Articles and Blogs

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

On Wednesday (September 19) from 1 – 2:30 EDT, the National eHealth Collaborative University will host a free program focused on the challenges of authentication and user identification, as well as patient privacy, the role of EHRs and HIEs in providing consistent medical care, and the implications for data security and privacy. Please visit here to…Read More

This Health Law News article is Part V 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

White House Set to Release Sequestration Report On September 14, the White House was set to release a report detailing how funding for federal programs would be cut were sequestration to go forward on January 2, 2013.  However, as of press time, it had not been released.  The report was statutorily required under the Sequestration Transparency…Read More

Executive Summary The Drug Enforcement Administration’s (“DEA”) recent actions should serve as a warning to pharmacies and drug distributors.  This week, the DEA announced that it had revoked the DEA Certificates of Registration (“DEA Registration”) for two CVS Caremark Corp. (“CVS”) pharmacies in Sanford, Florida.  As a result, these pharmacies are prohibited from dispensing controlled…Read More