Articles and Blogs

This installment of Hall Render’s Health Law Broadcast series on health care reform is designed to provide you with the insight, analysis and practical suggestions with respect to the various reform initiatives that will affect your organization.  IRS Issues Guidance on $2,500 Limit for Health Flexible Spending Accounts  The IRS recently issued Notice 2012-40 providing guidance…Read More

The IRS recently issued Notice 2012-40 providing guidance on the $2,500 maximum annual limit on employee contributions to health care flexible spending accounts (“FSAs”) as set forth in the Affordable Care Act. The full text of the Notice can be found here. The Act states that the limit is effective January 1, 2013 for any…Read More

A New Jersey Court of Appeals recently held that a resident’s daughter, who signed the admission agreement as the resident’s “responsible party” and who had access to the resident’s income and resources, liable for not using such income and resources to pay the long term care facility for the resident’s stay and care at the…Read More

Recently, the Indiana State Department of Administration, on behalf of Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA), signed contracts with four law firms for Indiana Medicaid estate recovery. FSSA divided the contracts into three regions: Northern Indiana, Central Indiana, and Southern Indiana. Cases will be assigned by Indiana’s Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning staff…Read More

Medicaid Provider Taxes Targeted…Again The Republican Leadership of the House and Senate put the Medicaid provider tax threshold on the table again this week, this time as a way to pay for a one-year extension of the interest rate for subsidized Stafford student loans that expires on July 1, 2012.  A similar proposal was contained…Read More

State attorneys general are beginning to focus their attention on health care privacy laws under the authority granted to them by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (“HITECH”) and state consumer laws.  On May 24, 2012, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced the filing of a final judgment with a licensed…Read More

On the heels of last week’s failure for the antipsychotic measures to pass the Senate, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has just announced an initiative to reduce antipsychotic use in nursing facilities.  Yesterday, CMS officials announced a multi-year initiative to improve dementia care for residents of nursing homes by reducing the inappropriate use…Read More

On May 11, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued the 2013 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (“IPPS”) Proposed Rule.  In the IPPS Proposed Rule, CMS proposed to change the rules for: Calculating new teaching hospital full-time equivalent cap (“FTE cap”) by moving from a 3-year window to a 5-year window; What hospitals…Read More

Last Thursday, a proposed regulation aimed at curbing the high levels of “off-label” uses for antipsychotic medications failed to pass the Senate.  This proposed legislation relates back to a report last November by Daniel R. Levinson, the U.S. Inspector General, that exposed the high levels of antipsychotic medications administered to nursing facility residents.  That report stated a large…Read More

Senate Passes FDA Reauthorization Bill In a rare display of bipartisanship, the Senate passed the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (S.3187) Thursday night by a vote of 96-1.  The legislation, sponsored by Sens. Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Tom Harkin (D-IA), creates a user-fee program for biosimilar and generic drugs.  It also includes the…Read More