Hooper, Kearney and Macklin on Cutting Edge Topics in the False Claims Act
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued a long-awaited Notice with Comment Period outlining a proposed Transitional Coverage for Emerging Technologies (TCET) pathway under Medicare that would be...more
While the pandemic put many things on hold, it did not do the same for the False Claims Act (FCA). To find out what is happening in FCA activity we spoke with Patrick Hooper, Jordan Kearney and Alicia Macklin, partners at the...more
In this week’s episode, Adam Cooper discusses the Supreme Court’s decision in Azar v. Allina Health Services, as well as a related memorandum issued in late 2019 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) that...more
On February 7, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS) published a notice signaling that it has submitted its previously published September 2019 proposed survey of hospital 340B drug costs for Office of...more
As forewarned, CMS's finalization of the Calendar Year (CY) 2020 Physician Fee Schedule, effective January 1, 2020, brings significant changes to its authority to deny or revoke a Medicare enrollment for physicians and other...more
When ruling that notice-and-comment procedures may be required for Medicare guidance, the Supreme Court may not have foreseen the potential disruptive impact on Medicare coverage rules....more
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of General Counsel (OGC) offered the healthcare industry the benefit of its legal analysis of the recent US Supreme Court opinion in Azar v. Allina Health Services...more
A few days before Thanksgiving, the news media published an internal memo by the Office of General Counsel (OGC) at the US Department of Health and Human Services (Department) to officials at the Centers for Medicare and...more
On October 31, 2019, the Office of General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued an important memo from Kelly M. Cleary, CMS Chief Legal Officer, and Brenna E. Jenny, Deputy General...more
Report on Medicare Compliance 28, no. 42 (November 25, 2019) - In a surprising CMS memo that just surfaced, top CMS attorneys echo the sentiments of the Department of Justice about the limits of enforcement actions based...more
In a significant break from preceding court decisions, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia recently struck down CMS's "must bill" policy, which requires that Medicare providers bill Medicaid and...more
On October 9, 2019, President Trump issued an Executive Order aimed to curb agencies, such as CMS, from using informal guidance documents as de facto rules that have the binding effect of law. In a press conference...more
On September 4, 2019, following remand from the Supreme Court’s decision in Azar v. Alina Health Services, No. 17-1484 (U.S. June 3, 2019), the United States District Court for the District of Columbia declined plaintiff...more
On August 22, 2019, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia held that CMS had unlawfully changed its “must-bill” policy, without going through notice-and-comment rulemaking, when it denied bad-debt...more
On June 3, 2019, the Supreme Court issued an eagerly anticipated opinion in Azar v. Allina Health Services, a decision with far-reaching implications both for the calculation of disproportionate share payments and provider...more
The Medicare Program, established in 1965, initially seemed simple: provide health care for senior citizens by paying hospitals and doctors directly for the care the seniors required. Initially, there were two parts to...more
On June 3, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Azar v. Allina Health Services, et al., Case No. 17-1484. The Court ruled in favor of a group of hospitals in a dispute over Medicare disproportionate share...more
On June 3, 2019, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) issued an opinion in Azar v. Allina Health Services whereby it ruled that the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) violated the Medicare...more
In a 7-to-1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court on June 3, 2019, held that “Because the Department of Health and Human Services neglected its statutory notice-and-comment obligations when it revealed a new policy that...more
In a landmark decision on June 3, 2019, the Supreme Court held that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was required to engage in notice and comment rulemaking before publishing methodology (Medicare Fractions)...more
On June 3, 2019, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Azar v. Allina Health Services, delivering a multi-billion dollar victory for hospitals that serve a disproportionate share of low-income patients by...more
On 3 June 2019 the U.S. Supreme Court held in Azar v. Allina Health Services that Medicare interpretive guidance must go through notice-and-comment if it establishes or changes a substantive legal standard governing payment,...more
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court upheld a D.C. Circuit Court decision vacating a policy of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) that would have “dramatically – and retroactively – reduced payments to...more
On June 3, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court (“Court”) issued a 7-1 decision in Azar v. Allina Health Services, favoring hospitals that had sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) over a Medicare payment...more
In a 7-1 decision released June 3, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a proposal of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that would have had the effect of significantly reducing Disproportionate Share...more