Articles and Blogs

Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans Question Medicaid’s Use of Provider Taxes On February 18, House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health Chairman Joe Pitts (R-PA) and Vice Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) sent a letter to CMS regarding the lack of oversight in how state Medicaid programs use provider taxes to pay for their expenditures.... READ MORE

CMS Releases Core Measure Sets On February 16, CMS and America’s Health Insurance Plans (“AHIP”) released seven sets of clinical quality measures as part of the Core Quality Measures Collaborative (“Collaborative”) of health care system participants. The guiding principles used by the Collaborative in creating the measure sets are that they be meaningful to... READ MORE

Obama Releases FY 2017 Budget On February 9, President Obama released a $4.1 trillion budget outlining spending proposals and priorities for fiscal year 2017. Nearly one-fourth of the budget is allocated to CMS for the agency’s entitlement programs. The proposal also provides $82.8 billion in discretionary funding for HHS and makes mandatory investment in... READ MORE

Bipartisan Telehealth Bill Introduced Includes Provision Proposed by Hall Render On February 3, Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) introduced legislation to expand the use of telemedicine and remote patient monitoring (“RPM”) under Medicare to increase cost savings and quality care. The Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (“CONNECT”) for... READ MORE

Hall Render Provides Recommendations to Congress on Stark Law Changes On January 29, Gregg Wallander, Hall Render attorney and leader of the firm’s Health Care Practice Group, provided recommendations to congressional staff on changes to the Stark Law that would provide relief for hospitals and health systems that are required to comply with its burdensome... READ MORE

Senate Takes New Approach to Medical Innovation Bills With the House of Representatives in recess, action in Washington this week was in the Senate. On January 19, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (“HELP”) Committee announced it will hold the first of three executive sessions to review the Innovations for Healthier Americans Act,... READ MORE

MedPAC Releases Payment Recommendations for Hospital Services On January 14, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (“MedPAC”) released its 2017 payment recommendations to Congress for hospital inpatient and outpatient services. The commission’s recommendations would increase total spending on hospital services by 1.65 percent. MedPAC voted to cut Medicare payments by 10 percent to safety net... READ MORE

ACA Repeal Heads to President’s Desk On January 6, the House voted 240-181 to send an Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) repeal bill (H.R. 3762) to the president’s desk through the expedited budget reconciliation process that does not require 60 votes to pass the Senate.  While the White House has said Obama will quickly veto... READ MORE

Congress Passes Spending Bill On December 18, the House and Senate overwhelmingly passed the omnibus spending bill.  Prior to midnight on December 15, the House revealed the details of the FY16 omnibus appropriations package, which funds the federal agencies and programs through September 30, 2016.  The White House has indicated it intends to sign... READ MORE

Hall Render Participates in House-Senate Expert Roundtable on Stark Law Reform On December 10, the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees convened a select group of outside experts for a roundtable discussion on Stark Law reform. Hall Render Shareholder and Health Law Practice Group Leader Gregg Wallander joined former CMS officials, Stark Law regulation... READ MORE