Articles and Blogs

On August 29, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced that adjustment of status applications based on employment and refugee/asylee petitions will be subject to in-person interviews with immigration officers beginning October 1, 2017. USCIS POLICY CHANGE Although Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) regulations provide a legal basis for requiring all adjustment of status…Read More

A recent U.S. Court of Appeals decision increases chances for data breach victims to successfully sue. In 2014, customers of a health insurer filed a lawsuit after their personally identifiable information (“PII”) was revealed in a data breach that affected more than one million individuals.[1] The lower court dismissed the lawsuit in 2014, but on…Read More

On August 18, 2017, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (“AILA”) issued a statement confirming numerous reports of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) denying Form I-131 Applications for Advance Parole where applicants exited the U.S. while the applications were pending. These denials have occurred even where applicants possessed separate, valid advance parole documents or nonimmigrant…Read More

NATIONAL Deloitte: Many states establishing Medicaid APMs, but few evaluated for effects on outcomes Doctors loathe their EHRs, right? Not these physicians Is Amazon about to take over the pharmacy industry? HHS proposes another 340B penalty rule delay For-profit hospital operators likely to experience weak patient admissions through 2018 Governors Preparing Bipartisan Health Care Plan…Read More

With the intention of improving care for individuals receiving substance use disorder treatment and mental health care by better coordinating care, Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) introduced the Improving Access to Behavioral Health Information Technology Act (“Act”), a bipartisan bill designed to grant incentives to behavioral health organizations to adopt electronic health…Read More

While federal efforts in recent years may have incrementally increased the number of medical residents in training in the United States, still too few residents are being trained to meet expected demand for physicians. This article examines a recent United States Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) report that outlines the federal efforts to expand graduate medical…Read More

On July 25, 2017, the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) issued guidance (the “Guidance”) stating that it does not intend to object to an Institutional Review Board’s (“IRB”) wavier of the informed consent requirements for human subjects research involving no more than minimal risk. The Guidance, effective immediately, aligns the FDA’s policy on the waiver of…Read More

As we reported in a previous article, the Third Circuit recently decided in Doe v. Mercy[1] that: 1) the medical residency program of the facility being sued in that case was an “educational program or activity” under Title IX; and 2) the medical resident had standing to sue under Title IX even though the resident…Read More

This is another article in a series discussing the complete overhaul of Part 483 to Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations, the Requirements for States and Long-Term Care Facilities (“Final Regulations”) by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”). Hall Render published an overview of Final Regulations components as well as Parts 1, 2,…Read More

Amazon is taking strides to enter one of the most complex of industries: health care. In late 2016, Amazon began investigating the possibilities of leveraging its supply chain to meet health care consumers’ needs. Amazon Business, Amazon’s current supply chain platform, has already transformed the supply chain industry, generating over $1 billion in sales in…Read More