Articles and Blogs

Executive Summary April 16, 2014 is National Healthcare Decisions Day. The goal of the day is to encourage Americans to think and talk about their health care goals and communicate their health care decisions by executing advance health care directives.  READ MORE

Wisconsin has joined the ever-increasing number of states legislating against employers’ access to employees’ and applicants’ social media sites.  On Tuesday, April 8, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed the Wisconsin Social Media Protection Act, 2013 Wisconsin Act 208 (the “Act”), into law, which prohibits both public and private employers, regardless of size, from requesting... READ MORE

On Tuesday, April 8, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed three bills that are of particular interest to the health care industry.  READ MORE

Executive Summary Last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit released a decision related to Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital (“DSH”) payments that has the potential to be a significant victory for hospitals appealing the Part C Medicare Advantage Days issue.  At issue was whether such days would be included in... READ MORE

Executive Summary On March 27, 2014, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed two mental health laws.  2013 Wisconsin Act 158 (“Act 158”) makes various changes to Wisconsin’s statutes governing involuntary commitment and emergency detention for individuals that are a danger to themselves or others due to mental illness, drug dependency or developmental disability. The second... READ MORE

Earlier this spring, the Indiana Court of Appeals struck down and refused to enforce certain provisions in a restrictive covenant (i.e., a noncompete) contained in an employment agreement between a central Indiana employer and a former employee. The Court determined that the scope of activity restrictions and geographic limitations in the noncompete were overly broad... READ MORE

Executive Summary On March 10, 2014, CMS announced in a letter to Congress that it plans to withdraw certain controversial provisions of its omnibus-type proposed rule on policy and technical changes to the Medicare Advantage Program (“Part C”) and Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Program (“Part D”).  Following the proposed rule’s publication on January 10, 2014, CMS... READ MORE

An Important Update on the 2-Midnight Rule CMS continues to provide frequent updates on its “2-midnight rule,” which establishes a benchmark and a presumption that an inpatient admission is generally appropriate and payable under Medicare Part A if the admitting physician expects a Medicare beneficiary to require a stay that crosses at least 2 midnights,... READ MORE

On March 7, 2014, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced that it reached a settlement with a county in Washington state (the “County”) stemming from alleged violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules.  The settlement comes after the County reported a... READ MORE

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) recently issued Advisory Opinion 14-01 (“Advisory Opinion”) approving an arrangement between a placement agency and several senior residential communities that allows the senior communities to compensate the placement agency for the referral of new residents to a participating community (the “Proposed Arrangement”).1 The OIG... READ MORE