Articles and Blogs

OFCCP continued its courtesy of providing advance notice to companies it plans to schedule for affirmative action compliance reviews.  OFCCP mailed the notices, known as Corporate Scheduling Announcement Letters (“CSALs”), on March 27, 2013.  Consistent with its recent practice, the notices are addressed to the “Human Resource Director” at local establishments as opposed to the…Read More

Often times when an employee is at home while on an approved FMLA leave, work-related questions will arise that only the employee can answer.  So, the manager or a co-worker will call the employee at home and get the answer.  Usually that’s not a problem – but it could be depending on how often the…Read More

By Drew B. Howk In U.S. v. Anchor Mortgage Corp., the Seventh Circuit held that treble damage calculations under the FCA must be calculated from the net losses, rather than the gross losses, suffered by the Government. For defendants in FCA litigation, this decision not only affects the potential damages for an adverse judgment but also the relative…Read More

By David B. Honig and Andrew B. Howk In U.S. v. MedQuest, the Sixth Circuit held that violations by a provider of conditions of participation in Medicare were insufficient as a matter of law to “trigger the hefty fines and penalties created by the FCA.” This case was a reaffirmation by the Sixth Circuit that…Read More

Senate Passes FY 2014 Budget Resolution On March 23, the U.S. Senate voted 50-49 to pass a fiscal year 2014 budget resolution that would reduce Medicare spending by $275 billion over 10 years but does not include structural entitlement reforms.  The $275 billion in cuts to Medicare were unspecified reductions aimed at cutting waste and…Read More

Following the recent CMS Administrator’s Ruling CMS-1455-R, CMS issued a Program Transmittal with claims processing instructions related to the rebilling of denied inpatient claims under the interim rebilling policy.  A corresponding article intended for hospitals was released on March 22, 2013 and can be found on the CMS website here.

On March 12, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) published new guidance detailing how advertising disclosures should be made online.  Disclosures are necessary to qualify or limit advertising claims that would otherwise be deceptive, unfair or give misleading impressions.

Executive Summary On March 26, 2013, the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) released a special fraud alert (“Alert”) regarding physician-owned distributorships (“PODs”). PODs are entities that sell, or arrange for the sale of, implantable medical devices that may be used by the physician-owners or others for procedures on patients in hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (“ASCs”). The…Read More

What Employers Need to Know about the Fair Credit Reporting Act If you use a third party to conduct background checks, then you have probably heard of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”).  The FCRA is a federal law that imposes several very specific obligations on employers who use third parties to conduct background and…Read More

Congress Avoids Government Shutdown, Continues Work on Budget On March 20, the U.S. Senate approved a $984 billion continuing resolution (“CR”) that will fund the government through September 30, 2013, the end of the 2013 Fiscal Year.  The bill is similar to the bill that passed the House earlier in the week and is expected…Read More