Articles and Blogs

Three NLRB Members Not Valid Recess Appointments As we predicted last year, President Obama’s three recess appointments to the NLRB faced a significant constitutional legal challenge.  On January 25, 2012, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in a unanimous opinion ruled that the president’s recess appointments to the NLRB in 2012…Read More

House Passes Bill to Suspend Debt Ceiling On January 23, the House passed a bill that would suspend the debt ceiling and allow the federal government to keep borrowing money until May 17. Both the Senate and the White House have indicated they will not block the House-passed measure. Notably, the bill (H.R. 325) requires the…Read More

Executive Summary The recently passed American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (“Act”) contains a provision that extends the recovery period for the collection of certain Medicare overpayments. Specifically, Section 638 of the Act amends Section 1870 of the Social Security Act (“SSA”) to extend the recovery period for “without fault” overpayments from three years to five…Read More

A recent Court of Appeals of Indiana decision limits future defendants from using Indiana’s Medical Malpractice Act’s statute of limitations to dismiss plaintiffs’ claims. If a plaintiff sends her complaint to the Indiana Department of Insurance within the two-year statute of limitations, but fails to provide the fee until after the two-year window has passed,…Read More

A recent federal court opinioncourt opinion highlights the need for employers to evaluate employee requests for reasonable accommodation on an individualized basis – even where, at first glance, an effective accommodation may not be readily apparent.  The ADA is, after all, intended to overcome employment decisions based on stereotypes. A Deaf Applicant Seeks a Lifeguard Job…Read More

The U.S. Supreme Court has eliminated the possibility of a provider trying to claim additional Medicare cost report reimbursement under the legal theory of equitable tolling in its opinion published today: Sebelius v. Auburn Regional Medical Center (“Auburn”).  The result of this opinion places even more importance on ensuring providers adhere to the statutorily imposed…Read More

The FMLA requires employers with 50 or more employees to grant up to 12 weeks of leave for, among other things, time off that is needed to care for an adult son or daughter over the age of 18 who is “incapable of self-care because of a disability.”  Ever since the Americans with Disabilities Act…Read More

Over the past three years, we have reported on how the NLRB has focused on numerous employer policies and practices that it found to be unlawfully overbroad. The NLRB reasoned that the overbroad policies could lead an employee to reasonably conclude that the employer’s policy or practice interfered with the employee’s protected right to engage…Read More

MedPAC Clarifies Position on Payment Update Late last week, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (“MedPAC”) reiterated its support for a 1% hospital payment update in FY 2014.  The commission that advises Congress on Medicare payment issues had been considering proposals that, if adopted, would have resulted in a negative payment update for hospitals following the…Read More

On January 17, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced the issuance of the final rule (the “Rule”) arising from the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (“HITECH”).  The Rule is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on January 25, 2013.