Articles and Blogs

Diversified Healthcare Trust (DHC) will merge with Office Properties Income Trust (OPI) in an all-stock transaction. DHC owns 379 health care properties valued at an estimated $7.1 billion. OPI owns 160 general office properties with a $577 million market cap. Optum is now in the business of providing loans to physician practice groups. This is another way Optum is…Read More

The FFY 2024 IPPS Proposed Rule (“Proposed Rule”) was released on April 10, 2023, and CMS published the associated tables on its website.  The Proposed Rule is expected to be published in the Federal Register on May 1st.  This year CMS is proposing to implement a change to its rural floor wage index policy that…Read More

On April 12, 2023, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (“HHS”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) to strengthen privacy protections under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) for reproductive health care. The proposed rule builds on the previous guidance issued…Read More

The nation’s fifth-largest health system operator, Advocate Health, has developed a new strategy of cutting costs through staff attrition (rather than layoffs) and has delayed some capital projects. In response to recent economic challenges, Advocate also said it will reduce its leased space footprint by about 65% over the next four years. In the latest…Read More

Fannie Mae published an Economic and Housing Outlook Report highlighting the possibility of a modest recession being “pushed back” from Q2 to the year’s second half. The report points to the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failures as an early sign of moderate economic contraction that is expected later this year. According to new…Read More

Borrowers of tax-exempt debt across the country with outstanding bond issuances tied to the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) are working to amend their financial instruments to account for the cessation of the rate’s publication after June 30, 2023. To address and limit the anticipated impacts associated with the cessation of LIBOR, the Treasury Department…Read More

With yet another criminal wage-fixing indictment filed this week, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) signaled its continued commitment to prosecuting anticompetitive conduct affecting the U.S. labor markets, including within the health care industry. On March 16, a federal grand jury returned an indictment that charges a health care staffing executive with…Read More