Articles and Blogs

House Delays AHCA Vote On April 27, House leadership delayed a vote on the American Health Care Act (“AHCA”) until at least next week. As of last night, at least 15 House Republicans remain opposed with another 20 undecided. Without Democratic support, House Republicans can only lose 22 votes. Earlier in the week, a... READ MORE

Hall Render is pleased to announce Kristen Chang has joined the firm’s Milwaukee office. Kristen practices in the area of health care law with a focus on regulatory, compliance and corporate transactional matters. Prior to joining Hall Render, she conducted research about U.S. vaccine law and policy. Kristen earned her undergraduate degree, with honors,... READ MORE

On April 14, 2017, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a proposed rule addressing several potential changes to the health care delivery system, including physician-owned hospitals (“Proposed Rule”). As a part of this Proposed Rule, CMS is also seeking comment regarding the current restrictions on physician-owned hospitals and how these restrictions affect... READ MORE

CMS issued a survey and certification letter, dated April 16, 2017, announcing their intention to publish proposed changes on April 28, 2017 that will require accreditation organizations (“AOs”) (i.e., TJC, DNV, HFAP and CIHQ) to post provider/supplier survey reports and plans of corrections from CMS-approved accreditation programs on their website. CMS is also proposing... READ MORE

Ordinarily, CMS will calculate the MIPS final score for a practice group’s physicians on an individual or group basis.[1] However, physicians participating in a “MIPS APM” are subject to a significantly different scoring methodology – the “APM scoring standard.” This article: (1) outlines CMS’s “snapshot” process for determining which physicians CMS will score using... READ MORE

AHCA Negotiations Continue Ahead of Lawmakers’ Return to Washington In an effort to produce a victory on health care in President Trump’s first 100 days in office, House Republicans renewed discussions this week on the American Health Care Act (“AHCA”), the bill designed to repeal and replace much of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”).... READ MORE

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced that it will delay enforcement of its final rule (“Final Rule”) requiring physicians and other prescribing health care clinicians to either enroll in or opt out of Medicare in order for the prescriptions they write to be covered by any Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit... READ MORE

Congress Remains Divided on ACA Repeal Bill Although Republican leadership in the House raised the prospect of lawmakers returning early from the current two-week Easter recess to pass the American Health Care Act, it appears Congress will remain out of session until the week of April 24. And, once the House is back in... READ MORE

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently updated its Voluntary Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol (“SRDP”) when it posted a new form to be used as part of the SRDP process (“SRDP Form”). According to CMS, the SRDP Form is an attempt to “streamline and simplify” the SRDP process. CMS originally proposed the new SRDP... READ MORE

READ MORE