Articles and Blogs

On December 9, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services’ (“HHS”) Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”) issued its annual solicitation for proposals and recommendations for developing new or modifying existing Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”) safe harbor provisions. In doing so, the OIG’s objective is to identify safe harbors that safeguard “beneficial and innocuous... READ MORE

Health systems and physician groups largely held back on mergers and acquisitions in 2025 due to inflation, high labor costs, reimbursement uncertainty and new state laws targeting private equity. In 2026, deal activity is expected to increase as policy uncertainty clears up and health systems align with physicians to grow their ambulatory networks. PE... READ MORE

Hall Render is excited to announce the successful relocation of its Dallas office to a new space within the Dallas Downtown Historic District. Effective December 15, 2025, the Firm now operates out of the 300 Pearl Building, located at: 300 South Pearl Expressway, Suite 375 Dallas, TX 75201. The new office space represents Hall... READ MORE

NATIONAL 7 major vaccine policy changes in 2025 2026: Healthcare-specific private equity reporting requirements set to go into effect 40 million Americans use ChatGPT for healthcare: Report 13 health systems affected by Oracle Health data breach 6 Stark law cases in 1 year A 2026 Stark law update goes into effect Breaking the discharge... READ MORE

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) continues to scrutinize beneficiary transparency, medical necessity and data‑driven oversight of hospital billing and utilization. This scrutiny means continued compliance risk for hospitals. Two long‑standing compliance tools remain especially relevant for hospital leadership: the Medicare Outpatient Observation Notice (“MOON”) and the Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns... READ MORE

Hall Render is pleased to announce that Katie Bireley has joined Hall Render’s Milwaukee office. Katie Bireley is an attorney with more than a decade of experience advising clients on real estate and construction law matters. At Hall Render, she focuses on representing hospitals, health systems and related nonprofit entities in complex real estate... READ MORE

On December 29, 2025, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced the first round of awards under the Rural Health Transformation Program (“RHTP”), a $50 billion, five-year initiative intended to strengthen and modernize health care delivery in rural communities nationwide. All 50 states will receive funding beginning in Federal Fiscal Year (“FFY”)... READ MORE

Hall Render is pleased to announce that Megan Culp has been named a Shareholder of the Firm. This well-deserved milestone reflects Megan’s contributions to her practice and the Firm. Learn more about her work and accomplishments below. Megan is situated in the Firm’s Indianapolis office and focuses her practice on strategic and operational compliance... READ MORE

We hope everyone enjoyed some time off over the holidays. As we reflect on 2025 and head into the new year, we spent some time mapping out our hospital real estate predictions for 2026. We believe it will be a mixed bag for hospitals and health systems around the country. Most hospital systems will... READ MORE

NATIONAL 19 states, DC sue HHS over gender-affirming care restrictions 6 new care and payment models CMS introduced in 2025 14 Epic updates in 30 days 39 hospital M&As finalized in 2025 5 financial metrics health system leaders are targeting next year 11 states plan post-acute initiatives with CMS’ rural health fund 10 most... READ MORE