Articles and Blogs

The Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) continues to update its Provider Relief Fund Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”). The latest revisions are dated May 26 and 29, 2020 and include new FAQs and modifications to existing FAQs. HHS also modified two of the FAQs by deleting potentially significant language without marking those FAQs as…Read More

As Safer-at-Home transitions to Safe-at-Work, two new issues have emerged for employers: (1) Can I require everyone to return to the workplace?; and (2) What new operational considerations are presented as my employees return? The General Duty Clause of the Occupational Health Safety Act, historically the stepchild of employment safety standards, is suddenly front and…Read More

As Shelter-in-Place Orders are relaxed, employers are able to resume varying degrees of pre‑COVID‑19 operations subject to a myriad of state, county and sometimes city government recommendations and/or requirements. However, covered employers remain subject to the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (“EPSLA”) and the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (“EFMLA”). Both of these…Read More

On May 29, 2020, CMS published its 2021 IPPS Proposed Rule (“Proposed Rule”). If adopted, the Proposed Rule would change CMS’s funding methods for graduate medical education (“GME”), giving additional flexibility to hospitals that train residents who are affected by a hospital or residency program closure. Comments on the Proposed Rule are due on July…Read More

In a March 20, 2020 letter to HHS Secretary Azar, 340B Health, a membership organization consisting of more than 1,400 nonprofit hospitals in the 340B drug pricing program, advised the Secretary that its member hospitals fear the COVID-19 public health emergency could have a “material impact” on hospital admissions and payor mix, which, in turn,…Read More

Teaching hospitals, teaching physicians and other providers will have additional flexibility to respond to the COVID‑19 public health emergency (“PHE”) under an interim final rule with comment period (“Rule”) that CMS published on May 8, 2020. The Rule should work to stabilize teaching hospitals’ graduate medical education (“GME”) payments during the COVID‑19 PHE, and it…Read More

A pair of final rules were published May 1, 2020, by HHS. The first rule issued by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (“ONC”) relates to the 21st Century Cures Act information blocking provisions and the ONC Health IT certification program (“Info Blocking Regulations”). The second rule issued by CMS relates to…Read More

Thursday, May 28 Update Our Federal Advocacy Team is dedicated to providing frequent COVID-19 updates as they develop. Going forward, these updates will be distributed as developments warrant instead of nightly. These updates along with other resources can be found ​on the COVID-19 ​Resource ​Center page ​of Hall Render’s website​. Note – ​we believe this is the…Read More

On May 26, 2020, OIG released its Strategic Plan for Oversight of COVID-19 Response and Recovery (“Strategic Plan”). The Strategic Plan lays out OIG’s priorities for ensuring that HHS’s COVID-19 relief funds are appropriately disbursed and used, and it gives insights into the enforcement activities that relief fund recipients can expect to see going forward….Read More