Articles and Blogs

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) recently issued new recommendations to state and local governments and skilled nursing facilities (“facility”) to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Two states also recently announced they will pay facilities a premium to identify as COVID-only facilities. CMS…Read More

Wednesday, April 8 Recap Note – ​We believe this is the most up-to-date information available at this time, but it is subject to change ​as circumstances warrant. Also, all finalized resources can be found ​on the COVID-19 ​Resource ​Center page ​of Hall Render’s website.​ Congressional Outlook Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck…Read More

In the midst of the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency and with 43 states issuing stay-at-home orders, both business and personal connectivity has become increasingly dependent on video-teleconferencing (“VTC”) platforms, such as Zoom, in order to stay connected. Unfortunately, these VTC platforms may be extremely vulnerable to hacking attempts by malicious actors and other cybersecurity…Read More

Section 3709 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020 (“CARES Act”) temporarily suspends Medicare sequestration for the period of May 1 through December 31, 2020. As a result, health care providers can expect to receive an increase in fee-for-service Medicare payments by approximately 2% as compared to what they would have…Read More

Tuesday, April 7 Recap Note – ​We believe this is the most up-to-date information available at this time, but it is subject to change ​as circumstances warrant. Also, all finalized resources can be found ​on the COVID-19 ​Resource ​Center page ​of Hall Render’s website.​ CMS Provides More Information on CARES Act Funding At the White House briefing…Read More

Monday, April 6 Recap Note – ​We believe this is the most up-to-date information available at this time, but it is subject to change ​as circumstances warrant. Also, all finalized resources can be found ​on the COVID-19 ​Resource ​Center page ​of Hall Render’s website.​ Congressional Outlook The House and Senate remain in recess until at least April…Read More

On April 3, 2020, OIG released a Policy Statement indicating OIG will exercise its enforcement discretion not to impose administrative sanctions under the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”) for certain financial arrangements related to a COVID-19 purpose that are covered under the Blanket Stark waivers issued by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and…Read More

Just as the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”) went into effect on April 1, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued its “Temporary Rule: Paid Leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act” (“Temporary Rule.”) This Temporary Rule was published in the Federal Register on Monday, April 6, 2020, and provides some helpful…Read More

On April 6, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) issued a report summarizing OIG’s interviews with hospital administrators across the country on COVID-19. The interviews, which Hall Render summarized in a previous alert, were conducted between March 23 through March 27 and focused on three key…Read More