On May 2, 2023, legislators approved the $229 billion New York State FY 2023-2024 Budget Bill (“the Budget”), which was signed by Governor Hochul on May 3, 2023. Article VII of the Budget touches almost every aspect of the New York healthcare system, including home health, hospitals, laboratories, and reproductive health. It contains wide-ranging provisions that expand access to care, allow clinicians to provide more services, and allocate needed resources to providers. It targets Medicaid in multiple ways, including an extension of the Medicaid Global Cap on system-wide spending growth through FY 2025.[i] Here, we outline some of the key provisions that this Budget contains.
Guest Contributor
Compliance Corner—The End of the Public Health Emergency: What’s Next for Telehealth?
By Conor Duffy, Kathleen Healy & Guest Contributor on
Below is an excerpt of an article published in the May 2023 issue of Health Law Connections, the member magazine of the American Health Law Association. Kate and Conor were assisted on this article by Health Law Group intern Paul Sevigny.
COVID-19 has driven increased telehealth access and technology-based health care services.
Addressing COVID-Related Staffing Shortages: Strategies To Recruit And Retain Employees
By Yelena Greenberg & Guest Contributor on
Below is an excerpt of an article co-authored with Robinson+Cole Labor and Employment Group lawyer Sapna Jain and published in the April/May 2023 issue of the Massachusetts Bar Association’s (MBA) eJournal. Yelena and Sapna will also be presenting an informative MBA webinar on the same topic on May 10, 2023.
Health care staffing continues…
Pending Illinois Legislation Could Heighten Merger Requirements for Health Care Facilities
By Leslie Levinson, Erin Howard & Guest Contributor on
The Illinois House of Representatives recently voted in favor of passing HB 2222 (“the Bill”), which, if enacted, would amend the Illinois Antitrust Act to add new reporting requirements for certain transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, and contracting affiliations. These heightened requirements would impact healthcare facilities and provider organizations starting on January 1, 2024. The Bill is currently under consideration in the Illinois Senate and would need to be passed by the Illinois Senate and then signed by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker in order to be enacted into law.…
HHS Seeks to Strengthen Protections of Reproductive Health Information with Proposed Changes to HIPAA
By Conor Duffy & Guest Contributor on
On April 12, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Proposed Rule) that seeks to enhance safeguards of reproductive health care information through changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. The proposal is intended to align with President Biden’s Executive Order…
Kentucky Governor Signs Bill Aimed at Mitigating Healthcare Workforce Shortages: Beginning of a Trend?
By Erin Howard, Leslie Levinson & Guest Contributor on
On March 22, 2023, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed House Bill 200, referred to as the “Kentucky Healthcare Workforce Development Act” (“the Bill”), into law. The Bill was enacted in response to current healthcare workforce shortages. In an effort to mitigate these workforce shortages, the Bill allocates funds for health care training programs across a wide range of professions, including home health and nursing. The intent of this investment is to remove the financial barriers that discourage many potential students from seeking health care training, and to add new incentives for high-performing health care training programs. The Bill further adds a requirement that all public health care training programs review the cost of attendance against the earning potential of their graduates.…
CMS Issues Guidance for Providers on Waivers, Flexibilities and End of COVID-19 Public Health Emergency
By Conor Duffy, Erin Howard & Guest Contributor on
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued a Fact Sheet (Fact Sheet) providing guidance on the impact of the end of the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) on certain regulatory waivers, legislative changes, and flexibilities that have been established during the PHE. The government previously announced that the PHE will expire at the end of the day on May 11, 2023. CMS is providing this guidance as part of efforts to ease the transition for health care providers, patients, and other industry stakeholders away from pandemic-era policies and practices tied to PHE authorities. CMS emphasizes that many of the waivers and flexibilities are or will become permanent or extended, and others are intended to end on or soon following May 11, 2023.
Below please find a summary of key guidance provided by CMS in the Fact Sheet and in related CMS PHE guidance documents issued recently:…
California Governor Signs Trailer Bill to State Budget Increasing Oversight of Health Care Entities Statewide
By Erin Howard, Leslie Levinson, Danielle Tangorre & Guest Contributor on
On June 30, 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom signed the 2022-2023 California state budget, which included a trailer bill, Senate Bill 184 (the Bill) which makes numerous statutory revisions impacting health programs and consumers. The Bill establishes the Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) within the Department of Health Care Access and Information to combat rising health care costs. California will join other states such as Massachusetts, Oregon, and Nevada in implementing a health care cost commission.…
Recent NLRB Decision Requires Union Access to Parts of Asset Purchase Agreement
By Natale Di Natale & Guest Contributor on
In a recent decision, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) determined that a hospital violated its duty to bargain when it failed to provide the union representing some of its workers with certain documents related to the sale of its parent organization. Specifically, in Crozer Chester Med. Ctr., 371 NLRB No. 129 (2022), the NLRB ordered the hospital to produce portions of an asset purchase agreement (APA) in response to the union’s request for information related to the transaction because the NLRB found these documents “potentially” relevant to the union’s role as bargaining representative of the unit.…
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DOJ Announces $900 Million Settlement Tied to Speaker Bureau Payments to Physicians
By Conor Duffy & Guest Contributor on
On September 26, 2022, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a $900 million settlement with pharmaceutical company Biogen Inc., which arose from alleged violations of the federal False Claims Act (FCA) and Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) tied to payments from the company to physicians, which were allegedly intended to induce prescription of Biogen’s drugs. The matter initiated as a qui tam whistleblower complaint filed by an employee under the FCA.…
Continue Reading DOJ Announces $900 Million Settlement Tied to Speaker Bureau Payments to Physicians