Articles and Blogs

E-Verify Is Down, but I-9s Are Up Employers who attempted to access E-Verify during the week of October 2 were stopped by the following error message: “E-Verify is currently unavailable due to a government shutdown.”  This error message raised several questions for employers, specifically whether Form I-9 requirements were suspended as well.  This concern... READ MORE

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) has issued draft guidance on its Investigational Device Exemption (“IDE”) process for medical devices, titled Decisions for Investigational Device Exemption Clinical Investigations.  The draft guidance introduces a new pre-decisional IDE review process, through which medical device sponsors can seek the FDA’s input on significant issues before submitting... READ MORE

The most recent revisions to the Resident Assessment Instrument (“RAI”) User’s Manual became effective yesterday for all assessments with an assessment date on or after October 1.  The significant portion of the revisions addresses changes to therapy coding and swallowing and nutrition.   READ MORE

DOL Extends Minimum Wage and Overtime Protections to Home Care Workers Last week, the Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) Wage and Hour Division released a new rule extending minimum wage and overtime protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) to home care workers employed by third-party employers.  The new rule, which is not scheduled to... READ MORE

Prior to the government shutdown, Representative Jim McDermott of Washington introduced a bill that would end the hospital inpatient requirement for skilled nursing facility (“SNF”) coverage.   READ MORE

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a Survey & Certification Memo (“S&C Letter”) to state agencies detailing the result of the governmental shutdown on long-term care providers as it relates to surveys.  As of this writing, the S&C Letter has not been published or otherwise made publicly available, and the below... READ MORE

Committee Releases New Doc Fix Draft On July 18, the House Energy and Commerce Committee released an updated framework to replace Medicare’s physician payment system.  The framework represents the first draft proposal to include Democrats’ names, including the ranking member Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Subcommittee on Health ranking member Frank Pallone (D-NJ).  The Subcommittee... READ MORE

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle Discusses Health Care Reform with Hall Render On Thursday, Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) joined Hall Render Chairman Bill Thompson and McKinsey and Company Director Paul Mango for a wide-ranging panel discussion on the future of health care reform. The three health policy experts covered a... READ MORE

On August 19, 2013, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published in the Federal Register the 2014 acute care hospital and long-term care hospital inpatient prospective payment system final rule (“Final Rule”) effective on October 1, 2013.  As part of the Final Rule, CMS formulated a “2-midnight presumption” and a “2-midnight benchmark”... READ MORE

EEOC and NLRB Are Idle With the failure of Congress last night to fund the federal government, several of the agencies responsible for the investigation and enforcement of federal labor and employment laws have gone idle. Except for life threatening emergencies, property preservation and actions to accept filings to avoid statutes of limitations, most other... READ MORE