Articles and Blogs

NATIONAL Six things to know about CMS’ new bundled payment model The big bang is coming in health care, and it will spark the next industrial revolution Medical industry trends toward more openness after errors Hospitals’ best-laid plans upended by disaster CMS to form interagency group to review Stark Law: 4 things to know Cardiologists…Read More

Congress Votes to End Government Shutdown After a three-day government shutdown, the Senate voted 81-18 on Monday to fund the government through February 8, 2018. The continuing resolution (“CR”) was then sent to the House, where it passed 266-150. President Trump subsequently signed the bill into law on January 22. The three-week CR includes a…Read More

On January 3, 2018, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (“SAMHSA”) issued final regulations (“Final Rule“)[i] intended to update and modernize the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records regulations at Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 2 (“Part 2“).[ii] The…Read More

In United States ex rel. Schneider v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, Nat’l Ass’n [1], the D.C. Circuit re-affirms its position that contingent penalties are not obligations under the False Claims Act (“FCA”). BACKGROUND In the initial suit[2], Relator brought a qui tam action under the FCA against mortgage loan servicer JPMorgan Chase (“Chase”), alleging, in part,…Read More

As hospitals and health-related entities, like other businesses, continue to shift application hosting and data storage to the cloud and to third party data centers, they should consider what obligations to place on vendors that provide such hosting and data storage services to promote data security. One such obligation may be to require hosting service…Read More

On January 5, 2018, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) adopted a new test to determine when interns in the for-profit private sector can be excluded from minimum wage and overtime requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and issued a revised Fact Sheet (Fact Sheet #71: Internship Programs Under The Fair Labor Standards Act)….Read More

Federal Government Shutdown Looms as Deadline Nears On January 18, the House passed a four-week continuing resolution (“CR”) that would fund the federal government through February 16. While a vote in the Senate is expected on Friday or sometime over the weekend, the bill’s chances of passing the upper chamber remain uncertain as of press…Read More

NATIONAL Worldwide ambulance market to reach $48.9B by 2025 MedPAC votes to nix MIPS CMS proposes expanding MRI coverage for patients with implantable cardiac devices Exploring the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced Model Amazon is hiring a health privacy expert for ‘new initiative’ CMS releases guidance for Medicaid work requirements: 5 things to know…Read More

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) recently issued Advisory Opinion 17-09, which approved an arrangement between a hospital and physician group in which neurosurgeons and the hospital implemented a cost-savings program where the hospital agreed to share a percentage of its cost savings resulting from the program (“Proposed Arrangement”)….Read More

CMS recently released a series of Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) on its website providing some much needed guidance to hospitals. Among other things, CMS will allow hospitals that submitted attestations and mid-build certifications last February to get full payment under the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (“OPPS”) for dates of service on or after January 1,…Read More