Articles and Blogs

Senate Committee Urged to Reform Stark Law On July 12, the Senate Finance Committee heard from hospital stakeholders on various options to reform the Stark Law. Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said he would like to undo what he sees as the law’s “outdated regulations.” Hatch also stated he would like the committee to do “something”…Read More

In late 2015, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), riding a wave of victories, challenged three separate hospital mergers in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Huntington, West Virginia; and Chicago, Illinois (for more information on these challenges, see our previous coverage here). Six months later, the FTC’s winning streak has effectively come to an end after suffering at least…Read More

Overruling a precedent established in 2004, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has ruled that workers supplied by temporary employment staffing agencies to other employers may be included in a bargaining unit with the employees who are employed only by the other employer.  Until this ruling, a union’s representation of the employees of the “supplier”…Read More

On July 6, 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued its much anticipated proposed rule for the CY 2017 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (“Proposed Rule”). Among many other changes, the Proposed Rule addressed the implementation of Section 603 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (“Section 603”), which excludes many off-campus…Read More

CMS Releases Proposed Payment Changes for OPPS and ASC Payment System On July 6, CMS issued its annual proposal for updating payment rates and policies in the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (“OPPS”) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (“ASC”) payment system. The proposed rule would also implement Section 603 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015,…Read More

On June 23, 2016, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in a 5-2 opinion that the City of Milwaukee can no longer enforce a requirement that police, firefighters, teachers and other public workers maintain bona fide residence within the city boundaries. The ruling reverses the state appeals court’s decision that a 2013 state law, Wis. Stat….Read More

On June 23, 2016, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a decision enforcing the three-year statute of limitations in a medical malpractice action. What makes this otherwise routine decision noteworthy is its exceedingly rare context: sexual assault of minors by a family physician. Though the legal issue before the court was the application of the statute…Read More

On May 11, 2016, President Barack Obama signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (“DTSA”)1 into law. The DTSA’s stated purpose is to bring trade secrets disputes into the federal courts, changing the system under which trade secret law was governed mostly by state law. As part of the DTSA, employers who wish to…Read More

On May 17, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced the details of its final rule under the Fair Labor Standards Act, establishing new salary thresholds for millions of traditionally exempt white collar employees. These changes will significantly impact many employers’ budgets in coming months, although not by as much or as soon as the…Read More

In June, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”) issued a report addressing, in part, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (“CMS”) oversight of provider-based billing. This report was based on OIG’s survey and review of provider-based practices over the last several years. In the report, OIG identified…Read More