Articles and Blogs

Senate Passes, President Signs SGR Replacement Legislation On Thursday, April 16, President Obama signed H.R. 2, the SGR repeal and replacement bill, into law.  The President’s signing ceremony comes two days after the U.S. Senate passed the SGR replacement legislation by a 92-8 vote.  The measure, which repeals the sustainable growth rate formula for paying…Read More

The Journal of the American Medical Association recently reported data breaches have affected 29 million medical records. Of that number, approximately 60 percent of the breaches between 2010 and 2013 resulted directly from theft. These statistics reported by JAMA should leave many hospital administrators nervous about the possibility of future data breaches. A hospital’s failure…Read More

In WI v. Going Places Travel Corp., Nos. 2014AP1859-62 (April 14, 2015), the Wisconsin Court of Appeals affirmed a $3.8 million restitution order and nearly $842,000 in forfeitures against companies (“Travel Services”) stemming from multiple misrepresentations and failures to disclose required information when selling travel club memberships to Wisconsin residents. In this case, Travel Services…Read More

Hospital organizations that are tax exempt pursuant to Code Section 501(c)(3) can face significant penalties for failures to comply with Code Section 501(r) and the related final regulations.  Fortunately, in drafting the final regulations, the IRS and Treasury Department acknowledged that even the most diligent hospital organizations may experience unintentional failures due to the detailed…Read More

Last week, the U. S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) issued an updated version of its publication, “Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Healthcare and Social Service Workers” (the “Guidelines”). This technical assistance manual was first issued in 1996 and then revised in 2004. The Guidelines are identified by the agency…Read More

On March 20, 2015, Governor John Hickenlooper signed House Bill 15-1029 into law, expanding coverage for telehealth by requiring health insurers to provide reimbursement for telehealth services at the same level as in-person services in urban as well as rural areas beginning in 2017.  Previously, Colorado law only required reimbursement for telehealth services provided to…Read More

Executive Summary April 16, 2015 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. 

Conservatives Make Late Push for Fully Paid SGR Deal Conservative senators are pushing to strike a provision in legislation to repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate (“SGR”) and pressure Congress to pay for the remaining $141 billion of the doc fix deal’s cost later this year.  Sens. Ben Sasse (R-NE), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Mike Lee (R-UT),…Read More

Despite Lack of Senate Action, Medicare Physicians Won’t Face Pay Cut Late last week, the Senate recessed for its Easter break without taking action on legislation to permanently repeal and replace the Sustainable Growth Rate (“SGR”).  The House had passed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (H.R. 2), known as the SGR replacement, on…Read More

In Bank of New York Mellon v. Carson, 2015 WI 2015 (Feb. 17, 2015), the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that Wis. Stat. § 846.102, the statute governing the foreclosure of abandoned properties, authorizes circuit courts to compel mortgagees to bring an abandoned property to sale after the expiration of the five-week redemption period. The court…Read More