Articles and Blogs

On August 1, 2013, bill H.R. 2957 was introduced to the House of Representatives, which would extend health information technology meaningful use incentives to behavioral health, mental health and substance abuse professionals and facilities.  The term “additional eligible professional” would be added to meaningful use legislation to cover clinical psychologists providing qualified psychologist services.  Such…Read More

Health information technology solutions that are remotely hosted or cloud based are becoming more common.  In these scenarios, a health care provider  is allowing its data – often times including protected health information (“PHI”) – to flow through or be stored in the vendor’s data center.  If PHI is involved, the parties should determine whether…Read More

Under the Meaningful Use Stage 2 Measures both Eligible Professionals and Eligible Hospitals must use Computerized Provider Order Entry (“CPOE”) for medication, laboratory and radiology orders directly entered by any licensed health care professional who can enter orders into the medical record per state, local and professional guidelines.  Previously, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services…Read More

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality updated its website to include a new tool for eligible professionals and eligible hospitals to track the meaningful use requirements.  The tool, available here, consolidates published meaningful use guidance including both the “Objectives” and the “Clinical Quality Measures.”   Users can also download and create custom reports based on selected measures.

The House of Representatives recently proposed legislation that would bundle payments for post-acute care services and create penalties for readmissions to Medicare-certified nursing homes. The proposed legislation would also reduce the annual market basket index for Skilled Nursing Services.

On August 23, 2013, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published a memorandum that addressed issues arising from incomplete, inaccurate and missing Minimum Data Set (“MDS”) Discharge Assessments that adversely affect Skilled Nursing Facilities (“SNFs”) and Nursing Facilities (“NFs”).  Under 42 C.F.R. §§ 483.20(g) and (f)(1), SNFs and NFs are required to provide…Read More

While alcoholism has long been considered an impairment, plaintiffs have had limited success establishing that alcoholism is a protected disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). However, the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act (“ADAAA”) significantly expanded the number of protected individuals under the Act. Instead of focusing on whether an individual qualifies as “disabled,”…Read More

Hall Render is pleased to announce that two of our shareholders, Gerald L. Stovall and Gregg M. Wallander, were recently named the Best Lawyers® 2014 “Lawyers of the Year” (Copyright 2013 by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, SC).  Stovall, who leads the firm’s construction law practice, was named the Best Lawyers 2014 Louisville Construction “Lawyer of the…Read More

On August 13, 2013, all nursing facilities participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs were required to be in compliance with the automatic sprinkler systems’ regulation that was published in a final rule on August 13, 2008. The regulation provided a five-year phase-in program to allow long-term care facilities (“Facilities”) to achieve compliance by the…Read More

On August 15, 2013, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) published temporary and proposed regulations that provide guidance to tax-exempt hospital organizations regarding the reporting of failures to meet the community health needs assessment (“CHNA”) requirements for any taxable year and the corresponding payment of the $50,000 excise tax (“CHNA Excise Tax Regulations”).