(September 1, 2010):

• The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), Chicago, Illinois, and  
• Drummond Group Inc. (DGI), Austin, Texas.

These entities are the first technology review bodies that have been authorized to test and certify electronic health record (EHR) systems for compliance with the standards and certification criteria that were issued by HHS earlier this year

As HHS’ Press Release reflects:

Certification of EHRs is part of a broad initiative undertaken by Congress and President Obama under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.  HITECH created new incentive payment programs to help health providers as they transition from paper-based medical records to EHRs.  Incentive payments totaling as much as $27 billion may be made under the program.  Individual physicians and other eligible professionals can receive up to $44,000 through Medicare and almost $64,000 through Medicaid.  Hospitals can receive millions.

To qualify for the incentive payments, providers must not only adopt, but also demonstrate meaningful use of, certified EHR systems.  The law envisions that defined meaningful use requirements will help ensure that the patient and provider benefits of EHRs are realized.  Initial meaningful use criteria were defined in a final rule issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on July 28.”

With these appointments, EHR vendors will be able to have their programs certified as meeting criteria to support the “Meaningful Use” which are now required.

Should you have questions regarding these or other health law issues, you should contact your attorney or feel free to call one of the attorneys at Liles Parker.  For a free initial consultation, call 1 (800) 475-1906.

(August 31, 2010):

 Issues Discussed at the Summit: As Attorney General Holder discussed, the administration’s current enforcement actions were having a significant impact on health care fraud.  In fact, additional funding has been allocated to expand the HEAT program to additional cities:

 “. . . Last year brought an historic step forward in this fight.   In May 2009, the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services launched the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team, or “HEAT.”   Through HEAT, we’ve fostered unprecedented collaboration between our agencies and our law enforcement partners.   We’ve ensured that the fight against criminal and civil health care fraud is a Cabinet-level priority.   And we’ve strengthened our capacity to fight health care fraud through the enhanced use of our joint Medicare Strike Forces.    

 This approach is working.   In fact, HEAT’s impact has been recognized by President Obama, whose FY2011 budget request includes an additional $60 million to expand our network of Strike Forces to additional cities.   With these new resources, and our continued commitment to collaboration, I have no doubt we’ll be able to extend HEAT’s record of achievement.   And this record is extraordinary.

 In just the last fiscal year, we’ve won or negotiated more than $1.6 billion in judgments and settlements, returned more than $2.5 billion to the Medicare Trust Fund, opened thousands of new criminal and civil health care fraud investigations, reached an all-time high in the number of health care fraud defendants charged, and stopped numerous large-scale fraud schemes in their tracks.  

 We can all be encouraged, in particular, by what’s been accomplished in L.A.   Criminals we’ve brought to justice here – in the last year alone – include the owners of the City of Angels Hospital, who   pleaded guilty to paying illegal kickbacks to homeless shelters as part of a scheme to defraud Medicare and Medi-Cal; a physician in Torrance who defrauded insurance companies by misrepresenting cosmetic procedures as “medically necessary”; an Orange County oncologist who pleaded guilty to fraudulently billing Medicare and other health insurance companies up to $1 million for cancer medications that weren’t provided; a Santa Ana doctor who pleaded guilty to health care fraud for giving AIDS and HIV patients diluted medications; and a ring of criminals who defrauded Medi-Cal out of more than $4.5 million by using unlicensed individuals to provide in-home care to scores of disabled patients, many of them children.“ (emphasis added).

 As HHS Secretary Sebelius further noted:

“In March, we gave him some help when Congress passed and the president signed the Affordable Care Act — one of the strongest health care anti-fraud bills in American history. Under the new law we’ve begun to strengthen the screenings for health care providers who want to participate in Medicaid or Medicare.  And I am proud to announce that CMS is issuing a final rule strengthening enrollment standards for suppliers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS).

This rule and others coming soon mean that only appropriately qualified suppliers will be enrolled in the program. The days when you could just hang a shingle over a desk and start submitting claims are over. No more power-driven wheelchairs for marathon runners.  Under the new law, we’re also making it easier for law enforcement officials to see health care claims data from around the country in one place, combining all Medicare-paid claims into a single, searchable database. And we’re getting smarter about analyzing those claims in real time to flag potential scams.  It is what credit card companies have been doing for decades:  If 10 flat screen TV’s are suddenly charged to my card in one day, they know something’s not quite right. So they put a hold on payment and call me right away. 

