Articles and Blogs

On July 6, 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a proposed rule addressing potential modifications to the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program (“Proposed Rule”).1 The Proposed Rule, if implemented as currently drafted, would eliminate the Pain Management dimension from the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (“VBP”) Program’s Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers... READ MORE

Hall Render is pleased to announce attorney Benjamin Waters has joined the firm’s Philadelphia office. Mr. Waters provides regulatory and compliance advice to a broad range of health care clients with regard to various matters, including False Claims Act/qui tam cases, corporate compliance, fraud and abuse/Stark analysis, self-disclosure protocol submissions, government audits relating to... READ MORE

Since the first large U.S. health care ransomware demand hit the news in early 2016, attacks have been increasing in visibility and frequency, reaching a claimed 4,000 attacks per day. Ransomware is a kind of malware that infects computer systems, restricting access to systems or to data until a “ransom” is paid to the... READ MORE

The Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”), Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), emailed notices to 167 covered entities on July 11, 2016 informing them they were selected for a HIPAA Phase II audit. Health care providers, health plans and health care clearinghouses were randomly selected by OCR from the audit pool. If your organization... READ MORE

As previously discussed here, the EEOC recently proposed collecting salary information and hours worked data as part of the Employer Information Report (“EEO-1”).  Following a comment period, the EEOC issued on July 14, 2016 an amended Equal Pay Data Rule proposal. The EEOC specified the W-2 box to be used for reporting, changed the... READ MORE

Senate Committee Urged to Reform Stark Law On July 12, the Senate Finance Committee heard from hospital stakeholders on various options to reform the Stark Law. Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said he would like to undo what he sees as the law’s “outdated regulations.” Hatch also stated he would like the committee to do... READ MORE

We are excited to announce that we have moved our Philadelphia office to the 400 suite of the Six Tower Bridge office building, located at 181 Washington Street in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Our permanent offices are centrally located both in the health care hub of the greater Philadelphia area and in the center of the Northeast Corridor, positioning... READ MORE

In late 2015, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), riding a wave of victories, challenged three separate hospital mergers in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Huntington, West Virginia; and Chicago, Illinois (for more information on these challenges, see our previous coverage here). Six months later, the FTC’s winning streak has effectively come to an end after suffering at... READ MORE

Overruling a precedent established in 2004, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has ruled that workers supplied by temporary employment staffing agencies to other employers may be included in a bargaining unit with the employees who are employed only by the other employer.  Until this ruling, a union’s representation of the employees of the... READ MORE

Hall Render has been ranked by Modern Healthcare as the second largest health care law firm in the country. The publication released the rankings of “Largest Healthcare Law Firms” in its June 27/July 4, 2016 issue. Firms were ranked according to the number of attorneys spending at least 50 percent of their time on... READ MORE