Articles and Blogs

Hall Render Advisory Services (“HRAS”), the consulting arm of Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman, is pleased to announce Ken Zeko, Angela Deneweth, Delena Howard and John Marshall have joined the company. HRAS’s team of consultants assists health care organizations with a variety of strategic and educational initiatives, including Medicare Reclassification Consulting, Health Care... READ MORE

Mergers and acquisitions in the health care industry present unique challenges that are not often present when undertaking similar transactions in other industries. Because of health care’s highly regulated nature, parties may falter if a health care transaction is not reviewed and negotiated carefully with respect to the distinct concerns that health care presents. ... READ MORE

The U.S. Supreme Court recently expanded its unanimous 2012 ruling in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church,[1] where it first applied to a parochial school teacher the “ministerial exception” to federal anti-discrimination employment laws. The exception is an outgrowth of the First Amendment’s Free Exercise and Free Establishment clauses, which protect the right of religious institutions... READ MORE

NATIONAL 8 latest lawsuits, settlements involving hospitals 231 top maternity hospitals, state by state 7 things to consider with new telehealth legislation proposed After big payouts, Medicare may throttle back bundled payment program AHA: Half of U.S. hospitals could be operating in the red by end of year American Hospital Association elects 8 new... READ MORE

The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) Wage and Hour Division has updated its FMLA forms in order to make them more usable and streamlined after receiving substantial input from employers, industry associations, individual employees, worker advocacy groups, law firms and other interested members of the public. The DOL also announced that it would be... READ MORE

In partnership with Modern Healthcare, we have produced a series of four videos that will provide actionable, practical advice across several health care industry areas. In the first video, John Ryan and Ritu Kaur Cooper discuss key priorities and best practices that health care leaders must consider as they determine what’s next and build... READ MORE

On July 16, 2020, Blackbaud, a software company that serves nonprofit organizations, began notifying its clients of a May 2020 ransomware attack that potentially compromised individually identifiable information of individuals related to those clients. We are working with multiple clients on this matter, most of whom utilized Blackbaud in relation to their charitable foundations.... READ MORE

On July 14, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”), in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, issued Notice 2020-56 (the “Notice”) further postponing to December 31, 2020, the deadline for tax-exempt hospital organizations to complete a Community Health Needs Assessment (“CHNA”) and adopt an implementation strategy to meet the community health needs identified... READ MORE

On July 9, 2020, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that the Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ (“DHS”) recoupment policy requiring ‘perfection’ in documentation was invalid and unenforceable. In Kathleen Papa and Professional Homecare Providers, Inc. v. DHS, 2020 WI 66, the Court clarified that DHS has the authority to recoup payments only when the... READ MORE

In an effort to ensure that skilled nursing homes (“SNFs”) can quickly and regularly test residents and staff for COVID-19, HHS announced the procurement of U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized rapid point-of-care diagnostic test instruments and tests to be distributed to SNFs. HHS intends to initially distribute antigen testing instrument systems and tests... READ MORE