Articles and Blogs

On October 3, 2016, the Department of Justice announced that it had reached a settlement agreement with a health care services company based in Dallas, Texas (the “Company”) and two of its Atlanta-area subsidiaries (“Hospitals”) (collectively, the “Parties”) to settle a case originally brought by a whistleblower under the False Claims Act. As part of the settlement,…Read More

Review of Changes to Sections on Quality of Life, Quality of Care, Physician Services, Nursing Services, Behavioral Health Services and Pharmacy Services This is the second 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 by…Read More

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia recently found in favor of a hospital that challenged CMS’s outlier reconciliation process. The District Court in Clarian Health West v. Burwell1 stated the outlier reconciliation process violated the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) because CMS should have allowed for notice and comment prior to starting the…Read More

Review of Changes to Sections on Resident Rights, Freedom from Abuse, Admission, Transfers, Discharge, Resident Assessments and Comprehensive Resident-Centered Care This is the first 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 by the Centers…Read More

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) recently issued Advisory Opinion 16-09, which provided a favorable opinion of a company’s (“Requestor’s”) proposal to provide physician offices with a computerized point-of-care vaccine storage and dispensing system free of charge, subject to certain other requirements (“Arrangement”). OIG stated it would not impose…Read More

To transfer personal data from the European Union (“EU”) to the United States (“US”), a legal basis for the transfer must exist. The EU and the US have agreed to new principles, referred to as Privacy Shield Principles (“Privacy Shield” or “Principles”), that will permit the transfer of personal data between the US and the…Read More

September 30, 2016 CMS Releases Final Rule for Long-Term Care Facilities On September 28, CMS released a final rule that overhauls the federal regulations that apply to long-term care facilities and creates new compliance obligations for providers. The measure, which goes into effect November 28, 2016, will implement the new regulations in three phases over the…Read More

On September 28, 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released a complete overhaul of Part 483 to Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations, the Requirements for States and Long-Term Care Facilities. CMS’s Final Regulations (the “Final Regulations”) cover many regulatory requirements for long-term care facilities (“Facilities”) and create new compliance…Read More

On September 14, 2016, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) of the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) issued a list of Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) addressing the language tagline requirements imposed by Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). Along with the FAQs, OCR also released a list of the top 15…Read More

On Friday, September 23, 2016, the EEOC filed a lawsuit against a Pennsylvania health system for allegedly firing six employees who refused flu vaccines. The complaint brings Title VII claims for failure to accommodate sincerely held religious beliefs. Generally, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits most employers from discriminating against employees on the…Read More