On April 22, 2025, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memorandum entitled “Preventing the Mutilation of American Children” (“the AG Memorandum”)....more
5/1/2025
/ Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
Gender Identity ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Minor Children ,
Minors ,
New Guidance ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Transgender
It is by now common knowledge that on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2025, President Trump signed numerous executive orders geared toward the implementation of his immigration policy objectives, setting the stage for what he...more
On April 1, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) released new guidance which requires hospitals to obtain informed consent from patients before practitioners, or medical or other students, perform...more
4/9/2024
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Hospitals ,
Informed Consent ,
Life Sciences ,
Medical Examinations ,
New Guidance ,
Patient Privacy Rights
On October 18, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”), which is tasked with enforcing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”), issued two new...more
10/23/2023
/ Data Protection ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Healthcare ,
Information Technology ,
New Guidance ,
OCR ,
Patient Access ,
Patient Privacy Rights ,
Telehealth ,
Telemedicine
Beginning June 21, 2023, New York State (NYS) Public Health Law (PHL) Section 2830 requires hospitals and healthcare professionals to provide written notice to patients before the patient is charged a facility fee....more
It is axiomatic that New York State requires every Medicaid provider to have an “effective” compliance program. New York Social Services Law § 363-d. In July 2022, the New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General...more
In September of this year, New York City Councilwoman Julie Menin announced her plan to introduce a series of bills that would create further price transparency requirements for hospitals, with noncompliance resulting in high...more
On November 19, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives (“the House”) narrowly passed the Build Back Better Act (H.R. 5376, or “the Act”), a spending bill appropriating nearly $2 trillion for measures to expand the country’s...more
On November 4, 2021, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued an interim final rule (the “Rule”) requiring COVID-19 vaccination for staff at Medicare- and Medicaid-certified providers and suppliers. The...more
11/8/2021
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Hospitals ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
Physicians ,
Vaccinations
The Biden administration announced on September 10, 2021, the criteria for release of a $25.5 billion fourth tranche of COVID-19 relief funds. As with the other rounds of funding, the money is being made available to a wide...more
On July 19, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a proposal that would significantly increase the fines that would be imposed on hospitals for price transparency violations. This proposal,...more
On December 2, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) and the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) of the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) published in the Federal Register companion final...more
12/21/2020
/ Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
OIG ,
Physicians ,
Proposed Rules ,
Safe Harbors ,
Stark Law ,
Value-Based Care
On the heels of its passage by the U.S. Senate two days earlier, the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act (the “Act”) was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on April 23, 2020, and signed into...more
While the business and personal relief provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) are understandably receiving the greatest coverage in the immediate aftermath of the bill’s signing,...more
On March 13, 2020, when President Trump declared a national emergency under the Stafford Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services utilized his authority to take particular actions, such as temporarily waiving or...more
4/2/2020
/ 1135 Waivers ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
EMTALA ,
Executive Orders ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
Waivers
In response to the growing concerns of the capacity of the health care workforce as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, on March 24, 2020 the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, issued a letter and associated...more
3/30/2020
/ 1135 Waivers ,
Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Relief Measures ,
Secretary of HHS ,
Telehealth ,
Telemedicine
We hope that everyone is staying safe during the COVID-19 crisis. State health departments are, of course, doing what they can to facilitate management of transmission of COVID-19 by healthcare providers. ...more
3/19/2020
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Emergency Response ,
Federal Funding ,
Health Care Providers ,
Medicare ,
New Legislation ,
Physicians ,
Public Health ,
Telehealth ,
Telemedicine ,
Trump Administration
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared that the 2019 novel coronavirus (known as “COVID-19”) is now a pandemic. The effects continue to be felt in the United States, which currently has well over 1,000...more
3/17/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Contingency Plans ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Crisis Management ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Foreign Workers ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Facilities ,
Home Healthcare Workers ,
Immigrants ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Public Health ,
Screening Procedures ,
Sick Leave ,
Travel Ban ,
Travel Restrictions ,
Traveling Employee ,
Trump Administration
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 is now a pandemic. The effects continue to be felt in the United States, which now has well over 1,000 confirmed novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)...more
3/16/2020
/ Best Practices ,
Business Continuity Plans ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
China ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Crisis Management ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Health and Safety ,
Health Care Providers ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Life Sciences ,
Medical Supplies ,
Personal Protective Equipment ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Preventive Health Care ,
Public Health ,
Risk Management ,
Strategic Planning ,
Threat Management ,
Trump Administration ,
Workplace Safety
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently released draft guidance for state survey agencies regarding shared space and co-location arrangements between hospitals and other hospitals or health care...more
6/18/2019
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Comment Period ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Draft Guidance ,
Emergency Rooms ,
EMTALA ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Facilities ,
Hospitals ,
Medicare ,
Patient Safety ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Shared Space Arrangements
Two recent legal developments (one at the federal level and one at the state level) will inevitably reduce barriers to new licensing and transactions in the home care industry and, in particular, for home health agencies...more
In the 1990s, as part of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the U.S. Sentencing Commission developed for the first time the criteria upon which it will view an organization’s compliance program to be “effective.” In October...more
On March 25, 2015, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators reintroduced the Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures Act (“PRIME Act” or “Act”) following the lead of the U.S. House of Representatives,...more