Health Care
By: Stephanie T. Eckerle and Christopher J. Kulik
on November 29, 2023
On November 2, 2023, parties including the American Hospital Association (“AHA”) sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) in a federal court in Texas. In their complaint they challenge the enforcement of an OCR guidance bulletin (the, “Bulletin”),…
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By: Meghan M. Linvill McNab and Brandon W. Shirley
on October 3, 2023
On August 2, 2023, CMS published the fiscal year 2024 Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities Prospective Payment System (“IPF PPS”) Final Rule. One of the included regulatory changes was to the permitted timing for a hospital to convert a rehabilitation or psychiatric unit from “non-excluded” to…
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By: Brandon W. Shirley and Meghan M. Linvill McNab
on August 16, 2023
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently suspended a key procedure for resolving payment disputes between out-of-network providers and health facilities against insurers under the No Surprises Act. The procedure is the Independent Dispute Resolution (“IDR”) process. It…
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By: Robert A. Anderson and Hillary N. Buchler
on July 6, 2023
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) recently concluded its investigation into Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital (“Yakima”). The matter illustrates the need to limit access to private health information (“PHI”) to those members of the workforce with a need…
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By: Grant M. Achenbach and Stephanie T. Eckerle
on June 30, 2023
After the passage of transformative legislation and the announcement of groundbreaking new administrative processes, the Professional Licensing Agency (PLA) is poised to undergo a rapid modernization. This evolution will be much broader in scope and implemented at a faster pace than the norm for…
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By: Meghan M. Linvill McNab and Grant M. Achenbach
on June 13, 2023
On May 3, 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published not one, but two, proposed rules for state Medicaid programs. Totaling nearly 300 pages, these rules are aimed at strengthening Medicaid and improving access to care, quality, health outcomes, and health equity issues…
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By: Robert A. Anderson, Stacy Walton Long, and Hillary N. Buchler
on June 7, 2023
The Indiana Legislature recently enacted and the Indiana Governor recently signed House Bill 1006 (the “Bill”). The changes in the bill are effective as of July 1, 2023. The legislation contains significant amendments to the Indiana law governing emergency mental health detentions. Currently, any…
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By: Robert A. Anderson and Stacy Walton Long
on June 6, 2023
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”), recently concluded its investigation into MedEvolve, a business associate (“Business Associate”) of a covered health care entity. Business Associate self-reported a data breach to OCR that exposed the Protected…
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By: Meghan M. Linvill McNab and Brandon W. Shirley
on May 19, 2023
Over the past three years, healthcare providers have adapted to specific regulatory requirements that were originally set to end when the federal public health emergency (“PHE”) expired. The PHE provided certain flexibilities and regulatory requirements over the past few years, that enabled health…
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By: Christopher J. Kulik and Brandon W. Shirley
on May 9, 2023
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) is making another concerted effort to enforce hospital cost transparency rules that have been in effect since January 1, 2021 (the “Rules”) as explained in our prior alert. Since that time, CMS struggled to enforce compliance with the Rule and…
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