Articles and Blogs

Ways and Means Committee Urges CMS to Delay CLFS Implementation On March 29, 26 members of the House Ways and Means Committee sent a letter to CMS urging the agency to delay its implementation of the new Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (“CLFS”), which changes the way that clinical laboratory tests are paid for under Medicare….Read More

On March 11, 2016, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) published a final rule amending the optional practical training (“OPT”) extension available to F-1 international students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (“STEM”) fields engaged in a standard 12-month period of OPT. Significantly, beginning May 10, 2016, the STEM OPT extension period will be lengthened…Read More

On March 18, 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) issued a Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain (i.e., pain lasting longer than three months or past the time of normal tissue healing) geared toward primary care physicians (“CDC Recommendations”). The CDC Recommendations do not apply to prescribing practices for active cancer,…Read More

On March 29, 2016, President Obama will announce additional private and public sector actions to fight the national opioid epidemic. The president, who is speaking this afternoon at the National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit in Atlanta, Georgia, will announce the following health care-related administrative actions being taken to combat the opioid epidemic that kills…Read More

Don’t Ignore the Importance of Business Associate Agreements! On March 16, 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) entered into a $1.55 million settlement with a Minnesota health system for failure to have a business associate agreement (“BAA”) with a third party contractor and failure to implement an organization-wide risk analysis to…Read More

This week, Governor Mike Pence signed into law a measure that will enable the expanded use of telemedicine in Indiana by permitting prescriptions for certain drugs and devices to be issued during remote patient visits. House Enrolled Act (“HEA”) 1263, authored by Rep. Cindy Kirchhofer (R-Beech Grove), will override the current law that prevents prescribing…Read More

Legislation to Delay Bundled Payments Program Introduced On March 23, Rep. Tom Price, M.D., (R-GA) introduced a bill (H.R. 4848) that would delay the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (“CJR”) program set to go into effect next week. The bundled payment program, which CMS finalized via administrative rule in November, requires hospitals in nearly 70…Read More

The HHS Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced on March 21, 2016 that it has begun its next phase of audits of covered entities and business associates. The 2016 audit process begins with verification of an entity’s address and contact information. Emails are being sent to covered entities and business associates requesting that contact information…Read More

On January 7, 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) released new guidance clarifying an individual’s right to access his or her medical record under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”). On February 25, 2016, OCR released additional guidance explaining the permissible reasonable cost-based fees…Read More

The Indiana Court of Appeals in ESPN Inc. and Paula Lavigne v. University of Notre Dame et al. held the campus police department at Notre Dame, a private university, was subject to the Indiana Access to Public Records Act (“APRA”).  ESPN and Ms. Lavigne filed a complaint against the University’s Police Department alleging it was…Read More