Health Law Alert

On April 30th, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced that it will begin compliance reviews to support language access programs in critical access hospitals (CAHs) as part of federal efforts to reduce health disparities. OCR reviews will focus on compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of […]

In August 2010, the Idaho State University notifi ed the HHS Office for Civil Rights (the “OCR”) that, after they performed routine server maintenance for their Pocatello Family Medicine Clinic, technicians failed to put the server firewall back into place. This left the protected health information on 17,500 patients exposed […]

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) recently released an updated Special Advisory Bulletin1 covering the scope and effect of exclusion from Federal health care programs. The updated bulletin replaces and supersedes the OIG’s 1999 Special Advisory Bulletin on the effect of exclusion, and […]

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget recently announced new Metropolitan Statistical Areas (“MSAs”) based upon 2010 census data. In that announcement, a new MSA was created that includes Grand Island and the counties of Hall, Hamilton, Merrick and Howard. MSAs, by definition, have at least one urbanized area of […]

For years, we have been tracking the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs’ (“OFCCP”) efforts to expand its jurisdiction to health care employers. Generally, the OFCCP enforces regulations that require employers with at least 50 employees, who hold a single contract or subcontract of at least $50,000 […]