Articles and Blogs

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) recently issued Advisory Opinion No. 23-15 (“Advisory Opinion”), a favorable opinion involving a consulting firm’s (“Requestor”) proposal to offer gift cards to its existing physician practice customers for referring potential new customers. The OIG approved the Proposed Arrangement (defined below), noting that…Read More

Health care continues to drive private equity activity, creating opportunities for investors and traditional health care providers. Transactions in the health care space are especially complicated, layering health care regulatory and reimbursement considerations on top of a complex securities, antitrust, privacy and security framework. Hall Render’s private equity team of attorneys and advisors leverage the…Read More

Steward Health Care plans to sell its physician group to Optum. The health system has struggled financially and believes the sale will provide much-needed cash for the health system. Steward’s physician group operates in nine states. Georgia lawmakers have tentatively agreed on a plan to provide several exceptions to the state’s Certificate of Need (CON)…Read More

The Texas Medical Board (“TMB” or “Board”) has opened a public comment period for its newly proposed rules and purported guidance concerning the provision of emergency abortions under Texas’ current abortion laws, known to be some of the most restrictive in the country. These proposed rules aim to define the conditions under which abortions may…Read More

Health care continues to drive private equity activity, creating opportunities for investors and traditional health care providers. Transactions in the health care space are especially complicated, layering health care regulatory and reimbursement considerations on top of a complex securities, antitrust, privacy and security framework. Hall Render’s private equity team of attorneys and advisors leverage the…Read More

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has agreed to pay $418M to settle claims that it inflated real estate commissions. Under the settlement, NAR will change its rules to 1) no longer require agents to subscribe to multiple listing services (MLS); 2) prohibit selling agents from posting commissions they will pay to buyer agents on…Read More

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently announced the ACO Primary Care Flex Model (“Flex Model”), a new voluntary model within MSSP for low-revenue ACOs, that begins January 1, 2025. The Flex Model will utilize a prospective primary care payment option to increase flexibility for low-revenue ACOs to increase access to high-quality primary…Read More

On March 18, 2024, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) issued an update to its December 2022 Bulletin regarding the usage of online tracking technologies by HIPAA-regulated entities. When originally published, the Bulletin aimed to clarify when identifiable information collected by tracking technologies on a regulated entity’s website may constitute protected health information (“PHI”) as…Read More