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
Gross receipts from healthcare services delivered to dialysis patients were properly sourced to Ohio where the treatments were performed. Accordingly, the patients received the benefit of the dialysis services at the...more
A New Hope in Kidney Transplants: The Promise of Xenotransplantation - Joe’s struggle for a kidney transplant highlights a dire reality: donor shortages are leaving countless patients in limbo. Enter Dr. PK, a pioneering...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
As value-based care (VBC) models continue to grow across our nation’s health system and specifically within different specialties like nephrology, the costs and challenges of maintaining these models continue to rise. In...more
FTC final rule banning noncompetes grandfathers existing agreements for senior execs - The FTC voted 3-2 in favor of the final rule, which bans noncompete clauses in employee contracts in most cases. While the rule would...more
Five NJ nephrology practices combine under Northeast Kidney Care banner - The combined company claims to be the largest independent group of nephrologists in the state, with 26 locations. ...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
MedPAC recommends no additional increase in payments for dialysis in 2024 - MedPAC’s report on outpatient dialysis services recommends Congress not increase Medicare payments for dialysis services next year beyond the...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 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
Medtronic, DaVita forming kidney tech company to develop dialysis delivery systems - The healthtech and the dialysis provider will be 50-50 partners in the venture, which will include the entirety of Medtronic’s renal...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
Cricket Health unveils value-based kidney care model for MA plans - A program from startup kidney care provider Cricket Health is designed for MA plans managing care for patients with end-stage renal disease who are...more
Congress’ year-end spending bill includes increase to Medicare physician fee schedule, surprise medical bill protection - Sweeping federal legislation signed into law on Dec. 27 combines $1.4-trillion in spending...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
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