On February 20, 2025, the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) announced that its legal counsel submitted a letter to the U.S. Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS) and Treasury, requesting a stay of...more
On February 20, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a letter rescinding with immediate effect its March 2022 “HHS Notice and Guidance on Gender Affirming Care,...more
On January 17, 2025, the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claiming that the 2024 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) Final Rule...more
2/24/2025
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Due Process ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employment Litigation ,
Final Rules ,
Mental Health ,
MHPAEA ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Statutory Interpretation
On December 27, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through its Office for Civil Rights (OCR), issued proposed changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)...more
1/15/2025
/ Business Associates ,
Compliance ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
OCR ,
Proposed Rules ,
Risk Management
On September 9, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Treasury (collectively, the Departments) issued a Final Rule clarifying and adding additional requirements on health plans to...more
On April 26, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) issued a final rule (the “Final Rule”) along with guidance updating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) regulations at...more
On February 8, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) finalized long-awaited modifications to the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Patient Records regulations at...more
In the United States, mental health (“MH”) and substance use disorder (“SUD”) (collectively “MH/SUD”) have continued to represent areas of intense concern. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the MH struggles of essential workers...more
3/12/2024
/ Addiction Equity Act ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Health Insurance ,
Health Plan Sponsors ,
Mental Health ,
Mental Health Parity Rule ,
MHPAEA ,
NQTLs ,
Proposed Rules ,
Substance Abuse ,
TPAs
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through its Office of Inspector General (OIG), announced plans for significant updates and modernization of OIG compliance program guidance (CPG) to improve their...more
While direct patient billing may be less common for hospice patients than for patients receiving hospital or other types of care, there are aspects of the No Surprises Act and its implementing regulations that are important...more
On October 14, 2022, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14036, directing the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) to consider innovative actions to drive down certain single-source prescription drug costs...more
We continue to see an increase in fiduciary litigation involving employer-sponsored group health plans, particularly litigation involving mental health. A recent New York Federal District Court case, Collins et al. v....more
On February 23, 2022, Judge Jeremy Kernodle of the Eastern District of Texas ruled that certain parts of the Interim Final Rule Part II (the Rule) implementing the No Surprises Act (the Act) are invalid. Specifically, the...more
On July 1, 2021, the Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”), the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), the Department of Treasury (“Treasury”), the Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”), the Department of Labor...more
7/6/2021
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Billing ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Cost-Sharing ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Dispute Resolution ,
EBSA ,
EMTALA ,
Hospitals ,
Interim Final Rules (IFR) ,
IRS ,
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) ,
Out of Network Provider ,
Surprise Medical Bills ,
U.S. Treasury
Today, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske is joined by the newest member of our Hospice & Palliative care team, Noreen Vergara, where they discuss different ways hospices can come together to succeed in the value-based care...more
On April 2, 2021, the Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS) and Treasury (collectively the “Departments”) jointly released nine (9) questions and answers (“FAQs Part 45”) related to recent changes made...more