Articles and Blogs

Recently, there have been several significant changes to Medicare’s therapy caps that will be effective on October 1, 2012.  Many of these changes are due to the enactment of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (the “Act”).  This article summarizes these changes to the therapy caps and the exception processes.

MedPAC Debates Hospital Readmissions; Necessity of Geographic Adjustments for Physicians On September 6-7, Congress’s Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (“MedPAC”) held a meeting to discuss the hospital readmissions policy as well as the necessity of geographic adjustments for physicians. The MedPAC findings stated the readmissions policy is headed in the right direction but could be refined through maintaining or…Read More

On August 10, 2012, the Indiana Court of Appeals issued its opinion in Houser v. Kaufman and held that a woman could continue her claim against the physician who delivered her 35 years before she filed her claim. Stacy Kaufman filed a proposed medical malpractice claim against the estate of anonymous physician Dr. K in…Read More

This Health Law News article is Part III in a series discussing the new governance study, “Governance in Large Nonprofit Health Systems:  Current Profile and Emerging Patterns.”  Part 1 – Executive Summary was published in Hall Render’s Health Law News on August 8, 2012, and Part II – Public and Private Scrutiny of Hospital and Health…Read More

Hall Render Meets with Stark Staff on Stark Law Reform Hall Render attorneys Gregg Wallander, John Williams and Andrew Coats met with several congressional staff members this week to discuss changes to the penalty provisions of the Stark Law.  Those meetings included discussions with staff from the Senate Finance Committee, the House Ways and Means…Read More

Unemployment compensation and “Just Cause” for discharge – a really good decision for Indiana employers Today, August 31, 2012, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in favor of an employer who had discharged an employee for poor performance.  The Indiana Department of Workforce Development had previously awarded the employee unemployment compensation because the employer had failed to…Read More

Automatic meal period deductions – A common practice Some good news for employers.  In an important victory for employers, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Frye v. Baptist Memorial Hospital, recently affirmed the decision of the Western District of Tennessee to decertify a collective action brought under the FLSA challenging an…Read More

On May 30, 2012, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced the Partnership to Improve Dementia Care in Nursing Homes (Partnership) in order to transform the current focus of treatments and services provided to nursing home residents suffering from dementia and dementia-related illnesses. More specifically, this initiative promotes two goals: (1) resident-centered care;…Read More

This Health Law News article is Part II in a series discussing the new governance study, “Governance in Large Nonprofit Health Systems:  Current Profile and Emerging Patterns.”  Part 1 – Executive Summary was published in Hall Render’s Health Law News on August 8, 2012.  The remaining articles in this series will cover governance benchmarks, key findings and the potential significance…Read More

A common scenario – Extending health insurance coverage It is not uncommon for employers to provide continued health plan coverage for employees on non-FMLA leaves or in connection with severance packages.  However, those employers should be certain that the terms of their group health plan provide for such coverage, otherwise the employer could be liable…Read More