Health care providers often find themselves in the position of collecting direct payments for medical services through patient payment plans. While providers must adhere to a myriad of health care laws when doing so, they...more
10/4/2024
/ Creditors ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance ,
Healthcare ,
Medical Debt ,
Patients ,
Payment Plans ,
Regulation Z ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Truth in Lending Act (TILA)
On July 17, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed House Bill (HB) 1633, the Fair Contracting for Health Care Practitioners Act (the Act) into law. At a high level, the Act: (1) limits the enforceability of noncompetes...more
8/7/2024
/ Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Labor Regulations ,
New Legislation ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Pennsylvania ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
State Labor Laws
In the rapidly evolving landscape of health care, the surge in telehealth has been nothing short of revolutionary. This digital transformation, while offering unprecedented access to health care services, also introduces a...more
6/10/2024
/ Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Due Diligence ,
Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Healthcare ,
Popular ,
Telehealth
A recently introduced California Assembly Bill (AB 3129), targeting private equity (PE) physician practice investments, is currently making its way through the legislative process. Introduced by California Attorney General...more
On February 8, 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) posted a final rule that aims to align 42 CFR Part 2 (Part 2) — which protects certain substance abuse disorder (SUD) records — with the Health Insurance...more
2/22/2024
/ CARES Act ,
Consent ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Electronic Medical Records ,
Final Rules ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Healthcare ,
HITECH Act ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
PHI ,
Substance Abuse
On January 1, California's Assembly Bill No. 352 (AB 352) went into effect, introducing significant changes to the handling and sharing of sensitive health information — particularly information related to reproductive health...more
1/23/2024
/ California ,
CMIA ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Data Management ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Electronic Medical Records ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Information Governance ,
New Legislation ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
PHI ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reproductive Healthcare Issues
Public-private partnerships (P3s) have recently become a popular tool for the development of public infrastructure projects in the U.S. and across the globe. By bringing together public and private resources, P3s can be used...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has just unveiled a proposed rule designed to penalize health care providers engaging in information blocking. Information blocking is a practice where health care...more
11/10/2023
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Comment Period ,
Critical Access Hospitals ,
Data Management ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Information Blocking Rules ,
Medicare ,
Medicare Shared Savings Program ,
MIPS ,
OCR ,
OIG ,
ONC ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment
In today’s pharmacy world, most pharmacies, whether large national chains or small regional businesses, are required to hold licenses and registrations in several states. Unfortunately, there is no universal pharmacy license...more
As discussed here, on July 7th the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of Treasury (collectively, the agencies) jointly issued a Request for...more
On September 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Minimum Staffing Standards for Long-Term Care (LTC) Facilities and Medicaid Institutional Payment Transparency Reporting proposed rule. This...more
9/13/2023
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Comment Period ,
Employees ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Long Term Care Facilities ,
Long-Term Care ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
Nursing Homes ,
Proposed Rules ,
Request For Information ,
Skilled Nursing Facility
On September 1, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) will begin enforcing information blocking penalties against certain health care information technology (IT) actors as published...more
8/30/2023
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Final Rules ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Health Technology ,
Healthcare ,
Information Blocking Rules ,
Information Technology ,
OIG ,
ONC ,
Patient Access
On July 7th, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of Treasury (collectively, the agencies) jointly issued a Request for Information (Request)...more
Background -
On July 1, an amendment to the Florida Electronic Health Records Exchange Act (the Act) will go into effect. The Act focuses on information safety and sets forth stringent requirements that prohibit health...more
Online Tracking Technologies and HIPAA. In December 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published a bulletin on the use of online tracking technologies (e.g., cookies or web...more
The COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) resulted in many changes to the health care system. One of the most dramatic involved the introduction of regulatory flexibilities that enabled the rapid expansion of telehealth....more
To combat the effects of declining reimbursement levels, many physicians and practice groups offer ancillary services to improve patient care and supplement practice revenues. The delivery of these ancillary services, such as...more
Reimbursement and licensing regulations that once restricted telehealth services have relaxed in recent years, fueling massive investment in telemedicine companies and provider implementation of telehealth modalities. A study...more
Given the short timeframe required for CMS compliance, Facilities must act quickly to ensure they have, or can develop and implement, these new COVID-19 policies and procedures. Further, specific documentation standards and...more
Why It Matters -
The guidance relaxes and quells confusion around visitation guidelines created by the increasing prevalence and availability of vaccines for COVID-19....more
Why It Matters -
Businesses should begin to address these issues now so that when COVID-19 vaccines are ready for distribution, they will be too....more
12/16/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Infectious Diseases ,
OSHA ,
Popular ,
Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) ,
Title VII ,
Vaccinations
Why It Matters -
Businesses should begin to address these issues now so that when COVID-19 vaccines are ready for distribution, they will be too.
...more
On August 12, 2020, Troutman Pepper published an advisory summarizing the workplace requirements of Virginia’s new COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) for infectious disease prevention. While most of the ETS is...more
Since April 2020, many health care providers have received payments from the CARES Act Provider Relief Fund (PRF) in the form of general or targeted distributions. Many providers have questions about receiving and using these...more
8/7/2020
/ CARES Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
HRSA ,
Internal Audit Functions ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
Provider Relief Fund ,
Reimbursements ,
Relief Measures ,
Tax Exempt Entities