Articles and Blogs

Senate Extends Medicare Sequester Cuts On February 12, the Senate passed military pension legislation that is paid for by an extension of the 2% Medicare sequester cuts to 2024. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the one-year extension will create $8.3 billion in savings. The legislation sets aside $2.3 billion of the savings as a... READ MORE

Union Fines Its Members for Crossing Picket Line When an employee joins a union, he or she becomes subject to the union’s bylaws and rules.  When those rules provide for fines and penalties for crossing a picket line, the result can be very costly for the employee who has not resigned from the union. ... READ MORE

“Your leadership style is not in accordance with company practices.” This is what an HR Director was told when he was terminated after his company learned that he was “stressing out” two of his assistant HR managers.  The tense work environment that he created caused both managers to seek counseling and each had begun... READ MORE

The Meaningful Use Workgroup provided its recommendations on Meaningful Use Stage 3 to the Health IT Policy Committee on February 4.  Stage 3 would focus on improving outcomes.  Further discussion of the recommendations will be held on February 14.  The proposed timeline sets proposed rulemaking for fall 2014 and final rulemaking for the first half of 2015. ... READ MORE

Executive Summary On February 6, 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published a final rule amending the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (“CLIA”) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) to provide patients with the right to access test reports directly from clinical laboratories subject to... READ MORE

“Your leadership style is not in accordance with company practices.” This is what an HR Director was told when he was terminated after his company learned that he was “stressing out” two of his assistant HR managers.  The tense work environment that he created caused both managers to seek counseling and each had begun... READ MORE

Effective January 31, 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) has issued a temporary moratoria for the enrollment of home health agencies in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Detroit, Michigan; Dallas, Texas; and Houston, Texas.  CMS also announced it is extending the current enrollment moratoria in Chicago, Illinois and Miami, Florida for another six... READ MORE

Are you a Physician-Owned Hospital? Have you submitted your Hospital’s annual ownership and investment interest reporting data? Do you know that Physician-Owned Hospitals have until March 1, 2014 to report ownership and investment information required by the Affordable Care Act? READ MORE

Hall Render is pleased to announce that attorney Ammon Fillmore has been elected to serve as an at-large member of the executive committee of the Indianapolis Bar Association’s Health Care and Life Sciences Section. Mr. Fillmore will be serving his term on the board alongside fellow Hall Render attorney Colleen Powers, who is also a... READ MORE

CMS announced last week that it is extending the deadline for eligible professionals to attest to meaningful use for the Medicare Electronic Health Record (“EHR”) Incentive Program 2013 reporting year from 11:59 PM ET on February 28, 2014 to 11:59 PM ET March 31, 2014.  This extension will allow more time for eligible professionals to submit their meaningful... READ MORE