Articles and Blogs

Executive Summary On January 31, 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) released its Work Plan for Fiscal Year 2014 (“Plan”).  The Plan provides insight into the OIG’s potential audit and enforcement activities for the next fiscal year.  While the Plan addresses several different provider types, this article addresses…Read More

2-Midnight Rule Enforcement Delayed Until October 1, 2014 On January 31, 2014, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced another delay in enforcement of the 2-Midnight Rule, now pushed back to October 1, 2014.  The delay provides additional time for CMS to educate hospitals on how to implement the 2-Midnight Rule, which has raised…Read More

Under the Breach Notification Rule, HIPAA covered entities are required to submit reports of certain breaches of unsecured protected health information (“PHI”) affecting fewer than 500 individuals to the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) on an annual basis.  No later than March 1, 2014, covered entities must submit their breaches electronically through OCR’s breach notification…Read More

Senate Extends Medicare Sequester Cuts On February 12, the Senate passed military pension legislation that is paid for by an extension of the 2% Medicare sequester cuts to 2024. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the one-year extension will create $8.3 billion in savings. The legislation sets aside $2.3 billion of the savings as a “down…Read More

Union Fines Its Members for Crossing Picket Line When an employee joins a union, he or she becomes subject to the union’s bylaws and rules.  When those rules provide for fines and penalties for crossing a picket line, the result can be very costly for the employee who has not resigned from the union.  A…Read More

“Your leadership style is not in accordance with company practices.” This is what an HR Director was told when he was terminated after his company learned that he was “stressing out” two of his assistant HR managers.  The tense work environment that he created caused both managers to seek counseling and each had begun looking…Read More

The Meaningful Use Workgroup provided its recommendations on Meaningful Use Stage 3 to the Health IT Policy Committee on February 4.  Stage 3 would focus on improving outcomes.  Further discussion of the recommendations will be held on February 14.  The proposed timeline sets proposed rulemaking for fall 2014 and final rulemaking for the first half of 2015.  Stage…Read More

Executive Summary On February 6, 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published a final rule amending the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (“CLIA”) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) to provide patients with the right to access test reports directly from clinical laboratories subject to HIPAA. …Read More

“Your leadership style is not in accordance with company practices.” This is what an HR Director was told when he was terminated after his company learned that he was “stressing out” two of his assistant HR managers.  The tense work environment that he created caused both managers to seek counseling and each had begun looking…Read More

Effective January 31, 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) has issued a temporary moratoria for the enrollment of home health agencies in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Detroit, Michigan; Dallas, Texas; and Houston, Texas.  CMS also announced it is extending the current enrollment moratoria in Chicago, Illinois and Miami, Florida for another six months. …Read More