Articles and Blogs

On September 6, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) published final guidance (“Guidance”) summarizing its recommendations for medical devices that are connected to each other and to other technology (“interoperable medical devices”). The Guidance finalizes preliminary guidance from January 2016 and is intended to encourage rapid innovation in the marketplace by allowing effective…Read More

On February 8, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued an order requiring a hospital “to immediately submit to the National Practitioners Data Bank a Void Report” regarding a physician whose clinical privileges were restricted by the hospital’s medical executive committee (“MEC”), which resulted in a report to the National…Read More

Ways and Means Advances Hall Render’s Stark Initiative On September 13, the House Ways & Means Committee advanced three health care bills, including a revised version of the Stark Administrative Simplification Act of 2017 (H.R. 3726). The bipartisan bill, which passed unanimously, is the product of the coalition of hospitals and health systems created by…Read More

NATIONAL Malpractice fears are the No. 1 cause of overtreatment, physicians say Telehealth May Ease Docs into ACOs, MedPAC Suggests Survey: Few specialty practices prepared for MACRA Physician groups find both good and bad in the details of the proposed fee schedule AHA concerned with physician fee schedule for 2018 Total Cost of Care: Key…Read More

On April 6, 2017, Governor Hickenlooper signed into law Senate Bill 17-065, which created the Transparency in Health Care Prices Act (“Act”). The legislation passed with bipartisan support from members of the Colorado Legislature. The law will take effect on January 1, 2018, imposing pricing transparency requirements on health care providers and facilities. The Act…Read More

On Monday, September 11, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided that a carefully drafted arbitration agreement between an employee and her employer did not cover the employee’s whistleblower action under the Federal False Claims Act (“FCA”) or Nevada’s state-law equivalent.[1] The court’s opinion in this case demonstrates that even the strong presumption…Read More

Eligible Professionals participating in the Medicare Meaningful Use Electronic Health Record Incentive Program have until October 1, 2017 to submit a hardship application to avoid a downward payment adjustment in 2018. A participant may submit a hardship application if the Eligible Professional: Is a first-time Eligible Professional who intends to participate in the advancing care information performance category…Read More

Congress Returns for Fall Work Period Congress returned to Washington this week after their longest break of the calendar year. The Senate reengaged on the issue of ACA repeal and began hearings on a legislative package to stabilize the ACA marketplace. On September 6-7, the Senate HELP Committee held hearings with state insurance commissioners and…Read More

NATIONAL Health IT passes first big test with Hurricane Harvey Hickenlooper-Kasich health care proposal calls for retaining individual mandate, funding CSRs Bundled payments on ‘pause,’ but not for long After Harvey, telemedicine connects doctors to displaced patients New U.S. surgeon general sworn in Tuesday Specialty practices way behind on MACRA readiness, survey shows Sen. Alexander…Read More

Health-related entities and individuals should consider securing registration for “.health” domain suffixes associated with their legal and/or trade names during the health industry exclusivity period now through November 30, 2017. The new .health top level domain suffixes provide unique opportunities for health-related entities and individuals to solidify branding in their current and future digital marketing…Read More