Articles and Blogs

NATIONAL 10 multimillion-dollar Stark law cases in 2 years 40 hospital ownership changes made in 1 day 15 Areas That Would Change Under Health Data Rule Proposal 5 states cracking down on noncompetes New DOJ whistleblower program not ‘easy money’: legal expert CMS’ inpatient rule adds ‘insult to injury,’ say hospital groups CMS drops... READ MORE

Tenet Health has agreed to sell 70% of its ownership interest in five hospitals and their affiliated physician groups in Birmingham, Alabama to Orlando Health for $910M. Community Health Systems (“CHS”) reaffirmed its plan to sell $1B worth of hospitals in the near future. Earlier this year, CHS announced its plan to sell hospitals... READ MORE

A Special Master for the Central District Court of California granted a motion to compel the disclosure of investigative documents that are no longer under seal in the course of an ongoing False Claims Act claim. UnitedHealth Group, Inc., et al. (“United”) filed a motion to compel the United States (“government”) to produce documents... READ MORE

Health care continues to drive private equity (“PE”) activity, creating opportunities for investors and traditional health care providers. Transactions in the health care space are especially complicated, layering health care regulatory and reimbursement considerations on top of a complex securities, antitrust, privacy and security framework. Hall Render’s PE team of attorneys and advisors leverage... READ MORE

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released the 2025 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (“IPPS”) Final Rule (“Final Rule”) on August 1, 2024. Taking effect on October 1, 2024, the Final Rule confirms CMS will adopt updated market area delineations based on the 2020 census. The Final Rule is scheduled to be published... READ MORE

The Michigan Supreme Court (the “Court”) recently reversed the Michigan Court of Appeals’ decision in Stegall v. Resource Technology Corporation, which held in February 2023 that federal and state occupational safety and health acts preempted Michigan workers’ claims for wrongful discharge in violation of public policy. On appeal, the Michigan Supreme Court held, however, that... READ MORE

NATIONAL 10 best, worst states for healthcare in 2024 AHA files amicus brief supporting reviewability of certain CMS determinations AHA to federal court: Vacate FTC’s non-compete ban CrowdStrike IT outage: What comes next for health systems Drug costs to increase 3.8% next year: Vizient Epic’s data fight spotlights privacy, access concerns ‘Health Over Wealth’:... READ MORE

Healthpeak closed on the sale of a 58-MOB portfolio to Unity Medical and Varde Partners for $674M, with assets located across 16 states. The portfolio comprises 2.76M SF of space at a reported cap rate of 6.8%. Following the recent closure of Walmart Health, Humana’s CenterWell announced it will move into 23 former Walmart... READ MORE

On July 5, 2024, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals (“the Court”) ruled that a $7.5 million award of treble damages and civil penalties in an Iowa FCA case was unconstitutional due to the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against “excessive fines.” The Court also examined other matters, including the acceptability of statistical sampling and the... READ MORE

On July 3, 2024, a federal court in Texas (“the Court”) issued a stay related to certain provisions of CMS’s Contract Year 2025 Medicare Advantage and Part D (“MAPD”) Final Rule (“2025 Final Rule”), which would change how agents and brokers are paid by Medicare Advantage (“MA”) and Part D plans. Specifically, the Court... READ MORE