In an unexpectedly broad ruling issued December 14, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas declared the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) as unconstitutional in its entirety. This decision, if ultimately...more
Last Thursday Kathleen Sebelius resigned from her post as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). On Friday President Obama nominated Sylvia Matthews Burwell, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director. As...more
In This Issue: - Implementation of the Affordable Care Act - Other Federal Regulatory Initiatives - Other Congressional and State Initiatives - Other Health Care News - Upcoming Hearings and Markups ...more
Last Friday, at a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House, President Obama accepted the resignation of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and announced that he would nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, current Director of...more
Having settled into the new year, we reflect on decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 that are likely to have a significant impact in the world of pension and welfare employee benefits and, in some cases, already have...more
The Supreme Court will inevitably decide to what extent the Religious Freedom Restoration Act protects religiously affiliated employers from providing insurance coverage for contraceptive services, as is generally required...more
A new final rule (the “Final Rule”) from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Office for Civil Rights (collectively, the “Agencies”) gives patients and their...more
A bipartisan group of 111 members of the United States House of Representatives sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on February 10, 2014, urging the Secretary to reform the Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor...more
I was completely nonplussed when I saw this brief filed by 44 law professors in the appeal now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., Case No. 13-354. I was shocked because the brief...more
The U.S. Supreme Court will rule on numerous significant cases in 2014, involving such issues as presidential power, affirmative action, campaign contributions, environmental regulations, intellectual property, commercial...more
CMS has issued revisions to the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual to comply with the settlement agreement approved in the nationwide class action lawsuit, Jimmo vs. Sebelius. In Jimmo, the plaintiff class alleged that Medicare...more
Steve Hazen alerted me to the fact that California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris has filed an amicus brief in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., U.S. Supreme Court Docket No. 13-354. The question presented in that...more
On November 26, 2013, the United States Supreme Court announced it would hear two cases that test the provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) known as the contraceptive mandate, which requires employer-provided group...more
There has been much speculation in the health care community that it may be financially beneficial, under certain circumstances, for hospitals and other large providers to purchase health care coverage for their indigent...more
In a letter to Rep. Jim McDermott dated Oct. 30, 2013, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius clarified that qualified health plans (“QHPs”) available on the health insurance exchanges under the...more
Repair work to Healthcare.gov is underway, and White House advisors are now pledging that it will be functioning smoothly by the end of November. However, the system was met with new problems over the weekend when the...more
On January 22, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Sebelius v. Auburn Regional Medical Center, 568 U.S. _____ (2013), holding that hospitals cannot appeal Medicare inpatient reimbursement...more
On January 17, 2013, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the final omnibus rule that among other things (1) increases patient privacy protections...more
A recent decision by the D.C. Circuit underscores the large amount of discretion that federal agencies have in determining the length of a debarment or exclusion imposed on a government contractor or program participant....more