Matthew Wolfe at Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

White House Promises $30 Billion in Federal Grants Heading to Health Care Providers This Week

On April 7, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma announced during a White House briefing that the United States Department of Health and Human Services would be distributing $30 billion to...more

4/10/2020 / CARES Act , Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) , Coronavirus/COVID-19 , Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) , Federal Funding , Federal Grants , Health Care Providers , Public Health Emergency

N.C. Medicaid Looking to Cut Red Tape in Fight Against COVID-19

The federal government granted North Carolina permission on March 23 for health care providers across the state to temporarily avoid compliance with certain federal Medicaid requirements. The idea is to reduce bureaucracy...more

3/25/2020 / Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) , Coronavirus/COVID-19 , EMTALA , Health Care Providers , Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) , Hospitals , Medicaid , Relief Measures , State of Emergency , Waivers

How North Carolina Law Is Changing for Behavioral Health Providers

Hospitals and other behavioral health services providers in North Carolina will face new regulations next year concerning the involuntary commitment and voluntary admission of patients undergoing mental health crises. In...more

9/5/2018 / Health Care Providers , Hospitals , Mental Health , New Regulations

What Home Health Agencies Need to Know as Federal Government Restarts Burdensome Pre-Claim Review, Offering ‘Choice’ of Punishment

Shortly after Memorial Day 2018, the federal government announced its plan to bring back a payment review project that puts significant administrative burdens on home health agencies. Originally called the Pre-Claim Review...more

6/19/2018 / Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) , Comment Period , Health Care Providers , Home Health Agencies , Home Health Care

Appeals Court Win Gives Providers Another Way to Challenge Medicare Appeals Backlog

A federal appeals court issued a significant ruling last week in relation to the ongoing backlog of Medicare claims appeals. It potentially gives providers a new way to seek relief when Medicare comes to collect money that an...more

4/9/2018 / Administrative Appeals , Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) , Appeals , Health Care Providers , Jurisdiction , Medicare , Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs)

North Carolina’s New Plan for Mental Health

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services recently laid out a road map for improving behavioral health services in the state. The report to the state legislature was the result of numerous stakeholder...more

2/27/2018 / Affordable Care Act , Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) , Health Care Providers , Information Reports , Medicaid Expansion , Mental Health

CMS Rolls Back Mandatory Bundled Payment Programs

The Trump administration is putting the brakes on a payment model that gained steam across the health care industry under the Obama administration. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced yesterday it is...more

12/1/2017 / Bundled Payments , Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) , Comment Period , Medicare , Trump Administration

As Medicare Audit Season Approaches, an Update on the Appeals Backlog

The federal government recently awarded new contracts for Medicare recovery audits, and recovery audit contractors (“RACs”) will start showing up at hospitals, home health providers, and other facilities any time. But this...more

11/8/2017 / Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) , Healthcare Facilities , Hospitals , Medicare , Recovery Audit , Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs)

Building an Effective Compliance Program

We both recently returned from presenting to groups of health care providers on creating and implementing effective compliance programs. Although compliance plans and compliance programs are not new to the health care realm,...more

7/31/2017 / Best Practices , Chief Compliance Officers , Corporate Culture , Employment Policies , Health Care Providers , Leadership , Risk Management

How Medicaid Affects Behavioral Health: Coverage, Expansion and Reform

Medicaid expansion has already had a huge impact on whether mental health needs are treated in certain populations. That may not be at the top of all the stories lately about the U.S. House of Representatives passing its...more

6/5/2017 / Affordable Care Act , Health Insurance , Medicaid , Medicaid Expansion , Mental Health

Federal Health Care Leaders Write Governors About New Direction for Medicaid

While much of the attention related to health care this week is focused on our nation’s capital, all 50 state governors have received a letter from recently confirmed U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary Tom Price and...more

3/20/2017 / Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) , Medicaid , Medicaid Expansion , Secretary of HHS

Caution About Fake Phone Calls from Health Care Agencies

Individuals should be cautious about sharing personally identifiable information when contacted via phone, including by health care agencies. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid released an alert earlier this week warning of...more

3/13/2017 / Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) , Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) , Fraud Alerts , Personally Identifiable Information

CMS Finalizes Rule on Reporting and Returning Medicare Overpayments

The Affordable Care Act (sometimes referred to as Obamacare) included a requirement for providers to report and return all Medicare and Medicaid overpayments within 60 days of identification. Although this requirement has...more

5/3/2016 / 60-Day Rule , Affordable Care Act , Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) , Civil Monetary Penalty , False Claims Act (FCA) , Final Rules , Health Care Providers , Medicare Part A , Medicare Part B , Overpayment , Reporting Requirements

Supreme Court Holds that Medicaid Providers Do Not Have Right to Challenge Medicaid Reimbursement Rates under Supremacy Clause

Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion that denies providers the right to challenge low Medicaid reimbursement rates by suing state agencies in federal court. In Armstrong v. Exceptional Child...more

4/2/2015 / Armstrong v Exceptional Child Center , Health Care Providers , Healthcare , Medicaid , Medicaid Act , SCOTUS , Supremacy Clause

Supreme Court Case Does Not Directly Challenge Obamacare, But Could Lead to Its Implosion.

The media coverage in the run-up to today’s Supreme Court oral arguments in King v. Burwell has described King as an attack on Obamacare. That isn’t quite right. Understandably, some of the imprecise language is due to the...more

3/5/2015 / Affordable Care Act , Health Insurance Exchanges , Individual Mandate , King v Burwell , Oral Argument , SCOTUS , Subsidies , Tax Credits

Matthew Wolfe

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Popular Topics by This Author

Latest Publications