The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a $44 million judgment against Tuomey Hospital in Sumter, South Carolina that arose from Tuomey’s employment arrangements with physicians that allegedly violated the federal Stark Law.1 The Stark Law prohibits hospitals from submitting claims to Medicare for designated health services that were referred by physicians with whom the hospital has a financial relationship, unless the relationship fits within an exception ...
After three days of historic oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, the fate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the momentous 2010 health reform law, is uncertain, given robust questioning of the ability of Congress to force individuals to purchase health insurance ...
Law no.11/2012 of 8 March establishes new rules for prescription and dispensing of medicines. Prescriptions for medicines must now include the International Nonproprietary Name (INN) of the active substance,its pharmaceutical form, the dosage, the presentation and the posology. The prescription may also include a trade name by brand or indication of the name of the holder of the marketing authorisation ...
On 24 February 2012, Greece opened the Private Sector Involvement debt swap deal (PSI) to bondholders. Essentially the deal involved a swap that meant bondholders would have to accept a 53.5% cut on the face value of their bonds which, in real terms, meant a loss of approximately 75% on their investment. The deal will be the largest financial restructuring in history, dwarfing the Argentinean restructuring in 2005 valued at EUR 33 ...
The latest additions to the Greek debt saga and the Eurozone crisis are the Credit Default Swap holders and the ISDA. But who are they and what is their role? What is a Credit Default Swap (CDS)? A CDS is most simply described as a type of insurance against the risk of a default on a debt issued by a third party (the reference obligor) ...
On 2 March, 25 of the 27 EU members committed to the new "Fiscal Compact" concept, signed the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union. The Treaty, which is technically an intergovernmental treaty and not an EU instrument (due to the UK and the Czech Republic not wishing to sign up to it), was introduced in December 2011 by Germany and France ...
Europe’s Finance ministers worked through the night of 20 to 21 February to hammer out the terms of the second Greek bail-out to the tune of EUR 130 bn. While the markets have responded coolly to the deal, ministers remain optimistic that enough has been done to stem the contagion to the rest of the Eurozone. Many experts remain skeptical as to whether the bail-out will be enough to save Greece from ultimately defaulting ...
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on February 16, 2012 proposed rules1 implementing Section 6402(a) of the Affordable Care Act,2 requiring persons to report and return Medicare overpayments by the later of 60 days after an overpayment is identified or the date any corresponding cost report is due. Twice in the past, CMS had proposed rules requiring the return of Medicare overpayments, but did not finalize the regulations ...
Not long ago, returns on traditional investment products, for example term deposits, were quite low and did not generate a great deal of interest among those who could spare and would like to invest money with the prospect of some return. Alternatives nearly always carry a higher risk and the various solutions, such as mutual funds, were not well known and poorly understood ...
In its judgment of 19 January 2012 (case no. 08332/11), the Southern Central Administrative Court, decided that INFARMED - Autoridade Nacional do Medicamento e Produtos de Saúde, I.P. (the national authority for medicines and healthcare products), is obliged to issue a certificate of subsidisation of the price of a medicine even when the person requesting the issue of the certificate was not the person who applied for the subsidy ...
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has begun the pilot phase of HIPAA privacy and security audits of health care providers, health insurers and health care clearinghouses (“covered entities”) to assess HIPAA compliance efforts. Up to 150 covered entities will be subject to the initial audits, to be conducted by KPMG, LLP, the OCR audit contractor ...
In connection with the recent changes in legislation in the field of health, the Federal Commission for protection against health risks ("Cofepris") has taken various actions against the sale, distribution and advertising of the so-called "miracle products," which are distributed without scientific evidence to demonstrate its therapeutic properties ...
Pursuant to the 2011 General Rules on Foreign Trade, since January 2, 2012, holders of trademarks that have been registered with the Mexican Industrial Property Institute (“IMPI”) may request the listing of their trademarks at the Mexican Customs Office (“AGA”), through a database developed by AGA ...
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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has delayed the start date for data collection of payments made to physicians and teaching hospitals by drug and device manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (GPOs). Under the Physician Payment Sunshine Act (the “Sunshine Act”), such payments were to have been recorded beginning on January 1, 2012 ...
Given the ongoing worldwide economic concerns and discussion of another recession, it is hard to believe that major provisions of the 2009 Stimulus Act impacting employers have yet to be fully implemented ...
Medicaid providers will be subject to new audits by Medicaid Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs), beginning in January 2012. These new audits will be in addition to existing audits being conducted by Medicare RACs, Medicaid Integrity Contractors (MICs) and Zone Program Integrity Contractors (ZPICs), among others.1 The Medicaid RAC audits, mandated as part of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the Health Reform Act), are expected to result in the recovery of $2 ...
Under final rules issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) will continue to face large start-up costs and uncertain savings, despite a decreased regulatory scheme and increased financial incentives ...
The Republic of Panama, using Law No. 35 of May 10, 1996 as a basis, continues making its best efforts to provide the highest possible protection to Intellectual Property, both in the territory of the Republic of Panama as well as also cooperating with the owners of intellectual property rights ...
Classification, Authorization and Registration Requirements - All forex operations are subject to registration, but not all are subject to approval, such as the case of those defined as current transactions, which do not require prior authorization from the Bank of Mozambique (“BoM”) ...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) have responded to the U.S. Senate’s request for information on physician-owned distributorships (PODs). Earlier this summer, a bi-partisan U.S. Senate committee asked CMS and the OIG to study the proliferation of PODs, citing a lack of regulatory guidance on how these arrangements square with existing federal law ...
There has been much discussion about building one or more ethane cracking plants within the Marcellus gas footprint. However, there has not been as much discussion of building downstream manufacturing facilities that use products produced at the ethane cracking facility. Recently, the West Virginia Legislature enacted revisions to the tax code to stimulate development of downstream manufacturing facilities in West Virginia ...
Bank Indonesia recently issued Regulation of Bank Indonesia No.13/15/PBI/2011 on Monitoring Foreign Exchange Flow Activities in Non-Bank Institutions (“PBI 13”) which will replace and repeal the following regulations by January 2012: Bank Indonesia Regulation No. 1/9/PBI/1999 on Monitoring Foreign Exchange Flows in Bank and Non Bank Financial Institutions (“Regulation 1/1999”); Bank Indonesia Regulation No ...
