DOJ scores first victory in criminal antitrust labor market trial - A federal jury convicted a former home healthcare staffing executive in Las Vegas for orchestrating a three-year wage-fixing conspiracy targeting...more
As Medicare physician reimbursement continues in 2025 to suffer from damaging shortfalls due to budget neutrality and lack of an inflation adjuster, steps are being taken in Congress to address the issue. On January 31, the...more
Senators not giving up on reversing CMS physician payment cuts during lame duck session - Forty-one U.S. Senators from both sides of the aisle are urging the upper chamber’s leadership to allow a bill to be introduced...more
RPA Perspective: 2025 Medicare Fee Schedule and ESRD PPS Final Rules—Highlights for Nephrology - The final rule for the 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule was released on November 1, and the highlights from the rule...more
The House Ways and Means Committee has postponed discussions on several healthcare bills, including those related to physician pay, due to scheduling conflicts and disagreements over legislative language. This delay affects...more
FTC Investigates Major Dialysis Providers Over Anticompetitive Practices - The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating DaVita and Fresenius Medical Care, the largest U.S. dialysis providers, for potentially using...more
KCP supports House bill to restore original intent of Medicare Secondary Payer Act - Kidney Care Partners (KCP) commends the 36 co-sponsors of the bill before the House, who come from both sides of the aisle and represent...more
NY Governor vetoes noncompete ban bill after opposition from health, business groups - Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill passed by both houses of the NY legislature in June that would’ve imposed bans of non-compete clauses in...more
Fresenius hiring Ascension Capital exec to head care delivery - The appointment of Craig Cordola as CEO of the dialysis company’s care delivery segment takes effect Jan. 1. He was at Ascension Capital for the past six...more
On Oct. 27, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule that will increase payments to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) facilities in calendar year (CY) 2024. The ESRD prospective payment system...more
Six Main Takeaways from the Benesch Healthcare+ Nephrology & Dialysis Conference. Experts included Dapo Afolabi, M.D., President and CEO of Fort Worth Renal Group, Terry Litchfield, President of Access Solutions, Jason...more
Correction to our January 31, 2023 newsletter article, “Dialysis Provider Satellite Healthcare Reports Data Breach Affecting Nearly 100k Patients”: Media Statement, Satellite Healthcare - In January 2023, Satellite...more
Federal omnibus spending bill rolls back some Medicare payment cuts scheduled for 2023, 2024 - Buried within the $1.7-trillion spending package signed by the President on Dec. 29 was partial relief for a planned 4.5% cut...more
Benesch: DOL proposed rule aims to clarify independent contractor classification - The Department of Labor (DOL) proposes changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act to clarify the difference between an independent contractor...more
Benesch outlines five states with data protection laws coming into effect in 2023 - Next year, statutes for data security and data privacy will go into effect in CA and VA on Jan. 1, while laws in CO and CT will be...more
SCOTUS questions appear to support DaVita’s position in dialysis care discrimination case - Private plans are supposed to provide coverage for dialysis for the first 30 months before the patients can transition to...more
On July 13, 2021 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) proposed rule for calendar year (CY) 2022 that could result in potentially significant reductions to...more
DaVita, former CEO indicted in federal market collusion case - DaVita and the company’s former CEO, Kent Thiry, were alleged to have conspired with Surgical Care Affiliates to suppress competition for senior-level...more
OSHA introduces mandatory workplace rule to protect healthcare workers from COVID The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OHSA) issued an emergency temporary standard (ETS) that sets out how it wants workplaces...more
AKF: CBO report suggests bill to cover immunosuppressive drugs for kidney transplant patients will save Medicare $400M over 10 years - A bill before the House of Representatives would provide Medicare coverage for...more
Circuit Court revives DaVita claim that Ohio health plan violated MSPA discrimination provision - DaVita and DVA Renal Health sued the Marietta Memorial Hospital, its employee health plan and Medical Benefits Mutual Life...more
Last week, CMS announced the finalized End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Treatment Choices Model (ETC Model), which will test whether incentivizing home dialysis and kidney transplantation will reduce Medicare expenditures while...more
On March 10, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) supplemented the guidance that we previously discussed in our March 6, 2020 blog post in order to provide additional guidance to healthcare providers,...more
Telehealth continues to be a frontrunner on one strategy to achieve the triple aim, an effort to improve patient experience, population health and reduce per capita cost. To date, government reimbursement for telehealth...more