Articles and Blogs

By now private employers should be well aware that employees who openly criticize management and refuse to obey instructions will often be found to be engaging in lawful, protected activity by the NLRB. Another very recent decision by the NLRB brings home that point again – even where no union is involved.

The Fourth District of the Appellate Court of Illinois reaffirmed that claims by a physician that a hospital’s failure to renew his privileges caused actual and intentional harm to his professional reputation are barred by the Illinois’s Hospital Licensing Act. Only claims alleging an actual or deliberate intention to physically harm the physician or others trump a hospital’s immunity…Read More

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals¹ became the third federal appeals court in one week to issue an opinion regarding the False Claims Act’s Public Disclosure Bar.² In a non-precedential opinion, the Third Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a pharmacist’s allegations finding the allegations were based on public information for which the Relator was not the…Read More

The Fourth District of the Appellate Court of Illinois reaffirmed that claims by a physician that a hospital’s failure to renew his privileges caused actual and intentional harm to his professional reputation are barred by the Illinois’s Hospital Licensing Act. Only claims alleging an actual or deliberate intention to physically harm the physician or others trump a hospital’s immunity…Read More

Providing notice to employees utilizing FMLA can be difficult. Unfortunately, it’s only getting worse. A federal court recently decided  the issue of whether an employer, by informing an employee of the FMLA recertification requirement via email, gave proper notice. Although the employer previously sent FMLA notices to the employee via email, the court found that…Read More

Earlier today, at an annual meeting of tax professionals, Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) TE/GE Commissioner Sunita Lough remarked that the IRS recently completed and provided Congress a report on the activities of tax-exempt and other hospitals. Under Internal Revenue Code Section 4959, the Treasury Department or its designee must review the community benefit activities of every Code Section 501(c)(3) hospital at least once…Read More

House Ways and Means Committee Advances Medicare Program Integrity Bill On Thursday, February 26, the House Ways and Means Committee approved four bills, including a broad Medicare anti-fraud bill and a measure that would require hospitals to notify patients when they are considered to be under observation status.  The anti-fraud bill (H.R. 1021) was introduced…Read More

Today the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals joined several other Circuit Courts in finding that an administrative review, and even a repayment to the appropriate government oversight entity, did not qualify as a “public disclosure” under the False Claims Act’s public disclosure bar.

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) recently issued Advisory Opinion 15-01,1 which provided a favorable opinion of an arrangement that offered Medicaid beneficiaries free diapers and playpens if the beneficiaries chose a provider’s program for the state’s Maternal Infant Health Program (“Arrangement”). OIG found that the Arrangement did not…Read More

Executive Summary On November 20, 2014, President Obama announced the Immigration Accountability Executive Action, a series of steps directed toward reforming the United States immigration system.   As part of these initiatives, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) Director León Rodríguez announced yesterday that the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) is extending eligibility for employment…Read More