Articles and Blogs

CMS Allows States to Establish Medicaid Work Requirements On January 11, CMS issued new guidance that will allow states to establish work requirements for certain Medicaid recipients for the first time in the program’s history. Through a letter to State Medicaid Directors, CMS outlined criteria for the types of employment proposals targeting able-bodied, working-age Medicaid…Read More

Fresh off the 75th Annual Golden Globes Awards, which took place on January 7, mainstream and social media alike are abuzz with Oprah Winfrey’s historic acceptance of the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Winfrey, the first black woman to receive the prestigious award, brought the crowd to its feet on several occasions during her emotional acceptance speech…Read More

1) Health Insurance Mega-Mergers Crash to Earth and Other Antitrust Updates Dashed Mergers In the area of antitrust law, 2017 saw the resolution of two health insurance mega-mergers. On January 23, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (“U.S. District Court, D.C.”) ruled in favor of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”)…Read More

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced its long-awaited “BPCI Advanced” model on January 9. The model – which is voluntary – will initially include 29 inpatient clinical episodes and 3 outpatient clinical episodes (a list of the 32 clinical episodes can be found here). BPCI Advanced Participants must elect to be accountable…Read More

Congress Returns to Crowded 2018 Legislative Calendar The Senate returned to Washington this week to begin the second session of the 115th Congress. The House returns Monday of next week, which gives Congress eight legislative days to fund the federal government for Fiscal Year 2018. Prior to departing for 2017, Congress passed a temporary spending…Read More

As we noted in a previous article, significant Medicare payment cuts for certain 340B-participating hospitals[1] (“Covered Entities”) went into effect as of January 1, 2018 after a federal district court judge declined to take action to prevent implementation of certain 2018 Outpatient Prospective Payment System (“OPPS”) final rule (“Final Rule”) provisions. These changes represent a…Read More

NATIONAL FDA chief: I’m surprised it took big tech this long to get into health care Will 2018 be the year of Catholic health care dominance? U.S. medical device tax back in effect after two-year pause 13 healthcare M&A deals that made headlines in 2017 CMS reaffirms its ban on texting physician orders, clarifies patient…Read More

Over the past few years, rural health care providers have struggled to recruit full-time physicians to their communities. This has caused a number of providers to consider part-time arrangements with physicians. The rural provider considering a part-time arrangement has at least two options: 1) the provider could allow the physician to lease space within its…Read More

On December 29, 2017, a judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia DENIED a motion to enjoin significant Medicare payment cuts for certain hospitals that participate in the 340B Drug Pricing Program (“340B Program”) that are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2018. As a result, the Medicare payment…Read More

In a December 28, 2017, a memo (“Memo”) to state survey agency directors, CMS made clear that texting patient information is allowed as long as a secure texting platform is used, recognizing the importance of texting as an “essential and valuable means of communication among the team members” caring for patients. Providers must comply with HIPAA…Read More