Podcast: No Surprises Act: New Rules and Guidance for Stakeholders (Part 1) - Diagnosing Health Care
#WorkforceWednesday: Employee Privacy and COVID-19, CMS Vaccine Mandate on Hold, Independent Contractor Classification - Employment Law This Week®
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New Prescription Drug and Health Coverage Reporting Requirements
CMS Vaccine Rule for Health Care Workers - Employment Law This Week®
#WorkforceWednesday: Vaccine Mandate Compliance for Large Employers, Unionized Employers, and Health Care Providers - Employment Law This Week®
Podcast: No Surprises Act: Considerations for Plans and Providers - Diagnosing Health Care
DOL Clarifies Timing of Lifetime Income Disclosures in Benefit Statements
Information Blocking: How Will the New Rule Impact the Health Care Industry?
COVID-19 Hospice How-To Series: Recent Developments Regarding Telehealth, Virtual Visits, and Medicare Audits and Appeals
On December 11, 2024, the Ninth Circuit struck down an HHS policy that boosted the wage index, and therefore the Medicare reimbursement rate, for hospitals in low-income communities in Kaweah Delta Health Care District v....more
Welcome to the Akin Intelligence September-October recap. Around the one-year anniversary of the AI Executive Order, the White House announced that agencies had carried out their directives. Members of Congress introduced a...more
As we wrote about in our prior blog post, on September 29, 2023, John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia struck down a federal rule that permitted health plans and pharmacy benefit managers...more
On July 25, 2023, the US Departments of Labor (DOL), Treasury (DOT), and Health and Human Services (HHS) (the Departments) released a much-anticipated interim final rule to ensure that group health plans comply with the...more
On May 31, 2023, CMS issued a final rule (Final Rule) repealing COVID-19 vaccination requirements for staff and testing requirements for staff and patients of long-term care (LTC) facilities. These were previously required...more
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”), published a final rule on June 5 (the “Final Rule”), which, among other important actions,...more
On May 1, 2023, the Biden administration announced that it would be ending all of its various COVID-19 vaccination requirements on May 11, 2023, the same date as the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency...more
On December 23, 2022, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Treasury (collectively, the “Departments”) provided welcome relief in the form of an FAQ regarding the Prescription Drug Data Collection (RxDC)...more
On November 30, 2022, the Texas Medical Association (TMA) filed a third lawsuit challenging the regulations implementing the No Surprises Act (NSA). TMA’s latest suit before the United States District Court for the Eastern...more
The federal government recently issued final regulations revising certain aspects of the interim final regulations they had previously released implementing the surprise billing rules set forth under the No Surprises Act....more
On August 19, 2022, the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury issued final rules titled, “Requirements Related to Surprise Billing: Final Rules.” The rules finalize requirements under the July...more
On August 19, 2022, the United States Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury released final rules (“Final Rules”) revising certain provisions of their previously issued interim final rules regarding the...more
We previously noted that the regulations implementing the No Surprises Act (“NSA”) appeared to be inconsistent with the NSA because they seemed to establish the qualifying payment amount (“QPA”) as the appropriate payment...more
On August 19, the federal government issued a final rule addressing certain aspects of the No Surprises Act (NSA). The NSA was enacted in December 2020 to protect commercially insured patients from receiving surprise medical...more
On July 26, 2022, Judge Jeremy Kernodle of the Eastern District of Texas affirmed that certain parts of the Interim Final Rule Part II implementing the No Surprises Act (the Act) were invalid. This ruling is nearly identical...more
On February 23, 2022, the Federal Eastern District of Texas vacated the interim final rule regulations that establish the independent dispute resolution provisions of the No Surprises Act (NSA). On April 22, the Department of...more
On February 23, 2022, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas invalidated portions of Part II of the interim final rule (“IFR”) issued by the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor,...more
In this second installment of this blog series on the No Surprises Act interim regulations (NSA) we discuss: i) notice and consent requirements for out of network providers providing services at participating health care...more
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas recently vacated a portion of the Requirements Related to Surprise Billing, Part II, Interim Final Rule (the “Rule”) regarding the independent dispute resolution (IDR)...more
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s mixed ruling on federal vaccination mandates, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released three separate guidances for three groups of states. Our Labor & Employment and Health...more
On January 1, 2022, two Interim Final Rules (the “Rules”) that implement key aspects of the No Surprises Act (“NSA”) became effective. The first Interim Final Rule was initially issued by the U.S. Departments of Health and...more
On December 27, 2020, the No Surprises Act was signed into law as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. In July and October 2021, respectively, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of...more
Under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the “CAA”), group health plans and health insurance issuers are required to submit certain information related to prescription drug and other health care spending to the...more
Employers and their benefit administrators have more detail and a more convenient way to submit “top 50” lists and other data - but no more time to comply with - daunting prescription drug cost reporting requirements in the...more