etc. What about the smaller run-of-the-mill security or privacy breaches? Can we prevent them? Do we have to report them? How do you set up incident response reporting? How do you do a security risk assessment to mitigate your risks?
Privacy laws are proliferating. This session will discuss how to implement a global privacy compliance program to address the EU Directives, as well as current updates and implementation of key country privacy laws, such the Personal Information Privacy Act in South Korea and similar laws in Malaysia and other Asian countries. This session will also address equally important US state law privacy developments.
Each of the respective industries in healthcare face different issues when negotiating contracts. This program will highlight what are essential provisions to be included in health care agreements from the perspective of hospitals, providers, medical device companies, pharmaceutical companies and health plans. Concepts to be discussed include the requirements of the variety of U.S. and international laws impacting the healthcare industry, the different needs of for-profits and non-profits, and the changes imposed by healthcare reform.
Breaches of patient privacy/security are considered the number one risk for liability in the healthcare industry today. Control over patient information in today’s society is becoming ever increasingly difficult with the expanding use of electronic health records, personal health records and social media, plus the advent of Health Information Exchanges. Outsourcing of healthcare operations provides additional risk, especially the enforceability of patient privacy/security law when patient information is sent outside the US. Unfavorable media, government enforcement, class action litigation and identity theft all pose a constant concern to in-house counsel, and vendors themselves are now at greater risk of liability with penalties now imposed on business associates. This panel will provide an overview of the principal federal laws & regulations concerning privacy/security (HIPAA/HITECH/Red Flags), their interaction with select state laws, international laws (EU Data Protection), and practical ways to minimize risk and keep patient information private and secure.
With over 900 pages of law & tens of thousands of pages of regulations, “ObamaCare” has been in the news and courts & now it’s on your desk and in your board room, C-suite and business units. Get your "cheat sheet" to navigating the implications of the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The panel will tackle the hottest Affordable Care Act issues including: (1) Medicaid expansion - what states are expanding and what will be the impact to states that are not expanding; (2) New regulations - what are some of the most significant and controversial regulations and can more be expected in the near future; (3) Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) - great rewards are promised for healthcare companies willing to be accountable for better outcomes and savings, but what “pay for performance” and quality controls are being implemented, measured and reported and is it really worth it?
One of the in-house litigator's most important roles is quantifying litigation exposure. Whether evaluated at the enterprise level or on a case-by-case basis, the in-house litigator is under more pressure than ever to assist the corporation to manage/contain overall risk. Nuanced high/low analyses or "it depends" answers from a learned legal pulpit will not make the cut in today''s cost-conscious corporate environment. In-house practitioners need to have effective tools and methodologies to assess litigation risks and develop strategies for containing the cost of litigation, as well as financial exposure to the corporation. This program will explore novel ways the in-house litigator can approach litigation, and contain risk and cost, with a business (not only a legal) mindset.
The Stark Law has promulgated complicated regulations for transactions involving payments to physicians. All facets of the healthcare industry also face on a daily basis the shadow of government prosecutors focused on violations of the federal anti-kickback statute. These laws involve both criminal prosecution and civil liability, and in-house attorneys have at times been prosecuted as individual defendants. Enforcement is expanding to cover individual physicians as prescribers of company products and providers of services to companies, such as consulting and clinical investigator services, and to physician ownership of medical device distributors. Looming over healthcare companies and individuals is the potential to be debarred from participation in Medicare, Medicaid & other federal health care programs. In addition, in-house counsel need to be aware of obscure state laws on the issues of physician self-referral prohibition and anti-kickbacks. This program will discuss the government’s new enforcement trend and mechanisms that in-house counsel can employ to reduce these risks.
A recent High Court decision gives useful guidance about the extent of a facility agent’s duties and a warning of the potential risks if a facility agent acts outside the scope of those duties. This article takes a brief look at some of the key lessons from the decision.
Part of risk management is managing the enterprise’s insurance coverage, submitting claims and getting claims paid. Insurance companies often avoid paying claims. You will learn: what the insurance companies’ obligations are with respect to claims adjusting; how to manage the process and maximize your recovery; insurer duties and the insured’s obligations; what to do when you get denials or reservation of rights letters; how the tri-party relationship of insurer, defense counsel and insured works; whether you can get in-house attorneys’ fees paid; and some creative ways to settle claims with insurers.