Articles and Blogs

False Claims Act defense attorneys have been warning government contractors, particularly Medicare and Medicaid providers, of increased risks and a reduced ability to defend against whistleblower complaints since the passage of the Fraud Enforcement Recovery Act of 2009 (“FERA”). The greatest risk comes from FERA’s addition of a new kind of reverse false claim:... READ MORE

Hall Render was recently named one of the 2013 “Best Places to Work in Indiana.” The firm was ranked No. 7 out of 17 organizations in the large company category. This marks the sixth consecutive year the firm has been recognized as one of the Best Places to Work in Indiana. The awards program... READ MORE

CMS Releases IPPS Proposed Rule for FY 2014 On April 26, CMS issued its Fiscal Year (“FY”) 2014 proposed rule for hospitals paid under the inpatient prospective payment system (“IPPS”).  The rule would update FY 2014 Medicare payment policies and rates for inpatient stays at general acute care and long-term care hospitals (“LTCHs”). READ MORE

The graduate medical education (“GME”) landscape continues to evolve, even as the basic structure of Medicare GME reimbursement remains in place. Recently, noteworthy proposals and changes include proposed legislation that would provide for 15,000 new residency positions over five years to increase the number of residents in training and a change to the regulations that... READ MORE

For the past several years, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) has been devoting considerable attention to worker classification issues involving the misclassification of employees as independent contractors.  These misclassifications are important to the IRS and the federal government because they often lead to underreporting and underpayment of taxes.  Traditionally, the IRS has sought to... READ MORE

Confidentiality Requirements Challenged by the NLRB Last summer, the NLRB created another stir among private employers when it found that an employer’s form used during confidential investigations of workplace issues was unlawfully broad and interfered with employee rights.  We wrote about this development in our August 7, 2012 HR Insights article Confidential Investigations –... READ MORE

Treating Employees the Same – Always Required? Employers have always been advised to treat their employees the same, and if they don’t, it can be evidence of unlawful discrimination.  This issue came up in a recent case involving an employer that required a black employee who was involved in an altercation to go for a... READ MORE

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently released a Survey and Certification Letter updating the State Operations Manual (“SOM”) guidelines  on surveys of deemed status long-term care (“LTC”) providers when the provider has been found to have a condition level instance of noncompliance, including immediate jeopardy (“IJ”), in a complaint survey.  This change... READ MORE

PCORI Offers Funding to Develop Research Network On April 23, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (“PCORI”) announced funding up to $68 million in efforts to build a research network to support comparative effectiveness studies. READ MORE

We’re All Getting Old The U. S. Census Bureau predicts that by 2050 nearly 20 million workers or about 20% of the national workforce will be 65 or older.  That represents an increase of 75% while the number of workers ages 25 to 54 is predicted to grow by only 2%. The health care... READ MORE