Health Law Scan

In the most recent edition of our Global Healthcare Transactions Series, we focus on the Asia-Pacific region, which saw a wave of healthcare activity in 2020 including record high deals and a new peak for disclosed value. These gains can be attributed to macroeconomic trends such as aging populations and increasingly affordable healthcare, and favorable government policies encouraging local manufacturing and development of healthcare products.

A notable headline from the August 12 MLN Connects Newsletter for healthcare providers states “CMS Resumes Targeted Probe & Educate Program.” Designed to help providers reduce claim denials and appeals, CMS suspended prepayment reviews under the Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) program in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) in March 2020. But unlike post-payment audits which have been active since CMS authorized its contractors to begin new audits in August 2020, TPE prepay reviews remained on hold.

Members of our labor and employment and healthcare teams recently published a LawFlash covering the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) definitive guidance which specifically concluded that “federal law does not prohibit public or private entities from imposing vaccination requirements for vaccines that are subject to emergency use authorizations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.”

Our labor and employment team recently published a LawFlash analyzing the US Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services and Office of Personnel Management’s Requirements Related to Surprise Billing; Part 1.

We hope you were able to join us for our July Fast Break on the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit's recently affirmed $114 million judgment in United States v. Mallory. If not, you missed a great session, featuring Katie McDermott and Howard Young analyzing this protracted suit filed under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act (FCA) against the owners of two specialty clinical laboratories and a contracted sales and marketing company.

Members of our emerging business and technology team recently hosted a webinar on seed financing structures for digital health companies. The program, led by partner Benjamin David Novak and associate Jessica Lee, discussed the market trends in digital health company financings as well as the various deal structures frequently used in seed financings.

The Centers for Medicare and 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 telehealth, remote physiologic monitoring (RPM), and new remote therapeutic monitoring codes. Coming on the heels of the significant telehealth waivers put in place during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), CMS proposes to continue the steady expansion of virtual care options with this rule.

We invite Health Law Scan readers to join us on Thursday, July 22 at 3:00 pm ET for our next installment of the Fast Break webinar series. For this month’s edition of Fast Break, we will be joined by healthcare litigation partners Katie McDermott and Howard Young to analyze the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit's recently affirmed $114 million judgment in United States v. Mallory, a protracted suit filed under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act against the owner of a specialty clinical laboratory and the individuals who led its sales operation.

Our immigration team recently published a LawFlash analyzing the US Department of State’s July 2021 Visa Bulletin, which outlines per-country priority date cutoffs that regulate immigrant visa availability and the flow of adjustment of status application and consular immigrant visa application filings and approvals.

We invite Health Law Scan readers to join members of our digital health team for a webinar set to discuss the various deal structures frequently used in digital health company seed financings, as well as the range of market terms for each.