Articles and Blogs

Discrimination Laws Don’t Apply to Religious “Ministers” In the realm of employment law, the “ministerial exception” prohibits the application of federal anti-discrimination laws to claims concerning the employment relationship between a religious institution and its ministers.  Exactly who qualifies as a minister under the ministerial exception is being determined by the courts on a case-by-case…Read More

The hospital industry is consolidating.  Dramatic changes in health law, an increasing squeeze on hospital reimbursement, large capital costs required to provide sufficient information technology support and, in many cases, aging physical plants are factors motivating hospitals to consider affiliating with other hospital systems or entities.

The uncertainty regarding the change in federal gift and estate tax laws and the importance of year end gifts are addressed in this inaugural issue of Hall Render’s Estate Planning Insights audio series. Please join Doug Long, Shareholder at Hall, Render, Killian, Heath and Lyman, for this brief discussion by clicking here. Should you have…Read More

The uncertainty regarding the change in federal gift and estate tax laws and the importance of year end gifts are addressed in this inaugural issue of Hall Render’s Estate Planning Insights audio series.  Please join Doug Long, Shareholder at Hall, Render, Killian, Heath and Lyman, for this brief discussion by clicking here. Should you have any questions regarding this…Read More

Job Assignment Leads to Panic and Anxiety A long-term care employer fired a nurse for “patient abandonment” after the nurse went to the Human Resources Department in a state of panic because she was going to be assigned to a unit for which she had not been trained.  Her supervisor had told her that she…Read More

Introduction On October 23, 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (the “OIG”) issued Advisory Opinion 12-15 addressing a hospital’s arrangement to pay a per diem fee to physicians in exchange for providing on-call coverage at the hospital’s emergency department (“ED”). The OIG found that the arrangement could implicate the…Read More

The Court Turns the Tide of the Epidemic For several years now there has been a veritable epidemic of class and collective actions filed against employers claiming that employees were not paid for working through their meal periods.  These cases arose frequently where employees were subject to automatic meal period deductions of 30 minutes or…Read More

States Get More Time to Decide on Exchange In response to criticism from Republican governors, HHS moved back the deadline for states to declare whether they will set up their own health insurance exchanges or adopt the federal model. The deadline to file letters of intent is now December 14, 2012. While states must follow…Read More

On Monday, November 5, 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that it had reached a settlement with a Missouri-based health system (“System”) arising from financial relationships between the System and some of its employed physicians.  Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the System agreed to pay more than $9.3 million to settle…Read More

After an election that saw President Obama cruise to victory and Congressman Pete Stark lose his seat in Congress after 40 years, the Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”) will live on, though not without some changes.  Focus also shifts to the states and Congress, which must address numerous health care-related issues when it returns for the…Read More