Articles and Blogs

Executive Summary The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) is a major litigation risk for hospitals and health care providers who use text messages, artificial or pre-recorded voice messages and other automated dialing technologies to reach patients.  Hundreds of class action lawsuits have been filed in recent years seeking damages that amount to millions of dollars…Read More

NLRB Throws in the Towel Yesterday, the NLRB announced that it has decided not to seek Supreme Court review of two U.S. Court of Appeals decisions invalidating the NLRB’s Notice Posting Rule, which would have required most private sector employers to post a notice of employee rights in the workplace.  We have written about the…Read More

On December 26, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced that it reached a settlement with a Massachusetts dermatology practice (“Physician Practice”) stemming from alleged violations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) Privacy Rule. The settlement follows an investigation by the HHS Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) upon receiving…Read More

Executive Summary On December 27, 2013, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) and Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) published final rules that amend regulations commonly known as the “EHR Donation Regulations.”  The EHR Donation Regulations consist of an exception to the physician self-referral law (Stark) (42 CFR 411.357(w)) and a safe harbor to…Read More

Regulations to extend the exception from the Stark Law and safe harbor from the Anti-Kickback Statute for the donation of electronic health records (“EHRs”) have been cleared by the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) and will be published on December 27.  The relevant provisions of the amendments are: (1) the exception/safe harbor for EHR…Read More

Bipartisan Stark Law Correction Bill Introduced On Monday, Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) and Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) introduced H.R. 3776, a bill to correct the disproportionate penalties a hospital can incur under the Stark Law for having an unwritten, unsigned or lapsed agreement that is otherwise compliant with federal fraud and abuse law. The Hall…Read More

Windows and Sinks and Employee Complaints  Employees have a right to complain about a lot of things, including windows and sinks.  When they join together to complain, an employer needs to make sure that those complaints are not factors in the decision to fire the complaining employees.  In this NLRB case, a hospital fired a CT…Read More

Master Financing Agreements are a great financing tool for everyone considering tax-exempt financing and are now available in Indiana.  On December 19, 2013, the Indiana Finance Authority (the “IFA”) authorized a turn-key Master Financing Agreement program (the “MFA Program”).  MFA Programs are also available in other states and in some cases may be implemented with local…Read More