Articles and Blogs

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

Employers covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act are required to reasonably accommodate the religious practices of employees as long as it doesn’t create an undue hardship on the employer’s operations.  Determining whether to accommodate (and how to accommodate) an employee or applicant’s request for a religious exception can be challenging, particularly when…Read More

If you conduct background checks on applicants or employees, then you are probably aware that there are several laws that regulate the use of background checks for employment purposes.  Specifically, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) enforces the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), a federal law that imposes obligations on employers who use third parties to…Read More

An Important Update on the 2-Midnight Rule CMS continues to provide frequent updates on its “2-midnight rule,” which establishes a benchmark and a presumption that an inpatient admission is generally appropriate and payable under Medicare Part A if the admitting physician expects a Medicare beneficiary to require a stay that crosses at least 2 midnights, and…Read More

SGR Repeal Passes House but DOA in Senate On Friday, the House voted to permanently repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate (“SGR”) formula.  The Republican proposal (H.R. 4015), which was supported by 12 Democrats, pays for replacement of the Medicare physician payment formula by delaying enforcement of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate penalties for five…Read More

On March 7, 2014, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced that it reached a settlement with a county in Washington state (the “County”) stemming from alleged violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules.  The settlement comes after the County reported a breach…Read More

HHS Releases FY 2015 Budget On March 4, HHS released its fiscal year 2015 budget as part of the Obama Administration’s overall budget request to Congress.  The HHS portion of the request is $77.1 billion, which is $3 billion less than what was requested last year. 

The OFCCP recently published regulations that significantly revise the affirmative action requirements for qualified individuals with disabilities (“IWDs”) and protected veterans.  The new regulations, which apply to covered federal contractors, become effective on March 24, 2014.