Articles and Blogs

On April 5, 2016, a district court in Massachusetts dismissed a Title VII case against a hospital where the employee was terminated for refusing vaccinations on religious grounds. Robinson v. Children’s Hospital Boston, 2016 WL 1337255. While this order is not binding precedent, we wanted to report on this case because vaccination refusal is an…Read More

On April 18, 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released its Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System and Long Term Acute Care Hospital Proposed Rule Issues for Fiscal Year 2017, which are set to be published on April 27, 2016. CMS included a proposed rule for implementing the Notice of Observation Treatment and…Read More

CMS Releases IPPS and LTCH Proposed Payment Rule that Ends Negative Payment Impact from Two-Midnight Policy On April 18, CMS issued its proposed payment rule covering inpatient hospital stays and long-term acute care hospitals. The inpatient hospital measure would increase rates by 0.85 percent in FY 2017, compared to FY 2016, after accounting for inflation…Read More

This week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced that it is extending participation in the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (“BPCI”) initiative through September 30, 2018. Awardees in the BPCI initiative can now extend their participation in Models 2, 3 and 4 until that date. Originally, awardees that began in October 2013…Read More

In the proposed Inpatient Prospective Payment System (“IPPS”) rule for FFY 2017, hospitals will benefit from the restoration of payments CMS has taken away from hospitals since FFY 2014, related to implementation of the Two-Midnight Rule that redefined the definition of inpatient admissions. Not only will there be no 0.2 percent decrease in IPPS payments in…Read More

On April 15, 2016, the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) issued three important draft guidance documents that clarify the standards under Sections 503A and 503B of the federal Food Drug & Cosmetic Act (“the Act”) applicable to compounding activities carried out by prescription drug compounders. These compounders include hospital pharmacies, non-hospital pharmacies (including retail pharmacies)…Read More

Secondary Payer Refunds, Overpayments and Obligations CMS’s new rule regarding the reporting and returning of Medicare overpayments (effective March 14, 2016) makes clear that secondary payer refunds owed by health care providers to Medicare may become overpayments for purposes of the new rule. Without sufficient oversight, such overpayments may expose a health care provider to liability…Read More

Executive Summary April 16, 2016 is National Healthcare Decisions Day. The goal of the day is to encourage Americans to think and talk about their health care goals and communicate their health care decisions by executing advance health care directives. Background Studies indicate that most Americans have not executed documents that name a health care…Read More

In a continuation of legal challenges to seemingly appropriate employer conduct rules, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”), on April 13, 2016, issued another decision that will make employers even more nervous about the legality of their rules that are intended to assure “harmonious interactions and relationships.” Indeed, the NLRB in a 2-to-1 decision, over…Read More

Senators Call on CMS to Delay Star Ratings for Overall Hospital Quality On April 11, 60 senators sent a letter to CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt urging the agency to delay the release of the overall hospital quality star ratings to provide more time to analyze the methodology of the star ratings, examine its impact…Read More