Articles and Blogs

House Reconciliation Bill Cuts Health Care Spending The House of Representatives voted along party lines Thursday to pass a bill that makes major cuts in Medicaid spending while allowing across-the-board Medicare cuts to take effect as scheduled. The budget reconciliation bill introduced earlier in the week by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and adopted by…Read More

Wisconsin Physicians Service (WPS) will soon begin to serve as the Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) for Jurisdiction 8, which includes the states of Indiana and Michigan.  According to listserve communications, Indiana Part A providers and Michigan Part A providers will transition to WPS effective July 23, 2012.  Indiana Part B suppliers will transition to WPS…Read More

Normally a physician who is not actually “employed” by a hospital is not an employee who would be protected by anti-discrimination laws. But it’s not always that simple. In fact, it can be quite complicated and risky for a hospital if the relationship is not clearly established. If the relationship is not clear then a…Read More

Recently, a Pennsylvania appeals court found a son liable for his mother’s $92,943 unpaid nursing home bill under Pennsylvania’s filial responsibility law. 

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. On May 7, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published a final rule (“Final Rule”)…Read More

Under the ADA an employer is obligated to find a “reasonable accommodation,” if possible, for a qualified individual with a disability, which would allow that individual to perform the essential functions of his or her job or to otherwise remain employed by the employer.  Such an accommodation can take various forms, including reassignment of the…Read More

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) launched the Health IT Dashboard today. The Health IT Dashboard has been established to present key information about the strategy of ONC, its health care innovation grants programs, and available research data tracking the nationwide adoption of health care IT.  The Health IT Dashboard has…Read More

After nearly three years of difficult litigation, the matter of Equity Industrial Partners (Needham, MA) vs. 7900 Rockville, LLC (Indianapolis, IN) was successfully completed with full satisfaction of Equity’s judgment against 7900, first entered in October, 2009. The case involved payment of real estate taxes following the $15 million purchase by Equity of the 7900…Read More

A federal magistrate in a case alleging discrimination denied a hospital’s motion for a protective order preventing the discovery of peer review and credentialing files. In Awwad v. Largo Medical Center Inc., (M.D. Fla., No. 8:11-CV-1638, 4/12/12), a Florida physician, Awwad, claims the employing hospital revoked his medical staff privileges due to racial animus. Awwad…Read More

Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) Routine Use Data is now available through CMS.  In our Update indicating new SSI Ratios for Medicare DSH were published on March 16, 2012 for Fiscal Years (FYs) 2006 – 2009, we recommended that Hospitals obtain their DSH Routine Use Data in order to have the underlying data used by CMS…Read More