Articles and Blogs

Senator Urges Appropriators to Increase Hospital Preparedness Funding On October 13, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) asked the Senate Appropriations Committee to increase funding for the Hospital Preparedness Program (“HPP”) to $375 million in light of the Ebola outbreak spreading from West Africa. The HPP was authorized through the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013... READ MORE

CMS Reopens Application Period for Meaningful Use Hardship Exceptions On Tuesday, October 7, CMS announced that eligible providers can continue applying for a hardship exception to avoid FY 2015 penalties for not demonstrating meaningful use of electronic health records.  The new deadline will be November 30, 2014.  Previously, the hardship exception application deadline was April... READ MORE

On Tuesday, September 30, CMS released data surrounding physicians and academic hospitals’ financial ties to drug and device makers.  The Open Payment website attempts to make public all payments to doctors and teaching hospitals by drug and medical device companies.  The payments range from meals to promotional speaking to research. The current online version of... READ MORE

HHS Report Projects Impact of Uncompensated Care on Hospitals On Wednesday, September 24, HHS released a report that projected hospitals will save $5.7 billion in 2014 in uncompensated care costs due to the Affordable Care Act.  The report calculates that in the 26 states that accepted federal money to extend Medicaid eligibility, hospitals are expected to... READ MORE

Congress Passes Post-Acute Care Bill On September 18, the Senate passed, by unanimous consent, a bill that would require post-acute care providers to submit standardized data on its services. The bipartisan legislation (H.R. 4994), which was passed by the House a day earlier,  also requires HHS and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (“MedPAC”) to provide... READ MORE

Ways and Means Releases Draft Program Integrity Legislation On September 9, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health released a draft bill that includes the Hall Render Stark Initiative legislation. The Protecting Integrity in Medicare Act (“PIMA”) of 2014 is aimed at combating fraud, waste and abuse in the Medicare program, and central to the... READ MORE

Congress Urges FCC to Clarify Meaning of Not-for-Profit Hospital On August 1, members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) Chairman Tom Wheeler urging the FCC to clarify the meaning of “not-for-profit hospital” utilized by the Universal Service Administration Company (“USAC”) when determining eligibility for broadband network subsidies... READ MORE

Congress Objects to Possible Changes to Medicare Group Appeals Process On July 23, Senate Commerce Committee member Dan Coats (R-IN) and House Ways and Means Committee member Todd Young (R-IN) sent a joint letter to CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner raising concerns over a provision in the FY 2015 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems (“IPPS”)... READ MORE

Hall Render Meets with Energy and Commerce Committee Staff on Telemedicine Initiative On July 15, Hall Render attorneys John Williams, Jeff Short and Michael Batt met with professional staff at the House Energy and Commerce Committee to discuss what steps Congress can take to remove the legislative and regulatory barriers that currently impede the... READ MORE

Hall Render Protests Possible Changes to Medicare Group Appeals Process On July 9, Hall Render attorneys John Williams and Elizabeth Elias met with staff at the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees to raise awareness of a provision buried in the FY 2015 Hospital IPPS proposed rule that could make it more... READ MORE