Articles and Blogs

On September 7, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected a defendant’s attempt to enforce an arbitration clause contained in and presented to the plaintiffs only in unsolicited emails following the plaintiffs’ alleged online enrollment in the defendant’s service.  (HYPERLINK TO OPINION)  The defendant argued that the plaintiffs assented to the…Read More

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (“ONC”) released this week a report , “The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (“ONC”) released this week a report summarizing the discussion and key findings from the Behavioral Health Roundtable held on July 24 about the adoption of health information technologies among behavioral…Read More

Introduction On July 26, 2012, with further amendment on August 14, 2012, the Department of Justice announced that its Civil Rights Division will be partnering with U.S. Attorneys’ offices across the country to make sure that people with disabilities have access to medical information in an understandable format.1 This initiative – the Barrier-Free Health Care…Read More

This Health Law News article is Part VI in a series discussing the new governance study, “Governance in Large Nonprofit Health Systems: Current Profile and Emerging Patterns.” The full Report is available here. Part I – Executive Summary was published in Hall Render’s Health Law News on August 8, 2012, Part II – Public and…Read More

Former Employee with Medical Marijuana Card Claims Freedom from Disciplinary Action. The Michigan Medical Marihuana Act (“MMMA”), enacted by referendum, permits an individual with a qualifying medical condition to use or possess a limited amount of marijuana for medicinal purposes if the patient holds a valid registration card obtained after proper physician certification.

Mark McClellan and Hall Render Discuss the Future of  Health Care Reform On Thursday, former CMS Director Mark McClellan met with Hall Render attorneys for a discussion on the future of health care reform in the United States.  Mr. McClellan, who also served as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration under President George W….Read More

On September 14, 2012, CMS published a Survey and Certification letter addressing “Hand in Hand: A Training Series for Nursing Homes.” This training is in response to Section 6121 of the Affordable Care Act, which requires that CMS ensure that nurse aides receive regular training on caring for residents with dementia and prevention of abuse.

Executive Summary On August 23, 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”) issued OIG Advisory Opinion 12-10 (the “AO”).  The OIG reviewed a proposed arrangement to provide free insurance pre-authorization services to referring physicians and concluded that while the free services potentially could be characterized as prohibited remuneration…Read More

Executive Summary This is the second in a series on Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital (“DSH”) payment issues and is designed to provide hospitals with a practical approach for determining if they want to pursue different DSH appeal issues. On September 11, 2012, CMS posted the 2010 DSH-SSI (Supplemental Security Income) ratios.  As reported previously here,…Read More

On September 17, 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced that it had reached an agreement with two health care providers who were operating as a single affiliated covered entity for purposes of HIPAA (collectively referred to as the “Providers”) to settle potential violations of the Security Rule of the Health Insurance…Read More