We should be able to take the same approach when one provider submits ten times as many claims for oxygen equipment as a similar operation just down the road.  It’s about spotting fraud early before it escalates and the cost grows.  As we step up our efforts to stamp out fraud, we’re holding ourselves accountable. The President has made a commitment to cut improper Medicare payments in half by 2012.”

While DOJ Attorney General Holder’s and HHS Secretary Sebelius’ presentations provided an overview of law enforcement’s current and future efforts, the comments of DOJ Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, Lanny A. Breuer, were especially enlightening in terms of how providers are being identified and targeted for investigation.   As Mr. Breuer discussed: 

“In 2007, the Criminal Division of the Justice Department refocused our approach to investigating and prosecuting health care fraud cases. Our investigative approach is now data driven: put simply, our analysts and agents review Medicare billing data from across the country; identify patterns of unusual billing conduct; and then deploy our “Strike Force” teams of investigators and prosecutors to those hotspots to investigate, make arrests, and prosecute. And as criminals become more creative and sophisticated, we intend to use our most aggressive investigative techniques to be right at their heels. Whenever possible, we actively use undercover operations, court-authorized wiretaps and room bugs, and confidential informants to stop these schemes in their tracks.” (emphasis added).

 As Mr. Breuer’s comments further confirm, health care providers are being identified based on their billing patterns.  Through the use of data-mining, providers who coding and billing practices identify them as “outliers,” are finding themselves subjected to  administrative, civil and even criminal investigation. 

 Commentary:   As counsel for a wide variety of health care providers around the country, we are especially concerned that honest, hard-working health care providers are finding themselves and their practices / clinics under investigation merely because:  (1) their productivity is higher than that of their peers, or (2) their focus is specialized and often treats a higher percentage of seriously sick patients which ultimately requires a more detailed or comprehensive examination than one might normally find.  Ultimately, through our representation of health care providers who have been targeted through data-mining, we believe that it is fundamentally unfair to investigate a provider merely on the basis of statistical data which can be manipulated in a thousand different ways in order to justify going after a specific provider or a type of practice.

 On the administrative side, when data-mining is used as a targeting tool, providers are being audited and pursued by ZPICs, PSCs and RACs – each of is incentivized (either because they receive a percentage of any overpayment OR they are under contract with CMS to find overpayments and wrongful billings) to find fault with the provider.

 Continuing Concerns:   Under the current system, providers targeted through data-mining are likely to be saddled with extrapolated damages which can easily run into the millions of dollars, regardless of the fact that a large percentage of these providers are eventually exonerated (either fully or partially) when the case is heard by an Administrative Law Judge. 

 Health care providers subjected to an administrative audit (by a ZPIC, PSC or RAC), civil investigation (such as a review by the DOJ for possible False Claims Act liability), or criminal investigation (by DOJ or a State Medicaid Fraud Control Unit) should immediately contact your counsel.  Extreme care should be taken when making statements to Federal or State investigators.  Should the provider make a statement that is false or misleading, such comments could be used as the basis for bringing a separate cause of action.  Your legal counsel may choose to handle all contacts with the government.

Liles Parker attorneys represent health care providers in administrative, civil and criminal health care fraud and overpayment case.  Should you have questions regarding these issues, give us a call.  You may call 1 (800) 475-1906 for a free consultation.

(August 30, 2010): Introduction

Health Data Insights (HDI), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) responsible for auditing health care providers in Region D, has announced it will immediately begin reviews on previously approved projects which involve the medical necessity of selected inpatient DRG payments.  A complete list of the medical necessity “issues” currently being examined by HDI can be found on its Website. 

