Articles and Blogs

AHCA Remains Stalled in House In an effort to breathe life into the stalled American Health Care Act (“AHCA”), Trump administration officials, members of the House Freedom Caucus and House Republican leadership spent the week discussing fixes to the AHCA. The discussions focused largely on allowing states to decide if they want to continue the…Read More

On March 13, 2017, twelve hearing impaired individuals filed suit in federal district court in Arizona against a large health system (the “System”) alleging discrimination under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. In the complaint, the plaintiffs allege that the System discriminated against them by “refusing to provide effective auxiliary aids and services, despite their…Read More

On Tuesday, April 4, 2017, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that Title VII prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation. This contradicts a recent Eleventh Circuit ruling[1]—not to mention longstanding Seventh Circuit precedent—which means that this issue could eventually land before the Supreme Court. Background Title VII is a federal law that…Read More

This is the sixth article in a series on the 21st Century Cures Act (the “Cures Act”), which was signed into law on December 13, 2016. We will continue publishing a series of articles summarizing various components under the Cures Act. The articles in our series are located here.  This article highlights the provisions of…Read More

President Obama’s controversial Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order 13673 (aka the “blacklisting” rule) has been eliminated. That means federal contractors will not be required to report labor violations as part of their federal contract bidding process. The related paycheck transparency requirements and prohibition against pre-dispute arbitration clauses related to Title VII claims have…Read More

Congressional Republicans Plan Next Steps for Health Reform After a weekend of reflection over the last minute decision not to vote on the American Health Care Act, House Republicans reconvened in Washington this week seeking a way forward on the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). Despite renewed discussions, Republican conservatives and…Read More

On March 27, 2017, the Michigan State Legislature revised the telehealth services regulations that were enacted on December 21, 2016. This revision to MCL 333.16285 goes into effect on March 29, 2017 and will allow health care professionals providing telehealth services to prescribe controlled substances. The original regulations prohibited prescription of controlled substances; however, stakeholders…Read More

On March 15, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania provided the first federal court interpretation of the writing requirements affecting several regulatory exceptions in the federal physician self-referral statute (“Stark Law”) and its implementing regulations since the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) provided sweeping revisions and clarifications to…Read More

On March 27, 2017, the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“OIG”) issued a resource guide to assist health care organizations in assessing the effectiveness of their compliance programs (“Resource Guide”). OIG developed the Resource Guide in collaboration with 30 health care compliance professionals through a collaborative effort…Read More

This is the fifth article in a series on the 21st Century Cures Act (the “Cures Act”), which was signed into law on December 13, 2016. We will continue publishing a series of articles summarizing various components under the Cures Act. The articles in our series are located here. This article highlights the opportunities created…Read More