Articles and Blogs

Last week, a number of M&A headlines made the news. SSM Health closed a large physician practice acquisition. Healthcare Realty also announced that it will joint venture (“JV”) 27 properties as part of its merger plan with HTA. Kaufman Hall noted that M&A activity is up in the health care sector. A number of... READ MORE

CMS recently announced the Enhancing Oncology Model (“EOM”), which will build on the Oncology Care Model that ended on June 30, 2022. EOM is the next phase in the Biden Administration’s Cancer Moonshot initiative and will run from July 2023 through July 2028. EOM aims to improve care coordination, quality and health outcomes while... READ MORE

On June 29, 2022, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (“HHS”) released a notice and guidance on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) and the protection of patient information relating to reproductive health care (the “Notice”). The Notice also describes example situations involving... READ MORE

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights released guidance detailing how health care providers subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) can use remote communication technologies to provide audio-only telehealth services when such communications are conducted in a manner that is consistent with... READ MORE

Last week, CMS issued a proposal that would change how post-acute providers are paid for their services. The proposal drew negative feedback from trade associations. A number of prominent physician organizations issued a call to action urging payers and policy providers to increase funding and training offered to primary care providers so they can... READ MORE

NATIONAL CMS is creating a new provider type, Rural Emergency Hospitals CMS issues updated nursing home staffing compliance guidelines CMS proposal details how to become new rural hospital designation HHS, AMA dismayed by Supreme Court’s controversial EPA power plant ruling Nurse pay jumps nearly 5% Ransomware attack on finance company affects 600 hospitals, practices... READ MORE

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the “Act”) signed into law on December 27, 2020, created a new Medicare provider type called a Rural Emergency Hospital (“REH”). Critical access hospitals (“CAHs”) and rural hospitals with 50 beds or fewer could transition to REH status starting January 1, 2023. On June 30, 2022, the Centers for... READ MORE

Last week, CMS announced a new hospital provider status for rural hospitals. A significant number of rural hospitals have closed over the past decade. CMS created the new provider status in an effort to preserve rural hospitals. In other news, South Carolina is exploring a minor modification to its Certificate of Need (“CON”) law... READ MORE

In Becerra v. Empire Health Found., the Supreme Court upheld CMS’s decision to include Medicare exhaust and secondary payor days in the Medicare Fraction of the Disproportionate Share Hospital (“DSH”) statute. Although a loss for the hospitals in Empire, the ruling may support hospitals seeking to add SSI days to the numerator of the... READ MORE

Beginning July 1, 2022, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury (the “Departments”) will begin enforcing the Transparency in Coverage Final Rule (“TiC Rule”) broadly requiring non-grandfathered health plans, including self-insured plans, to publish the price of nearly every health care service negotiated with providers. The TiC Rule continues federal efforts... READ MORE