Scope of Responsibility:

RACs, such as HDI, contract with the CMS to perform post-payment reviews of Medicare claims to find overpayments (and theoretically, underpayments in return for a percentage (from 9 percent to 12.5 percent) of the amounts recovered. Put simply, they “eat what they kill.” HDI was awarded responsibility for handling Region D audits.  Region D consists of 17 States and 3 U.S. territories (Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Guam, American Samoa and Northern Marianas).  HDI’s contingency fee contract award dollar amount is 9.49% according to CMS.  The 29 DRGs where HDI will be examining “medical necessity” requirements, include certain procedures related to:

• Nervous System Disorders
• Respiratory
• Cardiac Procedures
• Cardiovascular Diseases
• Cardiovascular, Other
• Gastrointestinal Disorders
• Musculoskeletal Disorders
• Endocine, Nutritional & Metabolism Disorders
• Kidney & Urinary Tract Disorders, and
• Blood & Immunological Disorders

Provider Concerns:

A continuing concern of health care providers is that the RAC determinations of medical necessity will be performed by personnel with little, if any, specific knowledge of the specific claims at issue. Given the RAC business model, providers remain worried that audits will not reflect a fair and reasonable application of applicable coverage requirements. This is especially worrisome in light of the fact that approximately 41 percent of overpayments in the demonstration project were due to medical necessity determinations.

Audit and Appeal Considerations:

As set out CMS’ June 2010 reported entitled “The Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) Program — Update to the Evaluation of the 3-Year Demonstration,” as of 03/09/10, the cumulative number of claims with overpayment determinations identified by RACs has grown to 598,238.  Notably, only 76,073 of these overpayments were appealed by health care providers.  Of the claims appealed, over half were decided in favor of the health care provider.  Interestingly, HDI had one of the highest number of claims denials overturned on appeal, in favor of the appealing provider. Four basic steps to be taken when preparing for a RAC audit include:

(1)               Monitor issues of interest to the government and its contractors.  Are the services you provide currently under scrutiny by RACs and other Medicare contractors?  You should keep abreast of current enforcement initiatives and mistakes made by other providers.  Learn from their mistakes. 

(2)               Know where your current weaknesses are and fix them.  This typically requires that you conduct an internal audit of your coding, billing and operational practices.  Take care when engaging an outside “consultant.”  We have seen numerous cases where the consultant conducts an internal assessment and identifies multiple problems with the provider’s prior and current practices. Unfortunately, few consultants consider the fact that their adverse report to the provider will likely not be privileged.  As a result, if the provider is ever investigated, the report could easily serve as a roadmap for the government. Prior to conducting an internal audit – call your attorney!   

(3)               Know your rights. If your practice is audited, know your rights both during the audit and once the audit results are issued by the contractor.  There is a fine line between exercising your rights as a provider and being perceived by a contractor as refusing to cooperate in their review.  You should immediately call your attorney to clarify which actions must be taken if your practice is subjected to a site visit by a Medicare contractor.  The best practice would be for you to call your attorney today and discuss how you should respond in the event of a site visit.  CMS takes allegations of non-cooperation very seriously.  Should the contractor argue that you refused to cooperate in their efforts, you could find the action taken by the contractor is to seek a revocation of your Medicare number.  This is an especially sensitive issue.

(4)               Have a firm understanding of how the Medicare appeals process works.  Depending on the amount in controversy, you may choose to handle Medicare claims denials internally.  As the use of data-mining increases, Medicare contractor reliance on provider profiling will continue to increase.  While mere errors or mistakes should be returned to the government (or not appealed is properly denied by the contractor), should you find that claims were improperly denied, we recommend that you appeal such denials. RACs and other Medicare contractors will likely focus on providers with high error rates. 

While every case is different, health care providers should consider the following when faced with a RAC audit:

The scope of RAC audits is expanding.  In the past, hospitals and other “low-hanging fruit” were the focus of HDI and other RACs around the country.  As a result, some physicians, small practice groups, clinics and other smaller providers have grown complacent in their compliance efforts.  This is a mistake, as more issues are identified and approved, the RACs will be expanded the scope of their reviews.  Now is the time to get your practice in order.

ZPICs and PSCs continue to represent a greater danger to small physician practices and health care provider groups. Zone Program Integrity Contractors (ZPICs) and Program SafeGuard Contractors (PSCs) are not subject to the time, audit and service scope limitations imposed on RACs.  The implementation of effective compliance efforts will help reduce the likelihood of liability should the practice be audited by a ZPIC, PSC or RAC.

