Articles and Blogs

In an opinion loaded with linguistic hooks, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida recently reinforced the Supreme Court’s holding in Escobar, enthusiastically highlighting the importance of materiality and scienter in FCA cases. Background In U.S. ex rel. Ruckh v. Salus Rehabilitation, LLC, et al., Relators were successful in a... READ MORE

READ MORE

NATIONAL 4 Physician Compensation Factors to Watch Divided on health care, Congress backs medical research CMS opens data submission site for 2017 MACRA reporting CMS: Medicare adds 124 ACOs for 2018 10 of the most interesting healthcare transactions of 2017 AMA: Physicians generate $2.3T in economic activity 2018 Trends: Micro-Hospitals to Gain Popularity Hospitals... READ MORE

CMS Allows States to Establish Medicaid Work Requirements On January 11, CMS issued new guidance that will allow states to establish work requirements for certain Medicaid recipients for the first time in the program’s history. Through a letter to State Medicaid Directors, CMS outlined criteria for the types of employment proposals targeting able-bodied, working-age... READ MORE

Fresh off the 75th Annual Golden Globes Awards, which took place on January 7, mainstream and social media alike are abuzz with Oprah Winfrey’s historic acceptance of the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Winfrey, the first black woman to receive the prestigious award, brought the crowd to its feet on several occasions during her emotional acceptance... READ MORE

1) Health Insurance Mega-Mergers Crash to Earth and Other Antitrust Updates Dashed Mergers In the area of antitrust law, 2017 saw the resolution of two health insurance mega-mergers. On January 23, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (“U.S. District Court, D.C.”) ruled in favor of the U.S. Department of Justice... READ MORE

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced its long-awaited “BPCI Advanced” model on January 9. The model – which is voluntary – will initially include 29 inpatient clinical episodes and 3 outpatient clinical episodes (a list of the 32 clinical episodes can be found here). BPCI Advanced Participants must elect to be... READ MORE

READ MORE

READ MORE

Congress Returns to Crowded 2018 Legislative Calendar The Senate returned to Washington this week to begin the second session of the 115th Congress. The House returns Monday of next week, which gives Congress eight legislative days to fund the federal government for Fiscal Year 2018. Prior to departing for 2017, Congress passed a temporary... READ MORE