Articles and Blogs

On February 18, 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services (the “Department”) issued final regulations (the “Final Rule”) on the enforcement of the federal statutory health care provider conscience protections, rescinding most of a 2008 federal regulation designed to protect health care providers who refuse to provide certain health care services based on moral…Read More

It seems that these days almost any type of complaint made by a single employee in front of others will now be protected by the federal National Labor Relations Act. The latest development involves a time share company in Las Vegas that announced a new policy requiring sales representatives to tuck in their shirts. The…Read More

Today the EEOC published in the Federal Register the Final Regulations implementing the changes made to the Americans with Disabilities Act by the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) that was enacted in September 2008 and became effective on January 1, 2009. The final regulations take effect on May 24, 2011. The final regulations do not break…Read More

As a part of the implementation of Section 6401(a) of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), on or after March 25, 2011, Medicare institutional providers of medical or other items or services and suppliers submitting a paper CMS-855A, CMS-855B or CMS-855S or any associated Internet-based Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS) enrollment application will be…Read More

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.  Today is the one-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act.  Its implementation, however, has not been a smooth…Read More

On Monday, March 7 in an update to a Frequently Asked Question (“FAQ”) on the CMS website, CMS indicated that it plans to implement functionality that will allow Eligible Providers (“EPs”) to designate a third party to register and attest to meeting the meaningful use criteria on his or her behalf under the HITECH Act’s…Read More

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) entered into a Resolution Agreement with General Hospital Corporation and Massachusetts General Physicians Organization, Inc., collectively known as Mass General (“Mass General”) to resolve a potential violation of the Privacy Rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996…Read More

On the judicial front, you’ll recall that U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson ruled in late January that the “individual mandate” provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Affordable Care Act”) was unconstitutional, and declared the rest of the Act inseverable and void.  In that ruling the Judge stopped short of issuing an injunction,…Read More

Yesterday the Supreme Court unanimously decided that an employer will be liable for the bias of a supervisor even when the ultimate decision maker was not personally motivated by unlawful bias. This decision has enormous consequences for human resource professionals. Now, if an adverse employment action is taken based on tainted information provided by a…Read More

Many large construction projects, including hospitals and health care facilities, utilize a Fast Track project delivery process. The goal of the Fast Track method is to bring a facility from concept to reality in a fraction of the time of a normal building project. Naturally, this process provides certain benefits and risks that an owner…Read More