How is health care in your jurisdiction organised? The basic principles of the organisation of the health-care system are governed by Act CLIV of 1997 (the Health-care System Act), more specifically by sections 141 et seq. Pursuant to section 141, the state is ultimately responsible for the state of health of the population, and for the creation of a system that protects, promotes and – if necessary – restores it ...
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has recently announced two significant enforcement actions against health care providers for violating the HIPAA Privacy Rule. In the first matter, Cignet Health Care of Prince George’s County, MD was fined $4.3 million for failure to provide patients with access to their health records and for failing to cooperate with the ensuing OCR investigation ...
With the continuous increase of Chinese investments throughout the entire world and, particularly, in Portugal, along with the inverse phenomenon, it is extremely important to acknowledge that Portugal has already entered into double tax treaties with China and Macau, which became important instruments to be considered by companies and individuals when moving forward with their international planning strategies ...
On January 25, 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) proposed new Rule 204(b)‑1 (the “Proposed Rule”) under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended (the “Advisers Act”), that would implement various provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”) by creating a new Form PF for use by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (the “FSOC”) and other regulatory agencies in assessing systemic risks posed to the U.S ...
The "say-on-pay" rules giving stockholders a voice in executive compensation are now in place for publicly traded companies. The rules establish new proxy requirements applicable to the 2011 proxy season, although for smaller reporting companies, implementation of certain of the rules has been deferred until 2013. A number of companies have already begun to report the results of their “say-on-pay” votes ...
Tax treatment of different acquisitions What are the differences in tax treatment between an acquisition of stock in a company and the acquisition of business assets and liabilities? The main difference from the acquirer’s perspective is that there is only a step-up in the tax basis on an asset purchase, while a stock acquisition as a general rule does not allow for a step-up on the basis of the target’s assets ...
HARMONIZATION OF CLINICAL RESEARCH CONTRACTS IN QUEBEC OLGA FARMAN and MARIE-ÈVE CLAVET [email protected] [email protected] Over the past few decades, a high-quality system of research and innovation has been built in the Province of Quebec. The contractual research conducted by university-affiliated health-care institutions in Quebec has become a fundamental scientific, economic and social activity ...
On November 29, 2010, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) announced that FINRA Rule 5131 will take effect on May 27, 2011.1 FINRA Rule 5131 is intended to sustain public confidence in the initial public offering (“IPO”) process by regulating the allocation, pricing and trading of IPOs of equity securities (“New Issues”) ...
Located on an island in the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic is a growing destination for U.S. businesses seeking to establish or expand overseas operations. An economically and politically stable country organized as a representative democratic government, it is the Caribbean's largest democratic country. The Dominican Republic had an inflation rate during the past year of only 4 ...
The European Parliament recently passed the Alternative Investment Funds Directive («AIFMD»). The AIFMD is focused on managers rather than investment funds and will implement broad regulatory measures on both fund managers located within the European Union («EU») and those established outside of the EU that provide asset management services to European alternative investment funds. The Swiss fund industry will have to closely examine the details of the AIFMD ...
As part of the Medicare hospital outpatient prospective payment system and ambulatory surgery center payment system final rule for calendar year 2011 (the “Final Rule”), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued final regulations that implement the changes that were made to the whole hospital exception by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010 (collectively, the “Acts
On November 19, 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) proposed new rules and amendments to existing rules and Form ADV under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended (the “Advisers Act”), that would implement various amendments to the Advisers Act contained as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”) ...
Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a split decision and failed to resolve whether copyrighted materials legally made abroad can be imported into the U.S. and sold without the express permission of the copyright owner. See Costco Wholesale Corp. v. Omega S.A., 562 U.S. __ (2010). In other words, it is still up to the nation’s circuit courts to decide whether the first sale doctrine extinguishes the rights of a copyright holder when the goods are made outside of the U.S ...
Effective as of July 21, 2011, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”) repeals a key exemption from investment adviser registration currently relied upon by many private fund managers and replaces it with several much more limited exemptions from registration ...
In Sweden, the directive has been implemented through amendments to the Medical Devices Act (1993:584), and through the regulation which the Medical Products Agency has issued in connection with this Act and the directive. The revised directive contains some clarifications but also some news ...
After decades of debate, US healthcare reform became a reality in 2010 when President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in March. Yet public opinion remains sharply divided on the merits of this sweeping legislation, both in terms of its ability to address the problems of access to, and the rising cost of, healthcare services and in terms of the financial burden on the federal and state governments of implementing ACA ...
Hunton & Williams announced today the launch of its new website — the Hunton & Williams Health Care Reform Center, huntonhealthcarereform.com ...
Ministry of Commerce ("MOFCOM") simplifies the approval process for foreign investments in sales projects using the Internet or vending machines Since 2004, following MOFCOM's release of the "Measures for the Administration of Foreign Investment in the Commercial Sector" the distribution industry has been opened to foreign investment ...
"When it comes to customs, time is money", the Director of Minter Ellison’s International Trade Group, Iain Sandford, told a major customs law meeting in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Mr Sandford was a guest of the World Customs Law Academy, the Brazilian Association of Customs Studies and the Inter-American Institute for Borders and Customs ...
The hospital has lost lengthy legal proceedings about the uninsured patients from the governments of the Netherlands Antilles and Curaçao. The governments are not obligated to write a “blank check”, as it were, for the costs Sehos had to incur for uninsured persons that cannot be recovered, according to judge Van Schendel yesterday ...
The recently enacted Securities and Investment Business Act, 2010 (“SIBA”) of the British Virgin Islands (“BVI”) will come into effect on 17 May 2010 ...
The People's Republic of China, a party to the Kyoto Protocol (2005), has been actively promulgating "greener" policies to improve China' environment and reduce carbon emissions. These green steps are creating potential new investment opportunities for foreign investors as China seeks to become more energy efficient ...
Professional trade in securities under the case law of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court… Under the Swiss Federal Supreme Court’s prior case law, capital gains derived from the sale of assets – in particular real estate, securities, precious metals and foreign currencies – are subject to federal income tax if such activity, taken as a whole, qualifies as self-e
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Treasury have released another set of interim final regulations (the “IFR”) regarding the coverage of preventive care without cost sharing. As with all guidance, the IFR cannot be considered in isolation ...
I once heard that Chinese architects have a curious, but effective, way of designing public squares. First, they will sow seeds over the surface of the square and wait till the grass grows. Then, they will let people walk around the square for a period of time. Finally, the stepped areas will help the architects decide which paths across the square to pave ...
