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 (Allina) with respect to its impact on Medicare payment rules, sharing its Memorandum to the Principal Deputy Administrator & Director of the Center for Medicare dated October 31, 2019 (OGC Memo) with the public.
Health Law Scan
Legal Insights and Perspectives for the Healthcare Industry
In what has become the new “normal” in Washington, DC, these days, hospitals and their associations filed a lawsuit today against the US Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) challenging the recent Final Rule issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on November 27, 2019, addressing hospital pricing disclosures.
US government–funded academic medical centers and other research institutions are caught between traditional values of academic freedom, collaboration, and nondiscrimination and their obligations to comply with US law and enforcement authorities.
The government watchdog agencies continue to focus their attention on Medicare oversight of hospice providers, with two recent reports from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) focused in large part on ways to improve hospice surveys and nursing care oversight deficiencies.
In this LawFlash, our healthcare industry team unpacks the final rule requiring hospitals to make standard charges public and the proposed transparency in coverage rule requiring group health plans and health insurance issuers to disclose negotiated rates with providers and out-of-network estimates for consumers.
Healthcare is the largest labor market in the United States, employing over 18 million workers.
Healthcare providers dedicate approximately $39 billion per year to administrative activities related to regulatory compliance, according to research conducted by the American Hospital Association, which found the pace of regulatory changes “has begun to exceed many providers’ ability to absorb them.” To that end, understanding the federal rulemaking process and knowing when and how to get involved is critical for the healthcare industry.
CMS has released a pair of rules “that take historic steps to increase price transparency to empower patients and increase competition among all hospitals, group health plans and health insurance issuers in the individual and group markets.”
We invite you to join us on Wednesday, November 20, for our second installment of the Fast Break: Regulatory Sprint series.
October might be known traditionally for pumpkin patches, fall festivals, creative costumes, and haunted houses, but Health Law Scan will remember it as the month when proposed rules on Stark exceptions and AKS safe harbors were unveiled. In between stocking up on candy corn and picking out gourds for autumnal décor, Health Law Scan posted continuing coverage on the proposed rules, unpacking the detail and assessing what they mean for the healthcare industry.