In the proposed 2022 Outpatient Prospective Payment System (“OPPS”) rule released on July 19th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) proposed increasing penalties for hospitals not in compliance with the price transparency requirements that took effect for hospitals on January 1, 2021. A portion of the price transparency […]
Health Law Alert
President Biden Issues Executive Order Addressing Competition in Health Care
On July 9, 2021, President Biden issued the “Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy,” which set out a “whole-government policy” of enforcing antitrust laws to prevent excessive consolidation and thus improve competition. Encompassing a wide range of directives and policy statements, the order specifically targets four important […]
Forget the “Carrot,” Straight to the “Stick”: CMS Proposes Increased Penalties for Noncompliance with the Price Transparency Rule
As of January 1, 2021, hospitals were required to disclose prices and otherwise comply with the price transparency requirements or face penalties. As a refresher, the price transparency rule requires hospitals post the “standard charges” of 300 common health services. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) specified 70 […]
Acceptance of Voluntary Restrictions on Clinical Privileges
The federal Health Care Quality Improvement Act (“HCQIA”) directs creation of what has come to be known as the National Practitioner Data Bank (“NPDB”) and mandates reporting by healthcare entities in two scenarios. The first scenario is when a healthcare entity takes adverse professional review action against a physician’s or […]
Dovetailing the State No Surprises Acts with the Federal No Surprises Act
The federal No Surprises Act (the “Act”) will go into effect on January 1, 2022. Regulations are expected in July, October and December, 2021. The Act is complicated on its own, but it is designed to recognize and dovetail with pre-existing state No Surprises Acts in a couple of situations. […]