Health Law Advisor

On January 16, 2018, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) published its most recent update to the agency’s “Work Plan.”  Of note to Durable Medical Equipment (DME) manufacturers, suppliers and prescribers, OIG signaled increased interest in the investigation of three specific off-the-shelf orthotic devices identified by the HCPCS codes:

• L0648—back bracing
• L0650—back bracing
• L1833—knee bracing

According to OIG, the government paid out $349 million for these braces in 2016, representing a 97% increase from just 2014.  OIG ...

On January 12, 2018, the Maryland General Assembly completed its expected override of Governor Hogan’s May 25, 2017, veto of a bill it passed last April, joining eight other states, the District of Columbia, and various local jurisdictions (including Montgomery County, Maryland) already requiring employers to provide paid sick and safe leave.

As we reported  when the bill originally passed, the new law will require most employers with at least 15 employees to provide up to five paid days (forty hours) per year of sick and safe leave to their employees, and smaller employers to ...

On January 5, 2018, consistent with the 21^st Century Cures Act’s focus on creating interoperability and correspondingly a Trusted Exchange, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (“ONC”) released its “Draft Trusted Exchange Framework” (“Draft Framework”).  The Draft Framework is intended to streamline the exchange of Electronic Health Information (“EHI”) so that both health care providers and patients have better access to health information, thus improving communication and quality health care.  EHI includes ...

One of the challenges to increasing Medicare coverage of telehealth services is amending the statutory language in the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. § 1395m) to remove geographic and other limitations. The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 requires the Congressional Budget Office (“CBO”) to provide cost estimates of proposed legislation. These CBO scoring reports provide estimates on the spending and revenues associated with legislation, generally over the window of 10 years beyond the effective date of the legislation. Therefore, budgetary ...

Steven R. Blackburn, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice will co-present a Practising Law Institute in-person event and webcast on January 25, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. PST titled “Tech Sector Employment Law Hot Topics for the California Lawyer.”

This event will address current California employment law issues, with the added focus of how the latest, state-specific legal developments impact the tech sector, in particular.

Steven R. Blackburn’s program is titled, “Sexual Harassment in the Tech Sector – Employer Duties, Investigations ...

As 2017 comes to a close, recent headlines have underscored the importance of compliance and training. In this Take 5, we review major workforce management issues in 2017, and their impact, and offer critical actions that employers should consider to minimize exposure:

1. Addressing Workplace Sexual Harassment in the Wake of #MeToo
2. A Busy 2017 Sets the Stage for Further Wage-Hour Developments
3. Your “Top Ten” Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities
4. 2017: The Year of the Comprehensive Paid Leave Laws
5. Efforts Continue to Strengthen Equal Pay Laws in 2017

The New York City Council recently passed two bills affecting New York City employers and their employees. The first bill, Int. No. 1399, passed by the Council on December 6, 2017, amends Chapter 12 of title 20 of the City’s administrative code (colloquially known as the “Fair Workweek Law”) to include a new subchapter 6 to protect employees who seek temporary changes to work schedules for personal events.  Int. No. 1399 entitles New York City employees to request temporary schedule changes twice per calendar year, without retaliation, in certain situations, e.g., caregiver ...

On December 21, the Department of Justice ("DOJ") reported its fraud recoveries for Fiscal Year 2017. While overall numbers were significant - $3.7 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving allegations of fraud and false claims against the government - this was an approximate $1 billion drop from FY 2016. However, the statistics released by DOJ reflect themes significant to the healthcare industry.

Greatest Recoveries Come From The Healthcare Industry

As in years past, matters involving allegations of healthcare fraud were the driver, accounting for more ...

At this point, it's not really ground-breaking news that America has a problem with opioid drugs. By way of anecdote, when I became a federal prosecutor in 2011, the last heroin case that had been prosecuted in the Nashville U.S. Attorney's office was in the early-1990s; although, to be fair, there were then lots of what we called "pill" cases involving opioids. When I left the office in 2017, at least half of the office's major investigations were directly related to opioids--some pills, but mostly outright heroin or fentanyl/carfentanyl . In Nashville, Tennessee, OxyContin (which ...

On December 14, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to remove regulations that prohibit providers from blocking websites or charging for high quality service to access specific content. Many worry that allowing telecommunications companies to favor certain businesses will cause problems within the health care industry. Specifically, concerns have risen about the effect of the ruling on the progress of telemedicine and the role it plays in access to care. Experts worry that a tiered system in which service providers can charge more for speed connectivity can be ...