Articles and Blogs

 On April 3, 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (“ONC”) and the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) released their long-awaited final report on health information technology (“Health IT”), entitled Proposed Strategy and Recommendations for a Risk-Based Framework. According to the report, the degree of…Read More

Executive Summary Last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit released a decision related to Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital (“DSH”) payments that has the potential to be a significant victory for hospitals appealing the Part C Medicare Advantage Days issue.  At issue was whether such days would be included in the…Read More

President Signs Latest ‘Doc Fix’ Bill into Law On March 31, the Senate passed a one-year “patch” to the Sustainable Growth Rate (“SGR”) that avoids a statutorily imposed 23.7% Medicare pay cut to physicians that was set to occur on Tuesday. The legislation (H.R. 4302) also extends the 2-midnight rule and corresponding prohibition on certain…Read More

Executive Summary On March 27, 2014, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed two mental health laws.  2013 Wisconsin Act 158 (“Act 158”) makes various changes to Wisconsin’s statutes governing involuntary commitment and emergency detention for individuals that are a danger to themselves or others due to mental illness, drug dependency or developmental disability. The second bill,…Read More

Earlier this spring, the Indiana Court of Appeals struck down and refused to enforce certain provisions in a restrictive covenant (i.e., a noncompete) contained in an employment agreement between a central Indiana employer and a former employee. The Court determined that the scope of activity restrictions and geographic limitations in the noncompete were overly broad and…Read More

In Mitchell v. JCG Industries and Koch Foods, the plaintiffs, a class of unionized employees, alleged that their employer violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Illinois Minimum Wage Law by failing to pay them for time spent donning and doffing protective and sanitary clothing at the beginning and end of their lunch…Read More

On March 25, 2014, the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling in United States v. Quality Stores, Inc., et al., holding in an 8-0 decision that severance payments made to employees involuntarily terminated from employment are generally considered taxable wages under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (“FICA”).  The decision overturns an earlier ruling by…Read More

House Passes One-Year ‘Doc Fix’ On March 27, the House passed a one-year “patch” to the Sustainable Growth Rate (“SGR”) that averts a 23.7% cut to Medicare physician payment rates scheduled to start on April 1.  The House bill (H.R. 4302) also includes Medicare extenders, such as the Low Volume Hospital adjustment and outpatient therapy caps and some policies that…Read More

Executive Summary On March 10, 2014, CMS announced in a letter to Congress that it plans to withdraw certain controversial provisions of its omnibus-type proposed rule on policy and technical changes to the Medicare Advantage Program (“Part C”) and Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Program (“Part D”).  Following the proposed rule’s publication on January 10, 2014, CMS received…Read More

CBO Scores Chairman Wyden’s SGR Bill On March 19, the Congressional Budget Office (“CBO”) announced that the SGR repeal bill (S. 2110) being advanced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden will cost $180.2 billion over an 11-year period from 2014-2024. The estimate includes the cost of permanently extending several Medicare programs, such as the Low Volume…Read More