Health Law Advisor

My earlier post explored various real estate strategies frequently used in hospital M&A transactions.  Each of those different approaches – using real estate assets to secure acquisition financing, increasing existing lines of credit, or monetizing the real estate assets through divestiture – reflect different objectives and opportunities.  But, real estate is more than "location, location, location" and "strategy, strategy, strategy"—there must also be "value, value, value".  The real estate market itself is the lynchpin to establishing the value of individual ...

By Amy J. Traub and Ian Gabriel Nanos

A new law in Massachusetts prohibits hospitals from requiring nursing staff to work mandatory overtime under most circumstances.  The law, which will go into effect in 90 days, has strong support from the Massachusetts Nurses Association/National Nurses United.  Citing increased chances for costly mistakes and the dangers to patients associated with mandatory overtime, representatives of the Nurses Association applauded the measure, stating that it will protect patients and ensure safe, quality patient care, while saving money.

Employers ...

By Maxine Neuhauser

It’s no secret that the business of healthcare is growing exponentially.  Health insurance coverage is expanding and with it enhanced funding for health-related initiatives. Business models continue to evolve beyond the traditional healthcare delivery systems.   Corporately managed healthcare and dental practices are growing.

Corporate wellness programs to combat rising insurance costs are increasingly in vogue. Massachusetts’s recently enacted healthcare cost containment law provides employers with a “wellness tax credit" of up to $10,000  ...

In the past few months, we’ve seen a number of federal agencies take important steps to promote telemedicine. In May, the Department of Agriculture began a $15 million grant and loan program that will provide funding to innovative rural telemedicine programs; the Veteran’s Administration, building on its already impressive telemedicine capabilities, reported in July that it will be testing a new telemedicine system designed to support rural primary care providers; and in May and June the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Center for Innovation awarded funding to a ...

by Joan A. Disler, Michelle Capezza, and Gretchen Harders

Now that the Supreme Court of the United States has upheld essentially all of the provisions of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), employers are faced with looming deadlines to bring their group health plans into compliance with the ACA’s numerous new requirements. We have prepared for employers a timeline of the highlights of the upcoming deadlines for compliance with the ACA that apply to non-grandfathered group health plans.

Click here to access a copy of the timeline (PDF).

Medical group acquisitions by hospitals will likely continue at a significant rate. Through these acquisitions, physicians can achieve efficiencies and economies of scale that may not be available to independent practices. While an acquisition offer might come as a welcome opportunity, the process involves a series of complex issues that can seem overwhelming. There are many steps that physician practices can take to help them seize opportunities and minimize issues that might delay or derail a deal.

• Preparing the Existing Entity Most doctors choose their career because they ...

by Joan A. Disler, Michelle Capezza, and Gretchen Harders 

Now that the Supreme Court of the United States has upheld essentially all of the provisions of the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act ("ACA"), employers are faced with looming deadlines to bring their group health plans into compliance with the ACA's numerous new requirements. We have prepared for employers a timeline of the highlights of the upcoming deadlines for compliance with the ACA that apply to non-grandfathered group health plans.

Click here to access a copy of the timeline (PDF).

On May 16, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the Department of Health and Human Services (“CMS”) published regulations announcing various changes to the Medicare Conditions of Participation (“CoP”) applicable to hospitals.  According to the regulatory preamble, these revisions responded directly to the President’s “Executive Order 13563, by reducing outmoded or unnecessarily burdensome rules, and thereby increasing the ability of hospitals and [critical access hospitals] to devote resources to providing high quality patient care.”  ...

Although not the only factor, government payment reform initiatives in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are widely perceived as driving health care market consolidation.  Perhaps more significantly than mergers between hospitals, the ACA has created new interest in mergers across service lines (as reported here,  here, and here).  Hospitals, physician groups, outpatient centers, post-acute providers, and even insurance carriers are combining with each other in all sorts of ways and at an accelerating pace. Depending on who you talk to in government,  this activity is (1)  paving the ...