Articles and Blogs

On March 28, 2012, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed 2011 Senate Bill 421 (the “Bill”) into law.  The Bill expands the ability of Wisconsin-licensed physician assistants (“PAs”) to authorize certain medical actions by generally allowing PAs to act on behalf of patients’ and the public’s health in situations that were previously limited to physicians... READ MORE

Friday the 13th was a bad news day for the NLRB but potentially a very good news day for private employers.  A federal district court judge in South Carolina on Friday, April 13, 2012 held that the NLRB’s rule obligating private employers to post a notice explaining employee rights under the NLRA was beyond... READ MORE

Hall, Render, Killian, Heath and Lyman is pleased to announce settlement with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), resulting in the largest Medicare payment settlement in history. Hall Render and Baker Healthcare represented approximately half of the more than two thousand U.S. hospitals involved in this settlement.  The dispute centered on a... READ MORE

OFCCP announced today the rescheduling of a webinar concerning how the agency intends to address TRICARE based compliance audits.  The webinar is in follow up to Congress’ recent action to carve out TRICARE network agreements from OFCCP’s jurisdictional reach.  It was previously scheduled and then canceled by OFCCP, and will now be conducted on... READ MORE

April 16, 2012 is National Health Care Decisions Day. The goal of the day is to encourage Americans to think and talk about their health care goals and communicate their health care decisions by executing advance health care directives. Across the United States, health care providers, professionals, chaplains, attorneys and others will focus attention... READ MORE

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky held that the wife of a nursing home resident was contractually bound through a nursing home admissions agreement to apply for Medicaid benefits on behalf of her husband and who failed to do so, could not discharge the amount due to the nursing... READ MORE

On March 30, 2012, the EEOC published its final rule providing guidance on the applicability of an important employer defense to claims of disparate impact under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”).   The ADEA prohibits employment discrimination against people who are 40 years of age or older.  The rule applies to private employers... READ MORE

On March 16, 2012, CMS published the long-awaited Supplemental Security Income (SSI) ratios used in computing Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments for Federal Fiscal Years (FFYs) 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. This should finally end the cost report settlement moratorium implemented by CMS in July 2008 and lead to a flood of Notices... READ MORE

Employers frustrated by employees who fail to report to work after their FMLA benefits have expired may be in luck!  Earlier this year, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland held that an employer may terminate an employee who fails to report to work on his return-to-work date. READ MORE

On April 6, 2012, CMS issued a Survey and Certification Transmittal stating that when a Home Health Agency (“HHA”) deactivates its provider number (the provider number is now referred to as the CMS Certification Number or CCN), the HHA must be surveyed for compliance with the CMS Conditions of Participation (CoPs) for HHA’s if... READ MORE