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On June 27, 2023, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed into law Public Act 23-171 entitled “An Act Protecting Patients and Prohibiting Unnecessary Health Care Costs” (“the Act”), which includes changes to Connecticut’s facility fees law. The Act implements previously-announced legislative initiatives that are the product of collaboration between Governor Lamont and the Connecticut Hospital Association, as well as other health care stakeholders.…

Continue Reading Connecticut Governor Signs Health Care Bill Revising Connecticut’s Facility Fee Law

On December 27, 2022, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a proposed rule (Proposed Rule) which proposes certain policy and technical changes to Medicare regulations, including a notable change to the current standard under the “60-Day Rule” for identifying a Medicare overpayment. Specifically, CMS indicated that it is proposing to (i) “adopt by reference” the federal False Claims Act’s (FCA) definitions of “knowing” and “knowingly” as governing when an overpayment is identified, and (ii) eliminate the “reasonable diligence” standard that has been in place, but subject to challenges, for a number of years.…

Continue Reading No More Reasonable Diligence? CMS Proposes to Change Standard for Identifying Medicare Overpayments to Align with False Claims Act

On November 12, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued finalized guidance (“Guidance”) clarifying that hospitals can share space, services, or personnel with another hospital or health care provider so long as they demonstrate independent compliance with the Medicare Conditions of Participation (CoPs). This Guidance, which finalizes the prior draft guidance issued on May 3, 2019, explains how CMS and state agency surveyors will evaluate a hospital’s space sharing or contracted staff arrangements when assessing the hospital’s compliance with the Medicare CoPs.  The Guidance took effect immediately upon publication on November 12, 2021.

As relayed by CMS, hospitals have increasingly co-located with other hospitals or other healthcare entities as they seek efficiencies and develop different delivery systems of care. Co-location occurs when two Medicare certified hospitals or a Medicare certified hospital and another healthcare entity are located on the same campus or in the same building and share space, staff, or services. …
Continue Reading CMS Finalizes Guidance on Hospital Co-Location

Excerpt of a contributed article published in Medical Economics on November 3, 2020.

These waivers could lead to lasting flexibilities for physicians — if a few bad apples don’t spoil the bunch

On October 19, 2020, the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) highlighted recent actions taken by the federal government…

On August 24, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced an “extension of the timeline” for publication of a final rule addressing changes to the Physician Self-Referral Law (or Stark Law) regulations.  In its announcement, CMS set a new deadline of August 31, 2021 for publication of a final rule.
Continue Reading CMS Extends Timeline for Finalizing Changes to Physician Self-Referral (Stark) Law Regulations to August 2021

On May 8, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published an interim final rule with comment period (the “Interim Rule”) in the Federal Register, setting forth additional regulatory waivers and other changes to healthcare regulations and policies in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). At a high level, the Interim Rule encompasses topics including expansion of telehealth, support for and expansion of COVID-19 testing, allowing certain licensed professionals to practice at the top of their licenses, Medicare payments for teaching hospitals, changes to the Medicare Shared Savings Program regarding financial methodologies, and application and risk assumption deadlines for accountable care organizations, among other changes. CMS has also updated provider-specific fact sheets on recent waivers and flexibilities, available here. Below are highlights from the Interim Rule.  Providers are encouraged to read all applicable sections of the Interim Rule in their entirety here. Comments may be submitted to CMS within 60 days of the date of publication in the Federal Register.
Continue Reading CMS Interim Rule Makes Sweeping Changes in Response to COVID-19 Public Health Emergency

Amidst the cavalcade of regulatory and policy changes from federal and state governments intended to help health care providers confront the COVID-19 pandemic, on April 21, 2020 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published “Explanatory Guidance” (Guidance) of the applicability of the blanket waivers of the federal Physician Self-Referral Law (PSR Law) CMS previously issued on March 30, 2020. See our analysis of the PSR Law blanket waivers here.
Continue Reading CMS Issues Explanatory Guidance of Blanket Physician Self-Referral (Stark) Law Waivers for COVID-19 in Response to Industry Feedback

On March 23, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that, effective immediately, it is temporarily postponing routine facility inspection and focusing on infection control and situations involving Immediate Jeopardy (where patient safety is placed in imminent danger). CMS is rolling out a new focused survey and inspection process to assess whether facilities are prepared for COVID-19, and has published a fact sheet describing the initiative. This will apply to inspections of all Medicare and Medicaid certified provider and supplier types across the country, such as long term care facilities (nursing homes), hospitals, and CLIA laboratories.
Continue Reading CMS Announces Targeted Plan for Healthcare Facility Inspections in Light of COVID-19

On July 18, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a Final Rule establishing requirements for arbitration agreements between long-term care (LTC) facilities and their residents. The Final Rule represents a revamping by CMS of a prior rule that had been published in October 2016 that prohibited pre-dispute binding arbitration agreements. CMS undertook to revise the 2016 rule after the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi enjoined enforcement of the prohibition on pre-dispute binding arbitration agreements.
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Continue Reading CMS Issues Final Rule Restricting Arbitration Agreements with Long Term Care Facilities

On November 30, 2018, the Solicitor General of the United States filed a long-awaited amicus brief in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s request for the government’s view of the False Claims Act (FCA) case U.S. ex rel. Campie v. Gilead Sciences, Inc. (see here for previous analysis of the Ninth Circuit decision in the case, and here for discussion of the Supreme Court’s request).

In its brief, the Solicitor General states that the conclusion of the Ninth Circuit – that “the fact of continued government payments did not by itself require dismissal of [the relator’s FCA] claims at the pleading stage” – was “correct and consistent with decisions issued by other circuits in comparable circumstances” and as a result no further review is warranted. The Solicitor General’s brief appears to advocate for a more narrow reading of the Ninth Circuit decision than many commenters have undertaken, explaining that “the relevance of a governmental payment decision turns on whether the government had ‘actual knowledge’ of violations at the time of payment” but in this case it is disputed what the government knew about alleged violations and when it learned about such violations.
Continue Reading In Amicus Brief, Government Discourages Supreme Court Review of Pro-Relator Ninth Circuit FCA Decision, but Pledges to Seek Dismissal of Case Upon Remand