Articles and Blogs

Nearly a decade has passed since the U.S. Congress enacted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”). Since March 2010, we have seen federal court rulings on numerous challenges to the ACA itself and the executive branch’s efforts to enforce the ACA. One such challenge resulted on September 7, 2018 in the... READ MORE

On May 17, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) introduced companion legislation (S. 1133) to the House bill that would repeal the Affordable Care Act’s (“ACA”) moratorium on physician-owned hospitals. Named the Patient Access to Higher Quality Health Care Act of 2017, the bill is the Senate’s version of legislation (H.R. 1156) previously introduced in the... READ MORE

Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against two Michigan hospitals, holding that their written agreements regarding their medical residents’ off-site training programs failed to comply with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (“CMS”) requirements for graduate medical education (“GME”) reimbursement. While the laws applicable in this... READ MORE

On January 12, 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) published the “Health Care Programs: Fraud and Abuse; Revisions to the Office of Inspector General’s Exclusion Authorities” Final Rule (“Final Rule”) revising and expanding its authority to exclude individuals and entities from participation in federal health care programs.... READ MORE

Protections for pregnant employees has significantly increased in the wake of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Enforcement Guidance on Pregnancy Discrimination (updated June 25, 2015) and the United States Supreme Court decision in Young v. United Parcel Services, Inc., — U.S. —, 135 S.Ct. 1338 (2015). But what about employees who are not yet... READ MORE

House Republicans Release ACA Alternative On Monday, March 2, the chairmen of the three health-related committees in the House of Representatives, Reps. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Fred Upton (R-MI) and John Kline (R-MN), outlined an Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) alternative for states that opt out of running a federal exchange. The proposal, which was published... READ MORE

On Monday, June 30, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., et al., that extends certain religious freedom protections to closely held for-profit corporations.  Specifically, the Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Government cannot impose the contraceptive mandate on closely held for-profit corporations that have... READ MORE

Burwell to Replace Sebelius as the Next HHS Secretary On April 10, Kathleen Sebelius announced she is resigning as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”). President Obama will nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the current director of the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”), as her replacement. The White House will now... READ MORE

House Passes ACA Fix On Friday, the House passed a bill (H.R. 3350) that would allow health insurers to sell individual health policies in 2014 that were in effect as of January 1, 2013, even if they don’t meet minimum coverage requirements set by the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). Passage of the bill, comes a day... READ MORE

OMB Reviewing Final Rules on Anti-Kickback Statute, Stark Law Protections for EHR Deals Earlier this week, CMS and HHS sent two final rules to the White House Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) that would extend safe harbor protections for arrangements that provide electronic health record (“EHR”) products to physicians until the end of... READ MORE