Articles and Blogs

On March 28, 2012, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed 2011 Senate Bill 421 (the “Bill”) into law.  The Bill expands the ability of Wisconsin-licensed physician assistants (“PAs”) to authorize certain medical actions by generally allowing PAs to act on behalf of patients’ and the public’s health in situations that were previously limited to physicians... READ MORE

April 16, 2012 is National Health Care 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. Across the United States, health care providers, professionals, chaplains, attorneys and others will focus attention... READ MORE

On March 16, 2012, CMS published the long-awaited Supplemental Security Income (SSI) ratios used in computing Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments for Federal Fiscal Years (FFYs) 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. This should finally end the cost report settlement moratorium implemented by CMS in July 2008 and lead to a flood of Notices... READ MORE

This installment of Hall Render’s Health Law Broadcast series on health care reform is designed to provide you with the insight, analysis and practical suggestions with respect to the various reform initiatives that will affect your organization.  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently posted on its website two Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol... READ MORE

The long-awaited final regulations arising from the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (“HITECH”) appear finally to be near publication.  On March 24, 2012, the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) accepted for review the final HITECH regulations from the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”).  The OMB will review... READ MORE

On Friday, March 23, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published a final Federal Register notice informing the public that an application for Rural Health Clinic (“RHC”) deeming authority has been approved.  This RHC deeming authority, the first of its kind, was granted to the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory... READ MORE

The Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”), Department of Health and Human Services, continues to investigate complaints related to the alleged failure of hospitals and health systems to provide interpreters to patients and their companions who are hearing impaired or have limited English proficiency (“LEP”).  In addition to compensatory damages and civil penalties, various settlement... READ MORE

The coming tax year will bring significant new challenges for tax-exempt hospitals, which must comply with a new requirement to prepare a community health needs assessment (“CHNA”) and adopt a corresponding implementation strategy.  Preparing and publicizing these documents will take extensive effort, and hospital leadership should expect that the Congress, the IRS, the media... READ MORE

The Federal Government has reinforced its expanded theory of false claim liability for quality matters by settling allegations against a hospital that a physician’s lack of qualifications to perform certain surgical procedures should be considered a false claim, regardless of the patient’s outcome. As part of the settlement, the hospital defendant paid the Government... READ MORE

On March 13, 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced that it had reached a settlement with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee (“Blue Cross”) arising from potential violations of the Privacy and Security Rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”).  Notably, HHS learned of the... READ MORE