On June 9, 2025, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed into law Public Act No. 25-28, “An Act Concerning Access to Reproductive Health Care” (the Act). The Act codifies under Connecticut state law the ability of minors to...more
As part of its 2025 Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule (PFS Rule), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized two crucial updates to federal Medicare overpayments regulations (sometimes referred to as the...more
On September 18, 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a settlement with Dunes Surgical Hospital and United Surgical Partners International, Inc. (USPI), an entity holding a partial ownership interest in Dunes, in...more
On June 5, 2023, the Connecticut Legislature passed Public Act No. 23-97, “An Act Concerning Health and Wellness for Connecticut Residents” (“the Act”). Sections 13 through 15 of the Act make important changes to Connecticut...more
6/13/2023
/ Connecticut ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Labor Reform ,
New Legislation ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Nurses ,
Physician Assistants ,
Physicians ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
State Labor Laws
On March 29, 2023, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced a notable set of three settlements (collectively, the Settlement) in excess of $69 million dollars total with a...more
4/5/2023
/ Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Fraud and Abuse ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Physicians ,
Self-Referral ,
Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Stark Law
In June 2021, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a notable interpretation of the Physician Self-Referral Law (aka the Stark Law) in Advisory Opinion No. CMS-AO-2021-01 (Advisory Opinion) regarding...more
The Robinson+Cole Health Law Group is committed to examining and reporting on issues important to the health care and life sciences industries. Below are excerpts from our Health Law Diagnosis blog, where we post on fraud and...more
On August 24, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced an “extension of the timeline” for publication of a final rule addressing changes to the Physician Self-Referral Law (or Stark Law) regulations....more
On July 14, 2020 Connecticut Governor Lamont issued Executive Order No. 7HHH, in which the Governor modified state law to enable the Commissioner of the Department of Public Health (DPH) to temporarily suspend licensure,...more
Amidst the cavalcade of regulatory and policy changes from federal and state governments intended to help health care providers confront the COVID-19 pandemic, on April 21, 2020 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services...more
5/6/2020
/ Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Fraud and Abuse ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Physicians ,
Self-Referral ,
Stark Law ,
Waivers
On March 30th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued blanket waivers (Blanket Waivers) of sanctions under the federal physician self-referral law (Stark Law) to relax regulatory requirements related to...more
On October 17, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) formally published its proposed rule (the PSR Rule) to update exceptions to the Physician Self-Referral Law (PSR Law, also known as the Stark Law). For...more
10/31/2019
/ Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Comment Period ,
Commercial Reasonableness ,
Fair Market Value ,
Fraud and Abuse ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Patient Referrals ,
Physicians ,
Proposed Rules ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Self-Referral ,
Stark Law ,
Value-Based Care
The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine (BORM) recently approved significant changes to regulations governing the licensure and practice of medicine. The new regulations became effective on August 9, 2019. ...more
On June 13, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction granted to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and North Dakota Attorney General (NDAG) blocking the proposed acquisition of...more
7/1/2019
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Appeals ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Clinics ,
Physicians ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
State Attorneys General ,
The Clayton Act
According to reports, a Georgia-based physician who previously pleaded guilty to criminal violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) received six months of probation from a Massachusetts...more
In its 2019 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule (PFS Rule), CMS finalized a regulatory change that updates supervision requirements for Registered Radiologist Assistants and Radiology Practitioner Assistants...more
On November 1, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its 2019 Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule (PFS Rule), which contains a number of significant substantive changes to Medicare payment practices...more
On April 30, 2018 a Massachusetts physician was convicted of a criminal violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), as well as one count of obstruction of a criminal health care...more
The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently resolved two health care fraud cases – one criminal and one civil – that demonstrate the government’s continued scrutiny of lavish meals and “speaker’s bureaus” sponsored by...more
Hospitals and hospital systems in Connecticut must file annual reports by January 15, 2018 describing (1) the activities of their group practices (e.g., medical foundations or faculty practice plans), and (2) their respective...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a rare advisory opinion (CMS-AO-2017-1) under the Stark Law (Section 1877 of the Social Security Act, codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1395) earlier this fall, addressing a...more
On December 13, 2017 a magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota granted a request of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and North Dakota Attorney General to preliminarily enjoin Sanford...more
On June 22, 2017 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed an administrative complaint and a request for a preliminary injunction in federal court to block a proposed physician practice acquisition in North Dakota (the...more
On October 14, 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a final rule with comment period (Final Rule) implementing the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). The Final Rule...more
10/28/2016
/ Alternative Payment Models (APM) ,
CEHRT ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Medicare ,
Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization (MACRA) ,
MIPS ,
Physician Medicare Reimbursements ,
Physicians ,
PQRS ,
Quality Payment Program (QPP) ,
Rural Health Care Providers ,
Value-Based Payments
The Connecticut legislature recently passed Public Act No. 16-95 (PA 16-95), which aims to increase competition among health care providers by, among other things, restricting physician non-compete agreements. Though passed...more