As noted in our recent LawFlash, the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force (CFETF) recently released its annual compilation report of its efforts to combat fraud related to pandemic relief...more
Healthcare providers are scrambling to understand the impacts of the May 11 expiration of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). Luckily for most telehealth providers, the outlook of their operations post-PHE is...more
Key provisions that provided flexibility to long-term care providers and helped alleviate administrative burdens will expire May 11, 2023. Long-term care facilities (LTCs), skilled nursing facilities (SNF), and nursing...more
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and related public health emergency (PHE), the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued four Notifications of Enforcement Discretion (referred to as...more
COVID-19 significantly affected home-based care providers, such as home health agencies (HHAs) and hospices, whose staff had to overcome both physical and mental burdens of going into patients’ homes to deliver care,...more
Another year has come to pass, and it seems the federal Public Health Emergency (PHE) will remain in place for at least the next five months. Why? As the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has continuously...more
Is the COVID-19 pandemic making you feel a bit like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day? Although most parts of life have returned to the "new normal," the federal government remains in a seemingly endless cycle of regulatory...more
The federal COVID-19 public health emergency’s (PHE) current expiration date is just one week away—July 14, 2022. While no official extension has been issued by the Biden-Harris administration yet, it is increasingly likely...more
Fraud stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a criminal enforcement priority for the US Department of Justice (DOJ). On April 20, DOJ announced a new round of criminal charges against 21 defendants that stem from...more
The US Supreme Court issued two decisions on January 13, 2022 in cases challenging the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on Vaccination and Testing and the Centers for...more
1/17/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Infectious Diseases ,
OSHA ,
SCOTUS ,
Stays ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
We hosted a very informative Fast Break session last month on CMS telehealth and RPM updates. If you weren't able to join us, the session was led by healthcare litigation associates Jake Harper and Tesch West, with special...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a table copy of its calendar year 2022 Medicare physician fee schedule proposed rule. The proposed rule is chock full of policy updates concerning...more
We hosted a very informative Fast Break session last week discussing what healthcare providers need to know as they prepare their employees to return to work and try to get back to a sense of normalcy. ...more
With coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines on the horizon amid the surging pandemic, critical extensions expand the scope of liability immunity under the PREP Act....more
12/9/2020
/ Civil Liability ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Countermeasures ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Immunity ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Medical Malpractice ,
Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) ,
Telehealth ,
Vaccinations
During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, we have seen a dramatic shift from in-person visits to telehealth services around the globe, unveiling what may be the new normal for providing healthcare services....more
8/14/2020
/ China ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Germany ,
Health Care Providers ,
Infrastructure ,
Patient Access ,
Singapore ,
Telehealth ,
Telemedicine ,
United Arab Emirates (UAE) ,
United States
US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on August 3 that aims to expand telehealth access to Medicare beneficiaries beyond the coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency (PHE) period. ...more
8/5/2020
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Executive Orders ,
Health Care Providers ,
Medicare ,
Patient Access ,
Relief Measures ,
Telehealth ,
Telemedicine ,
Trump Administration
Companies marketing products or services for coronavirus (COVID-19) should be aware of key areas of healthcare law and regulation, including Food and Drug Administration regulation, clinical laboratory testing oversight,...more
7/9/2020
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Clinical Laboratory Testing ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Immunity ,
Product Defects ,
Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Suppliers ,
Supply Chain ,
Telehealth
Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued Executive Order No. GA-27 on June 25 relating to the need for increased hospital capacity during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. As COVID-19 numbers in Texas surge, the order aims to...more
During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, we have seen a dramatic shift from in-person visits to telehealth services around the globe, unveiling what may be the new normal for providing healthcare services....more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a second, sweeping interim final rule in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on April 30, 2020. Building on the agency’s unprecedented March 31, 2020...more
CMS posted an expanded set, dated April 29, of Medicare regulatory flexibility measures for hospice organizations related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, supplementing the previous COVID hospice flexibilities guidance...more
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a far-reaching interim final rule (IFR) to address the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on March 30. The IFR represents a comprehensive set of policy changes...more
On March 30, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a stunning and far-reaching interim final rule to address the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. The rule is a comprehensive set of policy changes designed...more
As we noted in our previous Health Law Scan blog CMS Issues Program Instructions for Medicare Telehealth Waiver, CMS issued program instructions on March 17 to implement the Medicare telehealth waiver in response to the...more
3/20/2020
/ Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Facebook ,
FaceTime ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Medicare ,
OCR ,
OIG ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Skype ,
Telehealth ,
Waivers
CMS issued program instructions on March 17 (through a Fact Sheet and FAQ) to implement the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act (CPRSAA), which was enacted on March 6 in response to the...more
3/18/2020
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Emergency Response ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Medicare ,
OCR ,
Physicians ,
Public Health ,
Relief Measures ,
Telehealth ,
Telemedicine ,
Waivers