The United States Court of Federal Claims recently dismissed multiple challenges to the accuracy of a Contract Performance Assessment Report (CPAR), not based on merit but based on jurisdiction. This serves as a reminder to all that the proper mechanism to challenge a CPAR must be obeyed for the claims to be heard. In Colonna’s Shipyard, Inc. v. United States, Colonna sought to challenge the accuracy of its CPAR from a previous Navy contract, the Narragansett Contract ...
The United States Sixth Circuit Court recently upheld a party’s contractual right to arbitration despite pre-lawsuit, informal letters suggesting that the parties litigate in court. In Borror Property Management, LLC v. Oro Karric North, LLC, the Sixth Circuit heard a dispute arising out of an Ohio federal trial court decision related to whether a party waived its arbitration right ...
The Alabama Supreme Court recently found that a party was in breach of an arbitration clause for declining to pay the fee schedule set forth by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and thus lost the right to compel arbitration. This case serves as a reminder to follow the orders of arbitral institutions or risk losing the opportunity to arbitrate your dispute ...
Moderator Adam Polk interviews Thomas Richie concerning the Eleventh Circuit's recent decision in Johnson v. NPAS, which categorically banned incentive payments ...
This digest is a curated list of Bradley content regarding the coronavirus. In an effort to provide our clients with the easiest way to find information that may be beneficial in responding to the impact of COVID-19, we have provided links to our most recent blog posts, news alerts, webinar recordings and more. Additionally, this digest will now be deployed on a weekly basis in an effort to reduce the number of emails our clients receive ...
Introduction If 2020 has been defined by COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare industry in 2020 might be defined by a related single issue — telehealth. Those phenomena are obviously connected. While telehealth has been around in varying forms for years, COVID-19 accelerated its growth, use, and acceptance in unprecedented ways. With that growth comes changes. Reimbursement rules have evolved as telehealth has grown and become more accepted ...
Introduction If 2020 has been defined by COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare industry in 2020 might be defined by a related single issue — telehealth. Those phenomena are obviously connected. While telehealth has been around in varying forms for years, COVID-19 accelerated its growth, use, and acceptance in unprecedented ways. With that growth comes changes. Reimbursement rules have evolved as telehealth has grown and become more accepted ...
In 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued five decisions worthy of particular note: Inserso Corp. v. U.S.[1] Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc.[2] Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. v. U.S.[3] LAX Electronics Inc. v. U.S.[4] Centerra Integrated Facilities Services LLC ...
It is the rare construction project that is completed without any change in the work. In most sophisticated construction projects, the contractual mechanism for managing these changes involves the issuance of a change order. However, managing change orders is not something project teams are always well-trained on, which can cause issues for small and big contractors alike ...
While the calling restrictions are sure to get the most publicity from the CFPB’s new debt collection rule, a number of the less discussed aspects of the rule may present just as many operational challenges. For instance, the CFPB’s prohibition on the sale or transfer of certain types of debt, as well as the record retention requirements in the rule will likely present a number of hurdles of their own ...
California voters signaled that privacy is a top priority by overwhelmingly approving Proposition 24 on Nov. 3, 2020—the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). The CPRA amends and significantly strengthens the recently enacted California Consumer Privacy Act and moves California's privacy laws toward those of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ...
All eyes were on health care in 2020, as the industry faced unprecedented challenges presented by the global coronavirus pandemic. Stories and images of overburdened frontline health care workers dominated the news cycle for most of the year, and the rapid development of one or more seemingly effective vaccines has engendered a cautious optimism for a return to normalcy in 2021 ...
Non-surgical extended duration therapeutic services (NSEDTS) are services which have a significant monitoring component that can: extend for a lengthy period of time, are not surgical, and typically have a low risk of complications after the assessment at the beginning of the service ...
It's that time of year again – CLE Compliance season! With the impact of COVID-19, we know many of our clients have found it challenging to meet their annual CLE requirements. Bradley is pleased to offer you a complimentary, online CLE addressing key topics with thought-leading speakers from inside and outside of Bradley. This CLE program includes 1 ethics hour and 2 general hours ...
It's that time of year again – CLE Compliance season! With the impact of COVID-19, we know many of our clients have found it challenging to meet their annual CLE requirements. Bradley is pleased to offer you a complimentary, online CLE addressing key topics with thought-leading speakers from inside and outside of Bradley. This CLE program includes 1 ethics hour and 2 general hours ...
The CFPB’s debt collection rule goes a long way towards resolving a long standing FDCPA question: How often can I call a debtor? Rather than institute a bright line rule, the CFPB adopted a rebuttable presumption which effectively limits debt collectors (including loan servicers subject to the FDCPA) to placing seven calls in a seven-day period. To further complicate matters, the rule also effectively prohibits calls for seven days after you actually reach a debtor ...
The California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA), also known as CCPA 2.0, was approved by California voters on November 3, 2020. The new law builds on CCPA and forecasts an even stricter regulatory data privacy environment for businesses. Please join Bradley cybersecurity and privacy attorneys Erin Illman, Junaid Odubeko, and Steve Snyder for a discussion of areas that companies need to address before CPRA goes into effect ...
In a notable decision interpreting the March 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Alabama held that Chapter 13 debtors behind on their payments before March 2020 may seek modification of their plan if they suffered from COVID-19 related financial distress. In In re Fowler, No. 16-31791; In re Lewis, No. 19-32243, 2020 WL 6701366 (Bankr. M.D. Ala. Nov. 13, 2020), Bankruptcy Judge William R ...
On November 23, 2020, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published in the Federal Register a proposed amendment to Federal Housing Administration (FHA) regulations that would allow lenders to accept private flood insurance policies on FHA-insured properties located in Special Flood Hazard Areas ...
On November 16, 2020, the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services (OIG) issued a Special Fraud Alert addressing the fraud and abuse risks of speaker programs that are commonplace in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries ...
On November 12, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued to block the acquisition of two Memphis-area hospitals by Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare. Eleven months earlier, on December 12, 2019, Methodist entered into an agreement with Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corporation to purchase Saint Francis-Memphis and St. Francis-Bartlett (along with their associated physician practices, urgent care centers, and other ancillary care providers) for $350 million ...
The debt collection restrictions and requirements in the FDCPA, which was enacted in 1977, have failed to keep up with or even contemplate modern technologies. In particular, as methods and forms of communication have evolved, the industry has had little guidance on how it can utilize newer communication channels such as emails, text messages, or social media. In many cases, the industry has had to grapple with different and often conflicting court interpretations ...
A minority of states have enacted statutes and taken other action to protect business owners from claims by persons who allegedly were infected by COVID-19 on their premises.1 The purpose of this article is to compare these statutes and discuss some of the differences between them. This article addresses statutes in effect as of October 27, 2020. The article does not address pending legislation ...
The HHS Office for the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology issued an interim final rule on October 29, 2020, extending the compliance date for the information blocking rule under the 21st Century Cures Act to April 5, 2021 ...
The CFPB’s debt collection rule highlights the consumer’s ability to customize communication by designating specific times, places, and mediums of communication (e.g., email) as inconvenient. The consumer’s ability to customize communication will significantly impact debt collector’s communication strategies and could require substantial changes to a debt collector’s procedures and technologies ...