"[HHS OIG Advisory Opinion 22-04] approves a program through which the requestor provides certain individuals who suffer from a substance use disorder (SUD) access to digital contingency management and related tools, including cash equivalents, to motivate behavioral health changes.... Although the requestor is not enrolled as a provider or supplier in any federal health care program, it contracts with customers (including health plans, addiction treatment providers, other treatment providers, and employee assistance programs) that may be enrolled in a federal health care program."  MORE >>

"Medicare will pay for telehealth provided at home ... Expands list of telehealth practitioners ... Extension of first dollar coverage for telehealth under HDHP/HSA plans ... Study on COVID-19-related telehealth changes under Medicare & Medicaid."  MORE >>

"[T]he court was not persuaded by and largely rejected the opinions of LINA's other reviewing doctors, finding that one misread Plaintiff's medical diagnosis, another either misread Plaintiff's functional capacity examination and other medical opinions or ignored them without justification, and the third failed in both respects." [Stratton v. Life Insurance Co. of North Am., No. 20-2037 (S.D. Cal. Mar. 8, 2022) ]  MORE >>

"ERISA's broad disclosure obligations in the context of claims and relatively loose authorization standard is somewhat at odds with HIPAA's more narrow focus on protected health information and more stringent requirements for disclosing that information.... This case is instructive that employers should not just stay silent, even if the HIPAA authorization is defective in some manner." [Wilson v. UnitedHealthcare Ins. Co., No. 20-2044 (4th Cir. Feb. 24, 2022)]  MORE >>

"The vast majority of CDHPs elected to cover telehealth services on a pre-deductible basis (83% of plans offering fully insured products, 81% of plans offering self-insured products).... Services most commonly covered included primary care (95%), mental health care (95%), chronic care (89%), and acute/urgent care (89%).... [B]ehavioral health care services together were the form of care most frequently accessed via telehealth pre-deductible."  MORE >>

"The effects of worker misclassification on employee benefit plans may include, but are not limited to: [1] failure to provide employee benefit coverage and appropriate remedial action; [2] failure to make employer and employee contributions to retirement and other employee benefit plans; [3] failure to provide the individual with required benefit plan disclosure and administrative notices; and [4] excise taxes under the [ACA] for failure to provide required health plan coverage."  MORE >>