Articles and Blogs

Under the federal Stark Law, hospitals may provide non-monetary compensation to physicians up to an aggregate amount of $423 for calendar year 2020. The dollar limit for “medical staff incidental benefits” (e.g., meals, parking and other items or incidental services that are used on the hospital’s campus) is less than $36 per occurrence. Other requirements…Read More

On December 11, 2019, the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality/Quality, Safety & Oversight Group at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a memorandum to State Survey Agency Directors entitled “Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Mission & Priority document (MPD) – Action” (“FY 2020 Memo”) that announced its work and intentions for the fiscal year…Read More

This week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) rescinded a nearly 22-year-old policy opposing mandatory arbitration agreements in employment discrimination disputes imposed as a condition of employment. The 1997 Policy In 1997, the EEOC took the position that “agreements that mandate binding arbitration of discrimination claims as a condition of employment are contrary to the…Read More

Your vendor just sent you a quote to let you obtain the software that you need, and it contains a link to the vendor’s standard terms and conditions. If it’s a seven-figure or eight-figure deal, one can assume that the vendor had the good sense to send you an editable version of the contract and…Read More

Is judicial approval required for accepted Rule 68(a) offers of judgment in Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) cases? The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently said “no” and, in doing so, contradicted at least part of a longstanding view that settlement of all FLSA matters requires either approval by the U.S. Department…Read More

On December 12, 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced the second settlement under its “Right of Access Initiative.” A health care company that provides primary care and interventional pain management services (“Provider”) will pay $85,000 and enter into a Corrective Action Plan (“CAP”) to settle potential violations…Read More

Give and Take: CMS Announces Repayment for 2019 Site-Neutral Cuts Yet Announces Same Cuts for 2020 This week, CMS announced that any hospital paid a lower amount for a routine clinic visit in 2019 due to implementation of the site-neutral payment policy will automatically be paid the difference from the older, higher amount. CMS began…Read More

Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that 3 charities will pay a total of $10 million to settle claims that the charities operated as conduits for illegal kickbacks to pharmaceutical companies. The industry-wide probe also implicated several pharmaceutical companies that, according to the DOJ, improperly used charitable foundations as a way to assist…Read More