The N.C. Building Code Council is required by North Carolina law to reevaluate the building code every six years. In light of climate change legislation enacted in North Carolina on the heels of Governor Cooper’s 2019 Clean Energy Plan, changes to the energy code are being considered that would result in an 18 percent increase in energy efficiency for new homes. These code changes are in line with the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code ...
As we continue our series of articles relating to distressed commodity prices in the oil and gas market, we expound on the option to monetize assets that are not included in the calculation of your borrowing base. This topic was briefly discussed in our article, “A Dozen Ways to Stretch Your Borrowing Base.” Under reserve based loans (“RBLs”), producing reserves have always been what one may call the “belle of the ball ...
May 12, 2022 By: Mikhail Parnes and Devan McCarty Health plans routinely assert that contracted providers must appeal underpayments or claim denials according to the health plans’ internal dispute process. The payer/provider agreement itself, or provider manuals that health plans contend are incorporated by reference, are the basis for the appeal requirement. Health plans oftentimes analogize this process to the legal principle of exhaustion of administrative remedies ...
On September 18, 2017, the National Hydrocarbons Commission (Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos) (“CNH”) called an international public bid for the selection of a partner for Pemex Exploración y Producción (“Pemex”) to pursue exploration and production activities in the Nobilis-Maximino field, located in deep waters in the Perdido Belt in the Gulf of Mexico ...
In Novozymes A/S v. DuPont Nutrition Biosciences APS, 2012-1433 (Fed. Cir. July 22, 2013), the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of DuPont’s post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law holding that Novozymes’ U.S. Patent No. 7,713,723 (“the ’723 patent”), directed to a variant of alpha-amylase, was invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 112, first paragraph, for failing to satisfy the written description requirement.2 (Slip op. at 18) ...
The Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury, and the Office of Personnel Management recently issued an Interim Final Rule (IFR) implementing portions of the No Surprises Act enacted in December 2020 ...
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 ...
On December 14, 2022, the National Labor Relations Board reinstated a previous test used to determine which employees must be included in an appropriate bargaining unit. In American Steel Construction, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 23 (2022), the Board overruled the test established in PCC Structurals, 365 NLRB No. 160 (2017), and The Boeing Co., 368 NLRB No. 67 (2019), opting to return to the test set forth in Specialty Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center of Mobile, 357 NLRB 934 (2011) ...
NIGERIA’S MINING ACTS - A Case Study for Mining Reform
In the last several years, Texas has generated significant news stories related to the disagreements between the Texas Medical Board (“TMB”) and Teladoc, a telehealth medical provider. The original dispute centered around the right of telemedicine providers to treat Texas residents without an initial in-person visit, which some would argue circumvents the establishment of the practitioner-patient relationship ...
New regulations on Air Pollution and Primary Standard on breathable particulate matter PM2.5 emision standard for thermoelectric power plants. One of the most groundbreaking legal innovations that have occurred during 2011 is the enactment of the regulation that contains the Primary Standard on Fine Inhalable Particulate Matter PM 2.5 and the Emission Standard for Thermoelectric Power Plants. Both regulations will enter into force on January the 1st of 2012 ...
New York State Lifts Restrictions. On June 7, 2021, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared that the State would lift most remaining COVID-19 restrictions when 70% of adult New Yorkers had received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. On June 15, 2021, Governor Cuomo held a press conference to announce that New York had reached the 70% first-dose threshold ...
Key Points New York federal district court vacates the DOL’s “health care provider” definition in the DOL’s Final Rule implementing the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. The court also vacates the DOL’s employer consent requirement for intermittent leave and the “unable to work” requirement for receipt of leave benefits. The national impact of the decision is currently unknown as the DOL contemplates next steps ...
A new Act which comes into force on 16 January 2009 imposes serious new penalties for directors, employers and employees who are convicted of a health and safety offence. The Bill received Royal Assent on 16 October 2008 and unlike the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act, this has had a relatively easy journey through the parliamentary stages ...
The government announced several new business immigration routes to be launched in 2022 which consolidate and reform existing routes. The aim is to provide more opportunities for businesses to attract talent from overseas as well as to provide opportunities for growing businesses and recent graduates from international universities. The new Global Business Mobility Visas comprise of five different categories: 1 ...
In recent months a Customs Destination Certificate (CDA, in its Spanish acronym) will be required for medical devices1that do not have a sanitary registration to be imported into Chile. The CDA must be requested and obtained by the importer through the Institute of Public Health’s (ISP, id.) GICONA 2.0 electronic platform, and will require the payment of an official fee corresponding to the service code 4111027, “Customs Destination Certificate, law 18,164” ...
To help further the objectives of the Women’s Health Strategy for England (published by the Department of Health and Social Care in July 2022) £1.97m has been awarded to help women in the workplace who are experiencing reproductive health issues. The grant will be shared between 16 charities which include, amongst others, Fertility Network UK, Sands, Tommy’s and Mind ...
On May 28, 2008, the Quebec Minister of Natural Resources and Wildlife, Claude Béchard, presented the first Government strategy for the lumber use in construction. Entitled “Agir aujourd’hui pour demain” (Acting today for tomorrow). This initiative has the goal of a threefold increase by 2014 in the use of wood products in the non-residential sector and in construction of multi-family dwellings, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 600,000 tonnes ...
On Jan. 19, 2021, the two recent final rules issued by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding changes to the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and the Physician Self-Referral Law (Stark Law) regulations (respectively the OIG Rule and the CMS Rule, collectively the Final Rules) became effective ...
Governor Ivey in her State of the State address on February 4 argued forcefully that Alabama must do more to attract physicians (and nurse-practitioners) to practice in the rural, under-served areas of the state. Unfortunately, one of the only current tax incentives to do so—a $5,000 income tax credit that can be claimed over a 5 consecutive year period--has been the source of many audits and administrative and Alabama Tax Tribunal appeals ...
Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued proposed rules to expand access to “Association Health Plans” for small businesses that are unaffiliated, but are in the same line of business or geographic area. An “Association Health Plan” or “AHP” is a group health plan adopted by members of an employer association to provide health coverage for their employees ...
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 January 24, 2011 the Attorney General of the Federal Republic of Brazil signed a document restricting the powers of ANVISA (Brazil’s regulatorybody) in the examination of pharmaceutical applications, giving the rights to the Brazilian PTO to do so without any interference of ANVISA. The dispute between ANVISA and the Brazilian PTO in the examination of pharmaceutical applications had apparently been solved ...
The 2011 Texas Legislature adopted broad changes to eminent domain laws that take effect on September 1, 2011. Under the new law, public and private entities that hold condemnation power face important new requirements and deadlines ...
