Articles and Blogs

Executive Summary On November 27, 2013, President Obama signed the Drug Quality and Security Act (“Act”) into law. The Act was introduced primarily in response to longstanding issues highlighted by a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak that occurred last year. The Act, which is aimed at ensuring providers and patients have access to safe compounded... READ MORE

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Yesterday afternoon, November 26, 2013, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued Proposed Regulations (available here) that would clarify the limitations on political campaign activities by tax-exempt social welfare organizations.  In connection with these Proposed Regulations, the Treasury Department and the IRS have requested comments on these limitations as well as the... READ MORE

Executive Summary Legislation aimed at ensuring providers and patients have access to safe compounded drugs was passed by both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate and will now proceed to the President for signature.  This legislation, a product of bipartisan efforts by leaders from the Senate and House committees overseeing health policy,... READ MORE

Executive Summary Earlier this month, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida held that the bonus compensation arrangements between a Florida hospital (“Hospital”) and its employed medical oncologists violated the Stark Law. The Court concluded that the Hospital’s bonus pool methodology, which included chemotherapy revenues, did not satisfy the requirements of the... READ MORE

Background The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently issued two advisory opinions regarding arrangements where for-profit clinical laboratories would provide certain devices without charge to physicians, including physicians that made referrals to the entities.1  These advisory opinions were the first issued by CMS in over two years.  Though the arrangements discussed in the... READ MORE

The Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) remains concerned with potential prescription drug abuse. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that approximately seven million people in the U.S. misused prescription drugs in 20101 and has characterized prescription drug abuse as an epidemic. Due to concerns of prescription drug abuse... READ MORE

Background The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently issued two advisory opinions regarding arrangements where for-profit clinical laboratories would provide certain devices without charge to physicians, including physicians that made referrals to the entities.1 These advisory opinions were the first issued by CMS in over two years. Though the arrangements discussed in... READ MORE

As part of the 2014 inpatient prospective payment system final rule, CMS formulated a “2-midnight presumption” and a “2-midnight benchmark” (collectively the “2-Midnight Rule”) to guide admitting practitioners and review contractors on when it is appropriate to admit a patient as a hospital inpatient.  In the last few days, CMS posted a series of... READ MORE

The Internal Revenue Service recently announced the retirement plan limits for 2014, some of which are unchanged from 2013.  The Social Security Administration has also announced the Social Security wage base for 2014.  The following are some key retirement plan dollar limits for 2014 for retirement plan sponsors and participants, along with the prior... READ MORE