Articles and Blogs

On November 6, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals clarified the standard to establish a claim under the “regarded as” prong of discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and explained the type of evidence that supports an inference that an employer’s reasons for an employee’s termination are “pretextual” and actually motivated by discrimination. Factual Background A nurse anesthetist, Paula E. Babb, insisted her former employer (“Employer”),…Read More

On November 15, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released the final rule on Price Transparency Requirements for Hospitals to Make Standard Charges Public (“Final Rule”) (available here). Despite broad opposition from the industry, CMS finalized the rule largely as proposed. CMS did delay the effective date until January 1, 2021, however,…Read More

CMS Releases Price Transparency Rules On November 15, CMS issued a proposed and final rule, both intended to increase the transparency in pricing for health care providers. One of the rules is the Calendar Year (“CY “) 2020 Outpatient Prospective Payment System (“OPPS”) final rule. The second rule is the Transparency in Coverage proposed rule….Read More

In more happy news for the health care industry, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) is proposing to amend its regulations concerning its jurisdiction over health care providers that participate in TRICARE. The amendments would revise OFCCP’s regulatory definition of “subcontractor . . . to exclude health care providers with agreements to furnish…Read More

Federal Judges Strike Down Trump’s Conscience Rule for Health Providers On Wednesday, a federal judge voided the Trump administration’s “conscience rule” that would have allowed health care providers to refuse to participate in abortions, sterilizations or other types of care they disagree with on religious or moral grounds. HHS issued the conscience rule in May,…Read More

On November 7, 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced that a Texas state agency (“State Agency”) will pay a penalty of $1,600,000 for violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) Privacy Rule and Security Rule. According to the Notice of Proposed…Read More

On November 1, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released its final rule for the Calendar Year (“CY”) 2020 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (“Final Rule”). Among many other changes, CMS finalized three key payment policy updates impacting hospital outpatient departments, including: (1) reducing payments for clinic visits at off-campus provider-based departments (“PBDs”); (2)…Read More