Articles and Blogs

The Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”), Department of Health and Human Services, continues to investigate complaints related to the alleged failure of hospitals and health systems to provide interpreters to patients and their companions who are hearing impaired or have limited English proficiency (“LEP”).  In addition to compensatory damages and civil penalties, various settlement agreements…Read More

I wanted to highlight a post from one of our sister-blogs at Hall Render, the Litigation Analysis Blog, about a recent jail term for a nursing assistant who posted pictures of a resident to her Facebook account. In that case, a judge sentenced a nursing assistant to eight days in jail, and two years probation for…Read More

The coming tax year will bring significant new challenges for tax-exempt hospitals, which must comply with a new requirement to prepare a community health needs assessment (“CHNA”) and adopt a corresponding implementation strategy.  Preparing and publicizing these documents will take extensive effort, and hospital leadership should expect that the Congress, the IRS, the media and…Read More

The Federal Government has reinforced its expanded theory of false claim liability for quality matters by settling allegations against a hospital that a physician’s lack of qualifications to perform certain surgical procedures should be considered a false claim, regardless of the patient’s outcome. As part of the settlement, the hospital defendant paid the Government $840,000…Read More

On March 13, 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced that it had reached a settlement with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee (“Blue Cross”) arising from potential violations of the Privacy and Security Rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”).  Notably, HHS learned of the circumstances…Read More

Recently, a Pennsylvania-based physician group practice successfully defended an employment discrimination suit, thanks in part to its robust coding review process and auditing of its physicians’ prescribing habits. The physician plaintiff filed a discrimination suit under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.  The…Read More

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its opinion yesterday in the case of Mayo Collaborative Servs., dba Mayo Med. Labs., et al. v. Prometheus Labs., Inc. (No. 10-1150) (March 20, 2012) (see PDF here).  The Court reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and held that the patent claims at issue merely…Read More

As a means of improving care to residents residing in Medicare/Medicaid nursing facilities, CMS announced on March 15, 2012 an initiative to help reduce avoidable hospitalizations.  Organizations interested in participating in this initiative must submit an application to CMS by June 14, 2012. The goal of the initiative is to improve care for residents of…Read More

Three and a half months ago, Congress included language in the National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) declaring that TRICARE network providers will not be subject to OFCCP’s jurisdiction solely on the basis of their TRICARE network agreements.  The NDAA did not, however, address OFCCP coverage over health care providers in any other context, nor did…Read More

Three and a half months ago, Congress included language in the National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) declaring that TRICARE network providers will not be subject to OFCCP’s jurisdiction solely on the basis of their TRICARE network agreements.  The NDAA did not, however, address OFCCP coverage over health care providers in any other context, nor did…Read More