Articles and Blogs

Last year a new Indiana law [I. C. 35-38-8-7] went into effect that allows persons convicted of non-violent misdemeanors and certain felonies to petition a court to restrict access to the records and, if the court grants the petition to, according to the law, “legally state on applications for employment and any other document... READ MORE

Last week, we informed you of an OFCCP sponsored webinar originally scheduled for today, March 27.  According to OFCCP, the webinar would address how affirmative action compliance audits of TRICARE network providers would be handled in the wake of Congress’ decision to carve out TRICARE network providers from OFCCP’s jurisdiction.  Unfortunately, OFCCP canceled the webinar and has... READ MORE

On Friday, March 23, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published a final Federal Register notice informing the public that an application for Rural Health Clinic (“RHC”) deeming authority has been approved.  This RHC deeming authority, the first of its kind, was granted to the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory... READ MORE

On March 19, 2012, Governor Mitch Daniels signed Indiana’s new No Smoking Law, which finally passed after many fits and starts in the General Assembly.  The new No Smoking Law takes effect on July 1, 2012 and contains several provisions that directly affect Indiana employers.  In general, all Indiana employers that are not exempted... READ MORE

The Federal Government has reinforced its expanded theory of false claim liability for quality matters by settling allegations against a hospital that a physician’s lack of qualifications to perform certain surgical procedures should be considered a false claim, regardless of the patient’s outcome. As part of the settlement, the hospital defendant paid the Government... READ MORE

The Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”), Department of Health and Human Services, continues to investigate complaints related to the alleged failure of hospitals and health systems to provide interpreters to patients and their companions who are hearing impaired or have limited English proficiency (“LEP”).  In addition to compensatory damages and civil penalties, various settlement... READ MORE

I wanted to highlight a post from one of our sister-blogs at Hall Render, the Litigation Analysis Blog, about a recent jail term for a nursing assistant who posted pictures of a resident to her Facebook account. In that case, a judge sentenced a nursing assistant to eight days in jail, and two years probation... READ MORE

The coming tax year will bring significant new challenges for tax-exempt hospitals, which must comply with a new requirement to prepare a community health needs assessment (“CHNA”) and adopt a corresponding implementation strategy.  Preparing and publicizing these documents will take extensive effort, and hospital leadership should expect that the Congress, the IRS, the media... READ MORE

The Federal Government has reinforced its expanded theory of false claim liability for quality matters by settling allegations against a hospital that a physician’s lack of qualifications to perform certain surgical procedures should be considered a false claim, regardless of the patient’s outcome. As part of the settlement, the hospital defendant paid the Government... READ MORE

On March 13, 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced that it had reached a settlement with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee (“Blue Cross”) arising from potential violations of the Privacy and Security Rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”).  Notably, HHS learned of the... READ MORE