Articles and Blogs

On February 4, 2022, the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) issued Advisory Opinion 22-02 protecting a children’s hospital’s donor-funded charity program (“Proposed Arrangement”). Under the Proposed Arrangement, the requestor (“Children’s Hospital”) would use funds from two individual donors to establish a restricted endowment fund that would subsidize patient... READ MORE

NATIONAL 40% of Nursing Home Residents Haven’t Received COVID-19 Boosters, Analysis Finds 342 hospitals have received price transparency noncompliance notices from CMS 3 states delaying booster mandates for healthcare workers 23% of healthcare workers likely to leave healthcare soon, poll finds AI in Healthcare Presents Need for Security, Privacy Standards Amazon’s Growth In Healthcare... READ MORE

As required by the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (“Sunshine Act”), by March 31, 2022, manufacturers of many drugs, medical devices, biologicals and other medical supplies, as well as applicable group purchasing organizations (“GPOs”), will report to CMS payments made and other investment interests given in 2021 to physicians, teaching hospitals and — for the... READ MORE

Our Health Care Real Estate Briefing is your comprehensive summary of weekly health care real estate highlights currently happening across the nation. The CDC is reviewing its mask guidance and will decide whether to relax the guidance based on the number of Covid hospitalizations. In the past, the CDC looked at the number of new... READ MORE

NATIONAL 13-year Medicare payment dispute will return to HHS, court rules 48 hospitals on Forbes’ list of best employers CMS delays star ratings update until July CMS may now enforce its COVID-19 vaccination policy for healthcare workers in all 50 states CMS responds to states seeking vaccination mandate waivers CMS warns states: Survey fully... READ MORE

In December 2021, the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) of the Department of Health and Human Services published an Issue Brief titled “Medicare and Beneficiaries Pay More for Preadmission Services at Affiliated Hospitals Than Wholly Owned Settings” (“Brief”)(available here). The Brief discusses Medicare’s policy to bundle (or not separately pay) certain services provided by... READ MORE

Our Health Care Real Estate Briefing is your comprehensive summary of weekly health care real estate highlights currently happening across the nation. 1. The following U.S. cities saw the highest inflation in 2021: Atlanta 9.8%, Phoenix 9.7%, St. Louis 8.3%, Baltimore 8% and Tampa 8%. Remote workers and retirees are moving to these cities for... READ MORE

Our Health Care Real Estate Briefing is your comprehensive summary of weekly health care real estate highlights currently happening across the nation. 1. CMS issued guidance for skilled nursing facilities (“SNFs”) on how to deal with visitors during the pandemic. States can require visitors to be tested before entering the SNF so long as rapid... READ MORE

Earlier this week, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that the United States recovered over $5.6 billion from False Claims Act (“FCA”) cases in the federal fiscal year 2021, “the second largest annual total in False Claims Act history” and more than doubling the FCA recoveries for the DOJ from fiscal year 2020. Of... READ MORE

On January 5, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) published an amendment to its Declaration for medical countermeasures against COVID-19 (the “Declaration”) under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (“PREP Act”). Under the amendment, PREP Act liability protections have been extended to eligible pharmacists who order and administer (and qualified... READ MORE