Healthcare providers have special concerns for their employees during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) global health pandemic.
Because COVID-19 spreads primarily as a result of close exposure to an infected person, healthcare employees are at higher risk of infection. While OSHA has a standard to protect employees from the spread of bloodborne pathogens, it currently has no standard for the spread of … Continue Reading
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on February 27 that it has filed an administrative complaint challenging the proposed merger of Jefferson Health (Jefferson) and Albert Einstein Healthcare Network (Einstein), two Philadelphia-area hospital systems. The action is the FTC’s first hospital merger challenge since late 2016, when the agency successfully challenged the Hershey/Pinnacle Health transaction, also in Pennsylvania.
In this … Continue Reading
The terms of a settlement that resolved antitrust litigation between the State of California and Sutter Health, the largest health system in Northern California, have now become public, almost two months after the settlement put an end to the case. The settlement, which was inked only days before a trial in the case was set to begin, includes both the … Continue Reading
The Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal harmonized the interpretation of state statutory and constitutional language in the first post Amendment 7 case dealing with access to adverse medical incident reports and their use at trial. The Florida statutory prohibition against the use and admissibility of certain incident reports was postulated to conflict with the state constitutional access to adverse … Continue Reading
To bill or not to bill, that is the question. Or, more appropriately, who to bill and when to bill, that is the question. Providers who bill patients under the circumstances described below may face liability. What is a provider to do?
A patient was injured in the course of her employment in December 2013 and applied for workers’ compensation … Continue Reading
We are all too aware of the horrors of the Parkland shooting. In response to that awful day, the Florida Legislature enacted Florida Statute Section 790.401 in 2018, “the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Safety Act.” Part of this new law is the “red flag” provision which allows courts to proactively remove firearms from individuals who pose a significant danger … Continue Reading
The latest HIPAA resolution agreement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is a reminder that healthcare providers must take the high road when responding to unflattering online reviews by patients. While it is tempting to respond to a bad and perhaps untrue online review, healthcare providers need to take care to not … Continue Reading
Last Thursday, September 5, 2019, Judge James Moody, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida issued a positive ruling for hospitals dealing with patient safety organization (PSO) data. The opinion can be reviewed here. Note, while this decision is not binding on state courts, it is persuasive authority. It may be used to … Continue Reading
The Florida Legislature recently passed HB 369 (the Bill), which would tweak an important provision of the Florida Patient Brokering Act, Section 817.505 of the Florida Statutes (Patient Brokering Act). It seeks to clarify the exception to the Patient Brokering Act which incorporated by reference the criminal provisions of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (42 U.S.C. S1320a-7b(b)) pertaining to illegal remuneration) … Continue Reading
The Georgia Legislature recently passed House Bill 321 (the Act) adding a new code section (O.C.G.A. §31-7-22), which imposes significant financial and business transparency requirements on certain hospitals in Georgia, including non-profit hospitals. Beginning October 1, 2019, non-profit hospitals operating in Georgia will be required to post links in a prominent location on their homepages. These links must direct the … Continue Reading
The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals recently handed the Federal Trade Commission another appellate victory in its efforts to curtail anticompetitive mergers in the healthcare industry, affirming the FTC’s earlier District Court victory in Federal Trade Commission v. Sanford Health. The decision follows a number of other recent FTC appellate victories in healthcare merger cases – in the … Continue Reading
In a somewhat surprising move, on April 29, 2019 the Florida Legislature passed legislation (HB 21) that repeals the state’s “Certificate of Need” (CON) laws with respect to general hospitals and tertiary services. Such laws, which are in place in many states, typically prohibit a healthcare provider from expanding its services and from entering new markets absent its … Continue Reading
Atrium Health (formerly known as Carolinas Healthcare System) scored a big victory in its defense of an antitrust class action on March 4, when the Court ruled that the plaintiffs in Benitez v. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority, d/b/a Carolinas Health System, could not seek damages in the action. In granting the defendant’s motion for judgment on the pleadings on … Continue Reading
In December, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a report – “Reforming America’s Healthcare System Through Choice and Competition” – expressly calling upon the states to repeal their “Certificate of Need” (CON) laws. In the report, HHS indicated that the existence of such laws – which typically prevent healthcare providers from expanding their services/entering new … Continue Reading
The California Attorney General recently filed a precedent-setting antitrust action against Sutter Health, the largest health system in Northern California (People of the State of California v. Sutter Health, Case No. CGC-18-565398, San Francisco Superior Court), contending that Sutter Health’s contracting practices violate the antitrust laws. The action, filed in the San Francisco Superior Court, seeks to “restore competition … Continue Reading
It is safe to say that there has been much fear and confusion over the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Rule, or GDPR. With an effective date of May 25, 2018, and little guidance as to how the GDPR applies to organizations that do not have a physical presence in the EU or do not target their goods and … Continue Reading
In 2012, Marion Healthcare, an outpatient surgery center in southern Illinois, commenced an antitrust action against Southern Illinois Healthcare (“SIH”), a multi-hospital system operating in the same market. Marion alleged that SIH had negotiated exclusive dealing relationships with several area health insurers, and that these agreements made it difficult, if not impossible, for Marion to compete for surgical patients in … Continue Reading
At the close of the 2018 session, the Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 675, which if allowed to become law by the Governor, will help hospitals and their facilities that are under common control manage their patients’ drugs much more efficiently. Under prior law, the hospitals had to obtain a restricted drug distributor-health care entity permit to allow the … Continue Reading
Holders of Florida healthcare clinic license exemptions take note. Exemption certificates, which currently bear no expiration date, will expire every two years if a bill recently passed by the Florida Legislature becomes law. Senate Bill 622 will require exemption holders to renew their clinic license exemption biennially.
The bill is silent as to treatment of existing certificate holders, but businesses … Continue Reading
Changes to the federal regulations governing the protection of human subjects participating in research (known as the Common Rule) were amended earlier this year. The changes to the Common Rule impact research conducted, supported, or regulated by the federal government. While many of the Common Rule changes go into effect in 2018, the single IRB requirement has a compliance date … Continue Reading
There has been much fanfare, but little discussion, among healthcare experts in the United States regarding the Internal Revenue Service recently published PLR 201731014 (the Letter Ruling). The Letter Ruling provides a good opportunity to review where we have come and where we are going in the tax-exempt hospital industry in America.
Let’s focus first on the Internal Revenue … Continue Reading
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), in an August 3, 2017 letter to Florida’s Medicaid Director, approved a five-year extension of the State’s 1115 demonstration project, the Managed Medical Assistance Program (MMA). As part of this extension, CMS approved low-income pool (LIP) funding of approximately $1.5 billion annually. The LIP was created in 2005 to support hospitals, county … Continue Reading
Just over four weeks after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its score of the American Healthcare Act (AHCA), the bill passed by a narrow margin in the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate released ‘The Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017’. Upon initial review, we are providing a quick overview of this proposed legislation. … Continue Reading
While the Senate Budget Committee works to draft legislation to reconcile the American Health Care Act, the repeal and replace bill passed by the House, there is no expectation of a repeal of the charitable care obligations imposed on tax exempt hospitals under Section 501(r) of the Internal Revenue Code as part of the Affordable Care Act.… Continue Reading
