Metro Nashville has issued clarifying guidance for re-entering revised Phase Two, which begins July 3, 2020. Citing the spike in cases reported after the Memorial Day holiday, Mayor Cooper intends to prevent a new outbreak from large crowds celebrating the Fourth of July in Nashville’s Lower Broad. Dr ...
On the heels of Gov. Bill Lee’s Safer at Home Order, we are seeing a second wave of restaurant closures. Which begs an important question: Should I let the ABC and local beer board know that my business is closed? Although we have not seen any formal guidance from the ABC or beer boards on temporary corona closures, we do not expect any citations to issue for closed restaurants, bars, hotels and other licensed establishments ...
Membership substitution transactions are the most common form of business combination transaction in the nonprofit hospital industry. They are also widely misunderstood and the source of many mistakes. Many large 501(c)(3)s have become more acquisitive as a result of economic pressures of the ACA. Nonprofit health systems have been getting much better at participating in and winning competitive sale processes, resulting in an increased use of this business combination form. http://www ...
The impacts of COVID-19 appear set to permanently expand telehealth and fundamentally transform how and where providers practice. Shortly after the start of the pandemic, CMS made major temporary federal policy changes in response to the pandemic, including expanding access to telehealth services for people with Medicare, such as home health visits, and reimbursement for additional services when furnished via telehealth ...
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has finalized its proposal to expand the experimental Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) Model to all 50 states and conclusively transition Medicare home health services to outcome-driven, value-based reimbursement beginning in calendar year (CY) 2023 ...
Metro Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced a detailed plan for the staged reopening of restaurants, bars and music venues, as soon as May 1. The real question is: will anyone reopen their dining room on May 1st? You can read the entire Roadmap here. Initial reactions do not look good if you are in the market for a sitdown meal on May 1 ...
The U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”) recently issued a Final Determination concluding that certain dental implants imported by Instradent USA, Inc. and by JJGC Industria e Comercio de Materiais Dentarios S/A of Brazil (“Respondents”) infringe U.S. Patent Numbers 8,714,977 and 8,764,443 and should be blocked from entry into the United States ...
It was only a matter of time – following the election of President Biden and Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress – before the Biden administration and legislative leaders would turn their attention to changing the tax code. While it is early in what promises to be a loud and lengthy legislative debate in Congress, tax proposals introduced by high-profile senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) designed to raise $5 ...
For the past several years, the healthcare industry has been targeted by union organizers hoping to add nurses, physical therapists and others to their ranks. In the first half of 2015, there were more than 150 union elections in the healthcare industry, with unions winning more than three-quarters of these elections ...
To the extent that there is such a thing as a “HIPAA Day,” it’s coming up soon. And, no, it’s not a HIPAA Holiday. Instead, March 1 is the deadline to report all HIPAA breaches of fewer than 500 affected individuals. HIPAA requires all breaches to be reported to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ...
On June 25, five federal regulatory agencies, including the federal banking agencies,[1] finalized changes to the Volcker rule that reduce margin requirements for derivatives trades and loosen restrictions on banking entities’ ability to invest in, sponsor or maintain certain relationships with hedge funds and private equity funds — known as “covered funds” under the Volcker rule ...
The White House has completed the final review to clear a path for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to publish the final rule to modernize and clarify regulations promulgated for the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute. In June 2018, HHS Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan announced a regulatory reform initiative entitled the “Sprint to Coordinated Care ...
As November drew to a close, two district courts changed the landscape for healthcare employers who were working towards the December 5 deadline to implement the CMS Interim Final Rule’s vaccination mandate. On November 29, a federal district court in Missouriissued a preliminary injunctionenjoining the Government from imposing and enforcing the CMS IFR ...
Sunday morning, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee issued an executive order limiting restaurants, bars and similar food or drink establishments to drive-through, carry-out and delivery service only. Read the order here. Restaurants, limited-service restaurants and wine-only restaurants can sell take-out and deliver alcoholic beverages and beer. There is no additional license or permission needed to deliver ...
On February 10, 2022, the Senate passed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021,H.R. 4445. It is expected to be signed by President Biden shortly. The Act did the seemingly impossible by passing on lopsided, bipartisan votes in both the House and Senate, befitting its odd-couple Senate sponsors: Kirstin Gillibrand (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) ...
The Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in late February that it's delaying enforcement of certain requirements set forth in its Interim Final Rule (IFR) on the Domestic Hemp Production Program (84 FR 58522) under certain circumstances until October 31, 2021, or until publication of the final rule on such hemp production program, whichever occurs first ...
With COVID-19 numbers beginning to stabilize and some states announcing re-opening dates, many businesses are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. With that, many employers are asking key questions: What do we do to get ready and how do we do so without jeopardizing the safety of our workforce and our customers or clients? There is much to consider and there seems to be no crystal clear path forward for employers ...
As the delivery of health care continues to evolve and hospitals bear additional pressures to adapt to new payment models, more nonprofit hospitals are partnering with for-profit providers, through a sale, joint venture, or other arrangements. Partnerships between independent nonprofit hospitals and larger health care systems (nonprofit and for-profit) have been growing over the past two decades ...
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been one of the most sweeping, and most divisive, pieces of legislation related to healthcare in a generation. More ink has been spilled over enactment, constitutionality, and repeal than any other government healthcare program. With the election of Donald Trump, and a Republican-controlled Congress, the repeal of the ACA is all but assured ...
On March 30, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a major new initiative to target quality of care and fraud and abuse in elder care by forming 10 Elder Justice Task Forces throughout the United States. The DOJ intends to build these task forces on interdisciplinary teams – including Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action or HEAT Teams – already at work in several districts across the country. The teams include representatives from the U.S ...
On April 8, 2020, the IRS published Revenue Procedure 2020-23 (Rev. Proc. 2020-23) that provides partnerships a limited opportunity to amend their 2018 and 2019 tax returns and issue amended Schedule K-1s to partners to take advantage of the retrospective Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act changes ...
