Health Care Law Blog
While originally scheduled to start in 2014, now beginning in 2015, "large employers" will be required to provide adequate health care coverage to their full time employees or pay a penalty. This requirement is known as health care reform’s Employer Mandate. In order to assess whether your company is subject to the Employer Mandate, you must first determine whether your company is a "large employer."
On Dec. 27, 2013, final rules were published in the Federal Register by the Office of Inspector General and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. These rules amend regulations protecting certain arrangements involving the donation of electronic health records (EHR) software or information technology and training services related to such EHR software from the Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark law. The final rules are nearly identical to one another and make five primary changes to the EHR provisions:
A recent Michigan Court of Appeals decision offers a glimmer of hope to health professionals who face the unenviable prospect of appealing adverse decisions made by licensing boards. Since 1994, the Public Health Code has required that appeals by licensed health professionals from adverse licensing decisions be filed in the Michigan Court of Appeals. Over the past two decades, there have been very few cases where the Court of Appeals held that a decision by a licensing board was legally incorrect or factually unsupported.
With the HIPAA changes taking effect in September of 2013, many health care providers are scrambling to update notices and policies to become compliant. One such notice that needs to be updated is the Notice of Privacy Practices.
Omnicare Inc., the nation's largest dispenser of prescription drugs in nursing homes, announced on October 23, 2013, that it has agreed to pay $120 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit alleging kickbacks to nursing homes.
The whistleblower in the case, an Ohio pharmacist named Donald Gale, worked for Omnicare from 1993 until 2010. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Cleveland in 2010, accused Omnicare of giving discounts for prescription drugs to nursing homes for certain Medicare patients in return for referrals of other patients at higher prices paid for by the federal government.
Technical glitches. Partisan rancor. Breathless media coverage. The rollout of the online Health Insurance Marketplaces (also known as Exchanges) did not lack for drama or controversy. The unveiling of the Marketplaces, one of the key elements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, was perhaps the most anticipated and controversial website launch in history. The website www.healthcare.gov was flooded with traffic from the moment it opened on October 1, 2013 and many interested consumers ran into trouble. While most of the extensive media coverage of the Marketplaces focused on problems nationally, we wanted to take a look at how Michigan’s Marketplace (and consumers) fared.
On September 23, 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued final guidance governing the development of mobile medical apps. The FDA will focus its oversight on apps that it deems potentially harmful to consumers if they do not function properly. This, therefore, largely excludes the majority of medically-oriented mobile apps currently on the market as they pose minimal risk to consumers.
An October 1, 2013 deadline is looming for many employers to give employees written notices under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, commonly known as the health care reform act.)
The Michigan Medicaid expansion saga has seemingly come to an end, as the Republican-led state Senate narrowly approved Medicaid expansion on Tuesday, August 27 in a 20-18 vote. Eight Republicans joined 12 Democrats to pass a bill that will bring billions of dollars in federal dollars to Michigan to implement a major element of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Under this bill, approximately 400,000 additional Michigan residents will be eligible for Medicaid coverage.
The vote came after lengthy debate in the Senate on the measure, and passed after "eleventh hour" legislative maneuvering. The Michigan House, which previously passed a Medicaid expansion bill, will likely approve the Senate version of the bill next week. If passed, it will be sent to Governor Snyder's desk for his signature.
In early July, we updated our readers regarding the status of the Medicaid expansion debate in Michigan. At that time, a House-passed bill - supported by Governor Snyder - languished in a Senate committee because it was blocked by Senate Republicans who opposed the measure.
