Articles and Blogs

The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued an opinion creating a national divide on when a relator is an “original source” of an FCA claim, finding that a relator’s secondhand knowledge of fraud was “direct” knowledge. Facts of the Case In United States ex rel. Banigan v. PharMerica, Inc.[1], a former…Read More

Congress returns this week after its President’s Day district work period. HHS Secretary Azar is testifying before four different congressional committees on the administration’s Fiscal Year (“FY”) 2021 budget request. Also, the White House is expected to submit a formal request for emergency funding for the Coronavirus. The funding is unlikely to become a catch-all…Read More

Most skilled nursing facilities are not correctly complying with life safety requirements or emergency preparedness requirements, according to three recent reports by the Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. OIG recently issued three reports on its audits of life safety requirements or emergency preparedness requirements: (1) Life…Read More

States and the federal government are currently expanding laws intended to protect health care workers against workplace violence or raise the penalties for causing harm to health care workers. Workplace Violence Workers in health care settings often face the risk of workplace violence as a result of their interaction with patients and clients. While patients/clients…Read More

Mergers and acquisitions in the health care industry involve unique challenges that are not often present when undertaking similar transactions in other industries. Because of health care’s highly regulated nature, parties may falter if a health care transaction is not reviewed and negotiated carefully with respect to the distinct concerns that health care entails. This…Read More

Surprise Billing Bonanza in the House On February 7, two House panels released measures aimed at fixing surprise medical bills. The House Ways and Means Committee and the House Education and Labor Committee plan to vote on their bills this week. Lawmakers are trying to move quickly as they hope to include surprise billing legislation…Read More

Surprise Billing Continues to Be Hot as More Committees Weigh In The House Ways & Means Committee plans to release its surprise billing legislation this week in preparation for a markup on February 12. The Ways and Means proposal will rely on arbitration for resolving out of network claims and will have to be reconciled…Read More