Articles and Blogs

Governor Hickenlooper recently signed into law Senate Bill 18-082, which revised Colorado’s existing statute governing non-competition agreements to explicitly permit physicians treating a patient with a “rare disorder” to disclose the physician’s professional contact information to said patients after termination of an employment, partnership or corporate agreement between physicians, even if a non-competition agreement... READ MORE

NATIONAL Feds boast largest healthcare fraud takedown ever at $2B in false claims GAO: 340B hospitals, contract pharmacies need more oversight CMS to waive MACRA’s alternative payment model requirements for Medicare Advantage under test CMS: Doctors, hospitals received $8.4B in payments from drug companies last year AHA urges CMS to expand start dates for... READ MORE

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently enacted a Final Rule removing certain compliance training requirements previously applicable to first tier, downstream and related entities (“FDRs”) of Medicare Advantage and Part D Plan Sponsors (“Plan Sponsors”). Specifically, beginning in plan year 2019, health care providers that participate in Medicare Advantage and Part... READ MORE

Senate Seeks Solutions on Reducing Health Care Costs On June 27, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a hearing on how to reduce health care costs, which will examine administrative costs and waste, how to improve transparency, private sector solutions and other issues. Both Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Ranking Member... READ MORE

On June 27, 2018, the Wisconsin Supreme Court (the “Court”) upheld the constitutionality of a state statute that establishes a $750,000 cap on medical malpractice noneconomic damages as part of Wisconsin’s unique medical liability system that also guarantees payment of all of a proper claimant’s economic damages. In Mayo v. Wis. Injured Patients and... READ MORE

NATIONAL These are 2018’s most influential physicians S. News Announces the 2018-2019 Best Children’s Hospitals Better outcomes, satisfaction with hospital-at-home care programs: JAMA study Walmart Just Scored a Patent for a Blockchain-Based Health Care Records System Atul Gawande: Amazon-Berkshire-JPMorgan venture will tackle 3 types of healthcare waste White House releases extensive plan to reorganize... READ MORE

On June 20, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a Request for Information (“RFI”) seeking feedback from health care industry stakeholders on the burdens of compliance with the Stark Law as it exists today. Earlier in the day, Kelly Cleary from the HHS Office of the General Counsel and HHS... READ MORE

NATIONAL More Doctor Pay Tied To Patient Satisfaction And Outcomes Highest hospital CEO turnover is in these states Patents hold clues about Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft plans for healthcare ‘An industry-wide issue’: Bad debt over $10M at one-third of hospitals Atul Gawande, the doctor and writer, named CEO of Amazon’s employee healthcare JV... READ MORE

A Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision this week addressed the appeal of a health care practitioner who had been physically attacked by a patient and seriously injured. The practitioner commenced a civil action against the behavioral health hospital in which she worked, alleging negligence and a violation of the Safe Place Statute. The hospital... READ MORE

NATIONAL Health Organizations Urge HHS to Recognize MA Providers in MACRA AHA report: Hospitals spend almost $3 trillion, support more than 16 million jobs Berkshire-Amazon-JPMorgan choose healthcare CEO, announcement coming soon Patients face large bills as air ambulance rides proliferate Health IT stakeholders urge CMS to adopt 3 new remote monitoring reimbursement codes CMS... READ MORE