Beware of “canned” consultant solutions.  As a search on Google will readily attest, consulting firms around the country are touting the latest RAC audit “tool” or audit response “template.”   We recommend that you exercise caution when retaining any organization that “guarantees” results or seeks to dissuade you from engaging legal counsel support.  

Retain experienced health care counsel. Under the current appeal structure, there is a significant likelihood that your case will eventually be heard by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ).  Importantly, ALJs are lawyers — not typically clinicians.  In defending your case, it is strongly recommended that you retain legal counsel, regardless of whether you ultimately decide to work with a consultant or employ a clinician as an expert witness.  Legal counsel will be best situated to understand and argue the various legal arguments which may prove essential in winning your case.

While RACs have not represented much of a threat to individual physicians and small practice groups in the past, the future is likely to be quite different.  Physicians must already contend with audits by ZPICs, PSCs, Medicaid Integrity Contractors (MICs), Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) investigators and Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) contractors.  The expansion of the RAC program will further increase the need for statutory and regulatory compliance.  Physicians and small practice groups and organizations should avoid the misconception that their limited size and / or relative billings will keep them “off the radar,” thereby limiting their chances of being audited.

ZPICs and PSCs are continuing to rely statistical sampling in an effort to extrapolate damages:

In our practice, we have seen a marked increase in the number of solo physicians and small providers groups who have been subjected to pre-payment and post-payment audits of their Medicare billings. 

In the case of post-payment reviews, the vast majority of Medicare audits we have worked on have included the statistical extrapolation of damages by ZPICs and PSCs.  We expect RACs to follw suit as the number of their audits increase.  In defending a post-payment audit, it is essential that you examine the statistical methodology utilized and identify any flaws in the contractor’s approach.  We have successfully convinced both Qualified Independent Contractors (QICs) and ALJs to invalidate statistical extrapolations based on mistakes in the process committed by the ZPIC or PSC.  Arguments can be legal and / or methodology-based.  In many cases, it is necessary to engage the assistance of a qualified statistical expert.  Should you succeed – be ready to defend this decision before the Medicare Appeals Counsel (MAC).  Over the past year, practically every invalidation of the statistical extrapolation of damages was appealed to the MAC by the Administrative QIC (AdQIC). 

Summary:

Health care providers must be proactive in their efforts to better comply with applicable Medicare coding and billing practices.  Should your practice be placed on pre-payment audit or have its post-payment Medicare claims reviewed, we recommend that you immediately contact your health care attorney for assistance.

Should you have questions regarding RAC, ZPIC or PSC audit processes, you may contact us for a complimentary consultation.  We can be reached at 1 (800) 475-1906.

(August 27, 2010):

In addition to these agency heads, participants learned of current and additional planned initiatives from a number of Federal and State law enforcement officials. The first summit was recently conducted in Miami, Florida.  This summit was held in Los Angeles, California. 

Describing the progress made in the last fiscal year, Attorney General Holder noted that:

 “In just the last fiscal year, we’ve won or negotiated more than $1.6 billion in judgments and settlements, returned more than $2.5 billion to the Medicare Trust Fund, opened thousands of new criminal and civil health care fraud investigations, reached an all-time high in the number of health care fraud defendants charged, and stopped numerous large-scale fraud schemes in their tracks.”

Notably, Attorney General Holder also made it clear that the government’s joint Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) program is slated for further expansion over the next year.  As he noted:

“HEAT’s impact has been recognized by President Obama, whose FY 2011 budget request includes an additional $60 million to expand our network of Strike Forces to additional cities. With these new resources, and our continued commitment to collaboration, I have no doubt we’ll be able to extend HEAT’s record of achievement. And this record is extraordinary. (emphasis added).

These funds will be to supplement, not supplant, existing health care fraud enforcement efforts currently underway. While the additional cities slated for HEAT expansion were not announced at this event, all health care providers, regardless of location, should be especially vigilant in their efforts to ensure that Medicare coding and billing practices regulating the items and services they are providing must comply with applicable statutory and agency requirements. 

Should you have questions regarding a health care fraud issue, you may call Robert W. Liles or another of our attorneys. Call 1 (800) 475-1906 for a free consultation.

Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs), such as CGI, contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to perform post-payment reviews of Medicare claims to find overpayments and underpayments in return for a percentage (from 9 percent to 12.5 percent) of the amounts recovered. Put simply, they eat only what they kill.  CGI was awarded responsibility for handling Region B audits.  CGI’s contingency fee contract award dollar amount is 12.50% according to CMS.  Issues where CGI will be examining “medical necessity” requirements, include certain procedures related to:

• Chest Pain
• Other Circulatory System Diagnoses
• Other Vascular Procedures
• Syncope & Collapse
• Red Blood Cell Disorders
• Atherosclerosis
• Heart Failure & Shock
• Esophagitis, Gastroenteritis & Misc Digestive Disorders
• Musculoskeletal Disorders
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Respiratory
• Nutritional and Metabolic Disorders
• Kidney & Urinary Tract Infections
• GI Disorders
• Percutaneous Cardiovascular Procedures
• Renal Failure
• Nervous System Disorders and
• Cardiac Arrhythmia & Conduction Disorders.

 As CGI’s website discusses, when asked “What utilization criteria will CGI be using to review for medical necessity?” in its FAQ section, CGI states, “CGI will utilize the rules for National Coverage Determinations (NCD), Local Coverage Determinations (LCD), HCPCS, ICD-9 (ICD-10 when implemented and appropriate) and CCI that were in effect on the date of service.” 

 A continuing concern of providers is that the RAC determinations of medical necessity will be  performed by personnel with little, if any, specific knowledge of the specific claims at issue.  Given the RAC business model, providers remain worried that audits will not reflect a fair and reasonable application of applicable coverage requirements. This is especially worrisome in light of the fact that approximately 41 percent of overpayments in the demonstration project were due to medical necessity determinations.

 Should you have questions regarding the RAC process, you may contact us for a complimentary consultation.  We can be reached at 1 (800) 475-1906.

 As CMS acknowledged, medical record retention requirements are generally governed by State law and can vary from State to State.  Nevertheless, under the administrative simplification rules of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 (HIPAA),  “covered entities,” such as physicians and other health care providers billing Medicare, must retain required medical records for a period of “six years from the date of its creation or the date when it last was in effect, whichever is later.”

Importantly, HIPAA requirements preempt State laws if the State laws require a shorter medical records retention period. It is essential that providers check their applicable State requirements.  Should your State laws apply a longer retention period, it will apply.  As MLM Matters SE1022 further notes:

 The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires records of providers submitting cost reports to be retained in their original or legally reproduced form for a period of at least 5 years after the closure of the cost report. This requirement is available at 42 CFR 482.24[b][1].

CMS requires Medicare managed care program providers to retain records for 10 years. This requirement is available at 42 CFR 422.504 [d][2][iii].

Finally, the guidance points out that the Medicare program “does not have requirements for the media formats for medical records. However, the medical record needs to be in its original form or in a legally reproduced form, which may be electronic, so that medical records may be reviewed and audited by authorized entities. Providers must have a medical record system that ensures that the record may be accessed and retrieved promptly.”

 The issue of “records retention” can be quite complicated, especially when the health care provider is being audited or under investigation by the government or a Medicare contractor.  In such a situation, document destruction activities are typically curtailed until the external review is resolved.  In light of these considerations, it is strongly recommended that you work with your legal counsel to better ensure that your practice is meeting its document retention obligations. 

Should you have questions regarding these issues, you may call your current counsel or you may call Liles Parker for a complimentary consultation at 1 (800) 475-1906.

“This is a distinct honor for Ms. Reed and we congratulate her on this achievement.  She is a talented lawyer and has served as trusted counsel to the firm’s health care clients over the years.  Her dedication to community service is to be admired.  We are thrilled to hear of her appointment to the bench and look forward to working with her in the future.”

Since joining Liles Parker, Ms. Reed has significantly expanded the scope of Liles Parker’s presence in South Texas. Consistent with her background as a former Bexar County prosecutor, Ms. Reed has handled a wide variety of criminal defense matters.  Ms. Reed’s experience as a litigator is quite impressive. She has tried well over 200 trials as First Chair.  Her reputation as a litigator is well known by both prosecutors and the judiciary. This experience is especially helpful when faced with complex business litigation cases.  Along with this appointment to be Bench, she will continue to serve as Counsel for Liles Parker, representing parties in a wide variety of heath care and complex business cases.

