Articles and Blogs

In a March 20, 2020 letter to HHS Secretary Azar, 340B Health, a membership organization consisting of more than 1,400 nonprofit hospitals in the 340B drug pricing program, advised the Secretary that its member hospitals fear the COVID-19 public health emergency could have a “material impact” on hospital admissions and payor mix, which, in... READ MORE

Teaching hospitals, teaching physicians and other providers will have additional flexibility to respond to the COVID‑19 public health emergency (“PHE”) under an interim final rule with comment period (“Rule”) that CMS published on May 8, 2020. The Rule should work to stabilize teaching hospitals’ graduate medical education (“GME”) payments during the COVID‑19 PHE, and... READ MORE

**We had a request to alphabetize the states instead of dividing by region. Going to test this out for a couple weeks, so if you have feedback either way, just let us know. Want to make this as user-friendly as possible for everyone! ** NATIONAL 22% of Physician Assistants Furloughed, Others Redeployed 5 ways... READ MORE

A pair of final rules were published May 1, 2020, by HHS. The first rule issued by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (“ONC”) relates to the 21st Century Cures Act information blocking provisions and the ONC Health IT certification program (“Info Blocking Regulations”). The second rule issued by CMS relates... READ MORE

Thursday, May 28 Update Our Federal Advocacy Team is dedicated to providing frequent COVID-19 updates as they develop. Going forward, these updates will be distributed as developments warrant instead of nightly. These updates along with other resources can be found ​on the COVID-19 ​Resource ​Center page ​of Hall Render’s website​. Note – ​we believe this is... READ MORE

On May 26, 2020, OIG released its Strategic Plan for Oversight of COVID-19 Response and Recovery (“Strategic Plan”). The Strategic Plan lays out OIG’s priorities for ensuring that HHS’s COVID-19 relief funds are appropriately disbursed and used, and it gives insights into the enforcement activities that relief fund recipients can expect to see going... READ MORE

Skilled nursing facilities (“SNFs”) have two new areas of focus from the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) – infection control and tracking their use of CARES Act provider relief funds. OIG Work Plan Update: Infection Control Recently, the OIG updated its Work Plan, to add audit of... READ MORE

Tuesday, May 26 Update Our Federal Advocacy Team is dedicated to providing frequent COVID-19 updates as they develop. Going forward, these updates will be distributed as developments warrant instead of nightly. These updates along with other resources can be found ​on the COVID-19 ​Resource ​Center page ​of Hall Render’s website​. Note – ​we believe this is... READ MORE

The events caused by COVID-19 and the pandemic’s ripple effects has certainly caused pause and required a renewed approach to most of life’s activities. Shockingly, legal due diligence conducted in a health care M&A transaction is not immune from such pause and reassessment. New considerations of novel or previously dormant factors will be required... READ MORE

Over the last several months, health care providers have seen COVID-19 relief funds in various forms, from advances against future payments, to pure grant money. In addition to the much-needed assistance these funds have provided, a new stream of revenue has emerged that must be accounted for, and ultimately negotiated, in a health care... READ MORE