In times of emergency, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the "Secretary") has authority to issue temporary waivers or modifications of certain Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and HIPAA requirements. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ("CMS") has released a substantial number of waivers in response to the coronavirus national emergency ...
On March 17, 2020, the Trump administration announced an expansion of Medicare coverage for virtual health services. The Medicare expansion is intended to make medical offices more available to people who need to be seen in-person and to mitigate the spread of the novel Coronavirus. Medicare can now pay for office, hospital, and other visits furnished via virtual services across the country, including a patient’s place of residence, starting March 6, 2020 ...
Over the past few years, more and more companies have started publishing news content written by artificial intelligence (“AI”) algorithms. This includes Chinese technology giant, Tencent, whose rapid growth has shaped the trajectory of Naspers, the South African company that currently still owns a bit more than 30% of Tencent. Tencent publishes content produced by automated software known as Dreamwriter ...
The COVID-19 outbreak has impacted the manufacturing, transportation and supple chains underpinning countless aspects of trade and commerce on a global basis. Additionally, the shelter-in-place orders have caused nonessential businesses to shut down, resulting in many of them being unable to meet their contractual obligation. Force Majeure Whether coronavirus can be considered a force majeure depends on the wording of the provision ...
Law No. 21,225 to Support Families and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises due to Covid-19 On April 2, 2020, Law No. 21,225, which materializes some of the measures of the Emergency Economic Plan announced by the Government of Chile last Thursday, March 19, was published. The measures contained in this law are the following: Family Income Support Bonus for recipients of certain family subsidies and individuals or families from the most vulnerable 60% of the population ...
While the financial impact of quarantines and shelter-in-place orders will inevitably reach into every industry and every corner of the economy, companies in the hotel, restaurant, travel, retail and manufacturing sectors have already sustained significant business interruption losses. Much of the commentary from insurers and even some government agencies has been presumptively negative about the prospects for coverage ...
COVID-19 brought a tremendous disruption of normal daily life/business affecting personal life and businesses alike. People and companies/ institutions alike are in continuous assessment of solutions and compromises to mitigate the impact of the COVID – 19 pandemic. In the context of a continuously evolving environment, we all need to adapt and try to keep control on negative impact ...
On Friday, March 27, 2020, the CARES ACT was signed into law. The Cares Act includes provisions for changing deadlines for patents, trademarks, and copyrights. For patents and trademarks, the Act permits the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office to change the deadlines imposed by Title 35 of the United States Code, the Trademark Act, Section 18 of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act ...
In the wake of COVID-19, cities, counties and states across the nation are issuing “shelter in place” orders to curb nonessential movement of residents, and companies around the world are moving to a remote work system. This webinar focuses on IT, cybersecurity, and privacy issues that may impact businesses that are located in “shelter-in-place” jurisdictions ...
In the wake of COVID-19, cities, counties and states across the nation are issuing shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders to curb nonessential movement of residents. States and local authorities are invoking powers to evacuate residents through statutes that have historically been used for natural disaster evacuations. While the ability to order and enforce such evacuations is not in dispute, the orders in this context raise many questions ...
Unclassified defense technical data that is properly secured with end-to-end encryption is no longer considered an export when it is transmitted outside the U.S., as of March 25, 2020. Access to the unencrypted data by an unauthorized foreign person, however, remains an ITAR-controlled export. This change resulted from an Interim Final Rule coming into effect from the U.S ...
Scammers and cyber crooks did not take long to adapt their usual fraud to this uncertain period caused by the Covid-19, refinishing notably their sadly notorious “CEO Fraud” to the present circumstances ...
The Coronavirus, COVID-19 has raised numerous important legal issues. However, one issue has assumed an even higher profile with the recent classification of the virus as a pandemic. This is the question of what claims can be made under the different insurance products on the market to cope with the losses, whether direct or indirect, that Portuguese businesses have been facing ...
Dinsmore Intellectual Property Partner Adrian Cyhan and Christopher Smith of Brooks Kushman wrote the following article, "Dawn of a New Era: Licensing Standards in the Coming Age of 5G" for The Licensing Journal. 5G: What’s the Big Deal? The advent of 5G cellular wireless technology represents a major advance in speed and bandwidth of wireless communications ...
As a growing number of the workforce is being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, employers are raising several benefit related questions, particularly with respect to group health plans. The Employee Benefits Group at Hanson Bridgett will be providing updated information on possible issues arising in the benefits area through Benefits Alerts and postings on Hanson Bridgett's Online COVID-19 Resource Center ...
Does your organization’s insurance program provide any protection from the economic disruption caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic? What steps should you take to assess and protect that insurance coverage? The Bradley Policyholder Insurance Coverage team has provided an informative webinar addressing insurance coverage and claims adjustment for event cancellation, business interruption, and third-party claims stemming from the pandemic ...
In some areas, intellectual property will experience a period of slowdown in activity, at least in the near future. We look at this in more detail below. However, this does not mean mandatory registration of industrial property will come to a halt because, with many bodies, including the Portuguese INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property), registration is done online ...
Through External Circular No. 001 of March 23, 2020, the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) made clear that mobile phone operators and private entities in general have legal grounds to provide to the National Planning Department (DNP), as well as to public entities that so require it, personal data that is necessary to address, prevent, treat and/or control the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate its effects ...
The impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) across the globe remains a significant concern in every aspect of business – and the representation and warranty (R&W) insurance market is no different. The following Frequently Asked Questions are designed to address some of the more common questions that have arisen since the outbreak of the pandemic.As always, advice in this area is fact-sensitive ...
In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, the business community is faced with unprecedented threats to their cyber-infrastructure and data. Sensitive data, in particular, will be vulnerable to security breaches as a result of reduced human power under emergency legislation. Moreover, criminal hackers will be looking to capitalize on such vulnerabilities at a time like this ...
As if businesses did not have enough to worry about during this COVID-19 pandemic, it’s times like these when cybersecurity risk is at its peak. Distracted employees may be psychologically vulnerable to attack, and shifting quickly and unexpectedly to a remote workforce can create technology and control risks. It’s a perfect storm for cyber risk ...
As a growing number of the workforce is being affected by the COVID-19 virus, employers are being asked to respond to benefit-related questions from employees. In the coming days, the Employee Benefits Group at Hanson Bridgett will be providing updated information on possible issues arising in the benefits area through Benefits Alerts and postings on Hanson Bridgett's Online COVID-19 Resource Center ...
In this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are many questions about insurance coverage. Because each policy is different, it is very difficult to generalize about insurance coverage. However, one thing we know to be true is that policyholders or insureds will be advocating for losses, primarily business losses, to be covered, while the insurance companies will be arguing the insurance policies preclude coverage either due to policy definitions or due to policy exclusions ...
