The Internal Revenue Service has proposed guidelines detailing how tax-exempt hospitals can conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA), as required in the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Although this new requirement is not effective until taxable years commencing after March 23, 2012, the IRS issued its guidance now because hospitals may choose to start the process of conducting CHNAs and implement strategies in advance of the effective date ...
Texas health care providers, health insurers and health clearinghouses face new mandates and increased penalties over the use of electronic health records (EHR) as a result of HB300, which was passed in the 2011 Texas legislative session and signed into law by Governor Rick Perry. The Texas legislation expands privacy rights of patients beyond that contained in federal HIPAA legislation ...
On July 1, the Texas Supreme Court handed down an opinion that has the potential to impact any case where medical or health expenses are at issue. In the wake of the Court’s ruling, a plaintiff may not recover medical expenses for amounts that the plaintiff’s health providers bill but have no right to be paid. In addition, the Court held that such bills are inadmissible - including to show pain and suffering. Case Background and Issues Presented Haygood v ...
On July 5, 2011, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published a proposed rule in the Federal Register that would make a number of changes to the Medicare program’s home health prospective payment system for calendar year 2012.Most significantly, the proposed rule would reduce Medicare payments to home health agencies by 3.35% or approximately $640 million in 2012. The reduction reflects the combined effects of (i) a home health market basket update of 2 ...
During the 2011 legislative session that just ended, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed into law a bill that allows rural hospitals to employ physicians, known as the “corporate practice of medicine,” despite the state’s long-standing ban on such practices. This legislation, along with similar recent legislation, signals that Texas might eventually do away with its ban on corporate employment of physicians altogether ...
It’s an all too common scenario. An unsuspecting Internet user opens an email with a link to a website spoofing that of a leading financial institution. The user is asked to input personal information such as bank credentials or social security numbers and in a matter of seconds the user becomes the victim of a phishing scam and is left to deal with the financial and emotional fallout stemming from the identity theft ...
Yesterday a three-judge panel from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit became the first appellate court to uphold the constitutionality of the minimum coverage provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “Act”), requiring that Americans obtain health insurance. Opinions are expected from the Fourth and Eleventh Circuits later this summer ...
Should the internet be free and open, with all internet traffic treated equally and no restrictions on transmitting content regardless of its type or size (so called 'net neutrality')? That is the view taken by Dutch lawmakers, who have finally approved a new piece of legislation to force internet service providers (ISPs) to do just that ...
A recent technical malfunction that knocked out websites and affected hundreds of businesses using Amazons cloud computing services offered high profile evidence of both the widespread popularity of cloud services and the potential consequences of storing company data in the cloud. The incident also drew attention to cloud service contracts, raising questions about performance levels and backups in the event of a service interruption ...
On June 16, 2011, the Supreme Court issued an opinion in Smith v. Bayer allowing a plaintiff to pursue class certification in a state court action after a federal court had denied certification in a substantially similar case. The Court held that it was improper for the federal court to enjoin the state proceeding under the “relitigation exception” of the Anti-Injunction Act because the issues were not identical and the state court plaintiff was not a party to the federal lawsuit ...
First proposed more than a decade ago, .XXX top-level domains have now been approved and will be launching shortly. The domains are intended for use by the adult entertainment industry, but for trademark owners in other industries, the potential association of their valuable brands with .XXX domains could have serious consequences. Fortunately, owners of registered trademarks can soon apply to block third parties from registering .XXX domains that contain their marks. The ...
The Supreme Court ruled last week in Microsoft Corporation v. i4i Limited Partnership that “clear and convincing evidence” is still the standard of proof required to invalidate a patent. Section 282 of the Patent Act states that “a patent shall be presumed valid” and that “[t]he burden of establishing invalidity of a patent or any claim thereof shall rest on the party asserting such invalidity ...
A bipartisan U.S. Senate committee has asked both the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to study the proliferation of physician owned distributorships (PODs), citing a lack of regulatory guidance on how these arrangements square with existing federal law ...
On May 25, 2011, the en banc Federal Circuit announced its decision in Therasense, Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson & Company regarding the appropriate standards for succeeding with an inequitable conduct defense ...
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Health and Human Services today proposed an expansion of the rights of individuals to obtain reports from health providers and insurers about how their protected health information (PHI) is used.1 The draft regulations will require health providers and insurers (called “Covered Entities”) to provide more data faster and in a variety of formats as requested by individuals ...
The Social Network did not just tell the fascinating story of Facebook's rise to a social media power house. It showed how society is increasingly using social platforms as one of its primary channels for communication. Social media is broader than social networking sites such as Facebook or Linked-In ...
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the creation of so-called “Pioneer ACOs” on May 17 in an attempt to blunt heavy criticism over the draft regulations on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) issued on March 31, 2011 (the “Draft Regulations”).1 The Draft Regulations have been criticized due to their burdensome data collection requirements, large start-up costs, uncertain savings, possible losses and troublesome governance mandates ...
Southwest Health Alliance (“Southwest”), an independent practice association with approximately 900 member-physicians, has agreed to a proposed order recently entered by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) settling charges that it engaged in anticompetitive conduct in its dealings with insurers and other payors for the provision of physician services (collectively, “insurers” or “payors”) ...
A former GlaxoSmithKline attorney, Lauren Stevens, was acquitted on May 10 of all criminal charges stemming from her response to an FDA investigation. The acquittal, ordered by U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus, is a stunning defeat for the government’s anti-fraud enforcement measures. The judge also severely rebuked the government’s efforts in the matter, stating the case should never have been prosecuted. Had she been convicted, Stevens would have faced a prison term of up to 60 years ...
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery — so they say. Boosters in Wellington, New Zealand, call themselves “Silicon Welly.” And Texas Gov. Rick Perry said somewhere in America “Silicon Valley will be replicated. I want it to be in Austin” — even though central Texas dubbed itself “Silicon Hills” long ago. There’s also the Silicon Forest, Prairies, Alleys and other Valleys. Not to mention the No. 1 Silicon Alley — in New York City ...
All businesses possess confidential information - trade secrets, customer lists, staff records - which could mean loss of business, reputational damage, or give competitors an advantage if leaked, whether deliberately or accidentally.Depending on the type of information disclosed and the type of organisation, there are potential consequences regarding public policy and data protection ...
On April 18, 2011, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began the attestation phase under its $27 billion Medicare EHR Incentive Program. Incentive payments for the meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR) will begin in May 2011 and will continue over the next several years. Eligible professionals (i.e ...
As we stated in our bulletin last week, on March 31st, the federal government outlined proposed actions relating to Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), a key component of the healthcare reform legislation (the Affordable Care Act, or ACA) enacted in March 2010. In this bulletin, we provide some additional information regarding each of the March 31st releases ...
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) will face large start-up costs under proposed rules issued on March 31, 2011 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), with an uncertain outlook for savings and even possible losses. An ACO is an organization of health care providers that agrees to be accountable for cost, quality and the overall care of Medicare beneficiaries who are assigned to it ...
In the latest in a series of legal challenges around internet keywords and particularly the Google AdWords system, the special adviser to the Court of Justice of the European Union, Advocate General Jaaskinen, has issued his opinion ...