(August 4, 2010):

 CMS reportedly issued this guidance to “clarify and update” various sections of the Program Integrity Manual.  Importantly, this guidance is not intended to supplant any existing specific requirements that may be contained in LCDs or other CMS manuals which may address specific signature requirements (such as signature and timeliness requirements which must be made in connection with Treatment Plans or Plans of Care prepared by CMHCs when providing partial hospitalization program care).

 Several examples of the strict approach that CR 6698 requires include:

•  For medical review purposes, Medicare requires that services provided / ordered be authenticated by the author.  The method used shall be a hand written or an electronic signature.  Stamp signatures are not acceptable. 

Our comments:  Despite the fact that “stamp signatures” have been problematic for years, we are still seeing cases where a provider has continued to use a stamp of his signature on orders and at the end of record entries. Get rid of signature stamps in your office or clinic!  Contractors that may be looking for an excuse to deny your claims will readily do so if your have used a stamp instead of documenting your signature by hand.

•  If there are other reasons for denial, unrelated to signature requirements, the reviewer shall not proceed to signature authorization.  If the criteria in the relevant Medicare policy cannot be met but for a key piece of medical documentation which contains a missing or illegible assessment, the reviewer shall proceed to the signature assessment. 

 Our comments:  This requirement reinforces the fact that Medicare reviewers are required to assess the adequacy of medical documentation (and presumably of medical necessity), separate and apart from their review of the signature itself.  Once they determine that the medical documentation is otherwise acceptable for coverage purposes, then they will assess whether the signature meets applicable requirements.

•  If the signature is missing from an order, ACs, MACs, PSCs, ZPICs and CERT shall disregard the order during the review of the claim.

 Our comments:  This requirement can be extremely harsh, especially when considering the fact that many claims depend on an initial order by a referring or ordering physician.  If in the absence of such an order, the claim will be denied, it becomes readily apparent that providers must be especially diligent in their review of orders to ensure that each one is properly signed.

 These examples represent only a few of the many examples and changes highlighted in CR 6698.  We strongly recommend that you review these changes with each of the providers in your practice or clinic to ensure that everyone is aware of how CMS expects its contractors to proceed when conducting medical reviews. 

 Should you have any questions regarding these changes, don’t hesitate to contact us.  For a complementary consultation, you may call Robert W. Liles or one of our other attorneys at 1 (800) 475-1906.

While the full impact of this legislation is not yet known, its passage is yet another indication that the government will be expanding its use of “private sector auditors” to “find and recapture government overpayments.”

As President Obama stated:

Today, the House took another critical step toward increased fiscal responsibility by passing the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act.  This bipartisan legislation will help save taxpayer dollars by reining in wasteful overpayments from the federal government to individuals, organizations and contractors – the kind of unacceptable accounting mistakes that cost taxpayers $98 billion in 2009.  This bill also puts in place more rigorous thresholds for when programs must be scrutinized for payment errors and expands the authority of Federal agencies to use private sector auditors to find and recapture government overpayments.  And it dramatically increases transparency and accountability in government spending – in short, it changes business-as-usual in Washington.

I believe that we have a special responsibility to be wise stewards of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars.  That’s why last November I issued an Executive Order to curb improper payments by boosting transparency, holding agencies accountable, and creating strong incentives for compliance.  And it’s why this March I signed an order calling on all federal agencies to launch tough audits to recover some of the money lost to improper payments last year.  I applaud the House for passing legislation today that supports these goals and I hope that the Senate will take swift action to send a bill to my desk as soon as possible.”

Should you have any questions regarding these issues, don’t hesitate to contact us.  For a complementary consultation, you may call Robert W. Liles or one of our other attorneys at 1 (800) 475-1906.

APC has made a difference in lives of thousands of Arlington children who lack private medical insurance and might otherwise have no access to consistent, high-quality care.  Because of APC’s comprehensive, family-centered approach, many special needs and other children have been able to overcome their medical, psycho-social, learning, and physical challenges.

Liles Parker shares APC’s vision that every child deserves quality medical care and is pleased to do its part.   Please visit APC’s website to learn more about the important work it does: http://www.arlpedcen.org/