Articles and Blogs

Indiana health care providers involved in prenatal care need to be aware of recent Senate Bill 186 that was signed into law by Governor Mike Pence on March 21, 2016. The new law amends the Indiana Code on health professions standards of practice to clarify that licensed physicians, physician assistants, midwives and advanced practice nurses…Read More

On Friday, March 18, 2016, CMS released a memo entitled “Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) – Implementation of required electronic submission of Staffing Data for Long Term Care (LTC) Facilities.” The memo reminds LTC providers that the mandatory PBJ submission period begins July 1, 2016. The memo also contains information on how to register for PBJ reporting and how…Read More

For over five years, the U.S. Department of Labor has been pondering the issuance of new rules governing “persuader” activities. On  March 24, 2016, the new Persuader Rule was officially published in the Federal Register, is set to become effective on April 25, 2016 and applies to all arrangements, agreements and payments made on or after July…Read More

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