Compliance Perspectives: Healthcare Compliance at the Border
On August 13, 2024, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and its Center for Clinical Standards and Quality / Quality, Safety & Oversight Group issued its memorandum QSO-24-17-EMTALA (the “Memorandum”),...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced the release of updated model signage for use by Medicare-participating hospitals to inform patients of their rights under the Emergency Medical Treatment...more
Almost 40 years after its passing, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) remains not only a key consideration for hospitals with emergency departments, but also a significant federal enforcement...more
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed legislation into law on May 21, 2024, that modifies Tennessee's certificate of need (CON) requirements. The law makes several changes to the existing CON law, including exempting more healthcare...more
On May 9, 2024, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed into law Public Act No. 24-4, “An Act Concerning Emergency Department Crowding,” (The Act). The Act requires all Connecticut hospitals with an emergency department to, no...more
Florida has adopted new requirements for hospital emergency departments (EDs) as part of the broader ‘Live Healthy’ legislative package. Effective July 1, 2025, all hospitals with an ED must submit a “nonemergent care access...more
A California Court of Appeal has provided additional guidance on how hospital decision making and contracting with medical groups for services influence or affect medical staff operations and fair hearing rights. The court...more
As experienced whistleblower counsel, with more than a decade of representing emergency providers in false claims act (FCA) cases against large hospital systems and national hospital-based staffing groups, the recent...more
On May 1st, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced investigations into two hospitals that did not provide necessary stabilizing treatment to a pregnant individual experiencing an emergency medical...more
Distances in rural health care can be hard to fathom. A 2018 study found it took rural Americans, on average, 17 minutes to get to a hospital, but only 10 minutes in an urban center. The distance between rural hospitals can...more
Looking for compliance education and networking in your area? HCCA’s Regional Healthcare Compliance Conferences offer practitioners convenient, local compliance education that covers a wide variety of current and emerging...more
On December 7, 2022, the Michigan Supreme Court decided Markel v Beaumont Hospital, 982 NW2d 151 (2022). In a 4-3 decision, the court offered a novel interpretation of Grewe which, in the words of dissenting Justice David...more
On March 31, a Superior Court in Connecticut issued a decision in which a Hospital's motion for a protective order was granted on the basis that documents demanded by the plaintiff who was injured at the Hospital were...more
Why are quality and safety of patient care getting worse? Many of us showered the highest of praise on doctors, nurses, therapists and other medical workers for their valor during the pandemic. They deserved it....more
In the recent case of Markel v. William Beaumont Hospital, 982 N.W.2d 151 (2022), the Michigan Supreme Court changed the analysis for claims alleging that a hospital is vicariously liable for a non-employee’s alleged...more
The terms clinically stable and stable for transfer are frequently used by and familiar to emergency department and hospital staff. When it comes to compliance with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) in...more
On January 30, 2023, President Biden announced that both the COVID-19 national emergency and the public health emergency (PHE) will end May 11, 2023. This announcement has left many healthcare providers considering how the...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently released new guidance about the process for converting to a Rural Emergency Hospital (“REH”) – a new Medicaid provider type effective Jan. 1, 2023. REHs are...more
Diagnostic errors are an understandable patient concern in any clinical setting. But just how often do they actually occur, particularly in emergency rooms? That is what the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services...more
Doctors working in hospital emergency departments face chaos, violence and high stress every day, and usually they get the diagnosis and treatment right. But, and it’s a big but, as often as one in seventeen ER visits ends...more
Rural emergency hospitals (REHs) are a new provider type that will allow Medicare to pay for emergency department and other outpatient hospital services in rural areas beginning on January 1, 2023, without requiring the...more
Almost three dozen leading groups representing a range of doctors, specialists, and other health workers have called on the Biden Administration to deal urgently with the long-running but increasing and dangerous...more
In recent months, decisions and laws limiting abortion rights in the United States have forced health care providers that serve pregnant women to keep abreast of quickly changing legal restrictions affecting their...more
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) requires hospitals with emergency departments and participating in Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) programs to provide medical screening, treatment and...more
Beginning in 2023, Medicare will recognize a new provider type: the Rural Emergency Hospital (REH). The establishment of REHs is intended to preserve access to emergency departments and other outpatient services in rural...more