Articles and Blogs

The Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) established certain amendments to the Stark Law, including that new physician-owned hospitals cannot be formed and existing physician-owned hospitals cannot expand the aggregate number of operating rooms, procedure rooms or licensed beds beyond the number for which the hospital was licensed on March 23, 2010. Due to the Trump... READ MORE

In an August publication, we outlined proposed legislation by Rep. Edward Canfield (R-Sebewaing) and Sen. Peter MacGregor (R-Rockford) that would have revised: (1) the Public Health Code to prohibit the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs or a professional board from requiring a physician to maintain a national or regional certification and prohibit hospitals... READ MORE

Draft House Republican ACA Replacement Bill Leaked With Congress set to return to Washington on February 27, a draft of the House legislation to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) using the procedure known as budget reconciliation was posted by the Politico news site on Friday. The 106-page measure would eliminate key aspects... READ MORE

Legislation introduced by Representative Rob Nosse on January 9, 2017 – House Bill 2664 – provides for the establishment of extended stay centers in Oregon. Specifically, the legislation authorizes the operation of extended stay centers,  specifies criteria for their licensure and requires the Oregon Health Authority to adopt rules to implement the licensing program.... READ MORE

The Cures Act addresses certain electronic health record (“EHR”) difficulties faced by physicians who practice primarily in ambulatory surgery centers (“ASCs”). Section 16003 explicitly excludes physicians who furnish substantially all of their Medicare services at ASCs from the penalties imposed under various programs for failure to adopt a certified EHR. Under the current Medicare... READ MORE

Under the Breach Notification Rule, HIPAA covered entities are required to submit reports of certain breaches of unsecured protected health information (“PHI”) affecting fewer than 500 individuals to the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) on an annual basis. Covered entities must submit their breaches electronically through OCR’s breach notification web page, which can be... READ MORE

Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against two Michigan hospitals, holding that their written agreements regarding their medical residents’ off-site training programs failed to comply with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (“CMS”) requirements for graduate medical education (“GME”) reimbursement. While the laws applicable in this... READ MORE

As of late, commercial payors appear to be increasing the number of audits they are conducting focused on medical necessity. The commercial payor audit notices and overpayment demands appear to rely on some of the same techniques as those of government auditors, such as data analysis for outliers, predictive modeling and extrapolation, to scrutinize... READ MORE

House Leadership Releases Outline for ACA Reform On February 16, Republican House leadership circulated a 16-page blueprint for ACA reform. The  proposal, which was not in legislative form, is intended to provide an outline of what the House will attempt to pass by their informal deadline of April 6. The measure’s highlights include: reforming... READ MORE

As a result of legislation passed by the Indiana General Assembly in 2014, two important property tax dates changed for 2016 and going forward. January 1 is the assessment  date of real and personal property for taxes due and payable in the following year (see, IC 6-1.1-2-1.5). Historically, March 1 was the assessment date... READ MORE