Articles and Blogs

Executive Summary Under the federal Stark Law, hospitals may provide non-monetary compensation to physicians up to an aggregate amount of $385 for calendar year 2014.  The dollar limit for “medical staff incidental benefits” (e.g., meals, parking, other items or incidental services that are used on the hospital’s campus) remains at less than $32 per occurrence. …Read More

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (“ONC”) has announced a webinar regarding the proposed regulatory timeline for electronic health record (“EHR”) certification criteria for 2015.  The webinar will take place on Wednesday, December 18 at 4:30 PM and is scheduled to last 30 minutes.  You can register here. If you have…Read More

Executive Summary On November 15, 2013, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals released an unpublished opinion affirming Summary Judgment in favor of St. Mary Mercy Hospital in the case Brintley v. St. Mary Mercy et al. (No. 12-2616).  The court held that Dr. LaCesha Brintley was not an employee of the hospital and therefore had no…Read More

Fast Food Workers Strike for Higher Pay Earlier this month, in 100 cities around the country, fast food workers went on strike for higher pay – much higher pay – seeking $15 an hour or a “living wage” as some describe it.  Although the job action got much media attention, there is no real indication…Read More

CMS recently issued Advisory Opinion 2013-03 (“Opinion”), clarifying that a physician-owned hospital may add unlicensed observation beds without violating the limitation on expansion.1   

The OFCCP is hosting a series of webinars designed to help federal contractors understand and implement its newly published regulations regarding affirmative action for individuals with disabilities and certain protected veterans.  These new regulations, which become effective on March 24, 2014, significantly change the affirmative action obligations related to individuals with disabilities and certain protected…Read More

House to Introduce Hall Render-Drafted Bipartisan Stark Law Legislation Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) and Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) have announced that they will introduce legislation to correct the disproportionate penalties a hospital can incur for technical violations of the Stark Law. The legislation, which will be formally introduced on Monday, December 16, was drafted by Hall,…Read More

Last night the House passed, as part of the Ryan-Murray budget, a three-month patch to the Sustainable Growth Rate (“SGR”) formula that includes policy changes that significantly impact long-term care hospitals (“LTCHs”). The current SGR patch expires December 31, and this proposed legislation, titled the Pathway for SGR Reform Act of 2013 (the “Act”), is expected to pass…Read More

CMS has indicated that it intends to extend Stage 2 of meaningful use attestation under the Medicare/Medicaid Electronic Health Record (“EHR”) Incentive Program.  In a recent blog post, CMS states that the new or modified Stage 3 requirements for becoming a meaningful user of a certified EHR technology will not be effective until 2017 for…Read More

The FCC has opened the comment period on three Rural Health Care Program participants’ appeals of Universal Service Administrative Company decisions denying Healthcare Connect Fund (“HCF”) support for Illinois Rural HealthNet, Colorado Telehealth Network and Oregon Health Network (see our previous blog post on the subject). At issue is whether health care provider service locations that are urban, but…Read More