Sidney S. Welch

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Sidney Welch is a nationally recognized strategic advisor to large specialty physician practices & associations and technology companies in their cutting edge and traditional healthcare, transactional, and litigation needs. She serves as strategic regulatory counsel, providing counsel to clients regarding tomorrow’s healthcare, including mhealth and digital health ventures; telehealth; precision medicine; artificial intelligence & machine learning; data aggregation & analytics; health information privacy & security; and advanced payment & delivery models.  Sidney also works with clients to achieve their business objectives against the constantly developing regulatory environment, including  the federal Anti-Kickback Statute; Stark I, II & III; the False Claims Act; HIPAA, HITECH, and Omnibus privacy & security regulations; state self-referral laws, fee-splitting, and corporate practice of medicine.  On the transactional front, Sidney provides legal counsel in the merger and acquisition of physician practices and healthcare technology companies, as well as private equity offerings, and joint venture opportunities.  She also provides representation in quasi-litigation and litigation matters, including False Claims Act mediation and litigation; Medicare & Medicaid reimbursement issues, investigations, audits, and appeals; state medical licensure investigations and hearing; medical staff bylaws, credentialing, and hearings.

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U.S. Department of Justice Withdraws Longstanding Healthcare Antitrust Policy Statements, Causing Uncertainty

It has already been a busy 2023 for the U.S. antitrust enforcement agencies.  Right on the heels of the Federal Trade Commission’s announcement of a proposed rule that potentially would ban non-compete agreements nationally, on February 3, 2023, the United States Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) announced the withdrawal of three antitrust policy statements … Continue Reading

HHS Issues Guidelines to Address Disturbing Trend of Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Testing and Treatment

Data collected during the coronavirus pandemic shows a disturbing trend of inequities in testing and treatment for COVID-19 among people of color. On July 20, 2020 the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a Bulletin for healthcare providers, hospitals, and state and local agencies that receive Federal financial … Continue Reading

CMS Issues Additional Waivers and Guidance on Telehealth

To ensure Medicare beneficiaries have access to necessary care without risking exposure to COVID-19, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has further expanded telehealth services and relaxed certain requirements related to the same with the issuance of additional waivers (available here) and an interim final rule (IFR) available here.… Continue Reading

North Carolina Telehealth Updates

North Carolina has drastically expanded its telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to give individuals increased access to remote care.  The following article outlines many of the important changes implemented. Licensure On March 10, 2020, Governor Roy Cooper issued Executive Order No. 116 (available here) waiving the requirement that healthcare and behavioral healthcare … Continue Reading

Texas Telemedicine Updates

As with other states, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the guidance that the federal government has issued (see here), Governor Abbott of Texas issued a disaster declaration on March 13, 2020 (the Disaster Declaration) resulting in the loosening of certain existing telemedicine and telehealth related requirements in Texas. Licensure. For current license holders, … Continue Reading

Florida Telehealth Updates

In response to the public health emergency declared in Florida on March 1, 2020, Florida loosened existing licensure and other telehealth requirements in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as outlined below. However, unless specifically waived or relaxed by the Orders (as defined below), all current minimum practice requirements and standards of care for telehealth services … Continue Reading

Illinois Telehealth Updates

Like many other states, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the guidance that the federal government has issued, Governor Pritzker of Illinois issued an executive order (2020-09) on March 19, 2020, amending and relaxing existing telehealth related requirements under 225 ILCS 60/49.5 regarding: (1) telemedicine services provided by licensed Illinois physicians; (2) telemedicine and … Continue Reading

Breaking Developments for Telehealth and Teleprescribing in Georgia

Unsurprisingly, COVID-19 has created a great degree of liberalization in the telehealth requirements previously in place. What has not changed is the fact that telehealth services are governed by a number of different laws and regulations, all of which are constantly changing – now more than ever.  In addition to the multiple changes at the federal … Continue Reading
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