The Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“OIG”) issued its first Special Fraud Alert since 2014, on November 16, 2020. Recognizing that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused cancellation of speaker programing on products sold by pharmaceutical and medical device companies (“vendor companies”), OIG questions the […]
Health Law Alert
New Nebraska Public Meetings Limited Waiver
On December 1, 2020, Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts signed Executive Order No. 20-36 waiving certain requirements of the Nebraska Open Meetings Act for all “meetings” held by specified “public bodies” defined in the Open Meetings Act. The waiver would apply for the months of December 2020 and January 2021. The […]
Extension of the Information Blocking Applicability Date
Application of the Information Blocking final rule has been delayed until April 5, 2021. While the industry has been aware of a possible delay since late September 2020, the federal government provided no hint as to how long the relief would last. And there was no lack of suspense. The […]
Provider Relief Fund Reporting: Small Changes to “Lost Revenue” Calculation & New FAQs
A little over a month after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) published its initial guidance on the reporting obligations for recipients of Provider Relief Fund (“PRF”) payments, HHS released updated guidance on October 22, 2020 (the “October Reporting Guidance”). In the updated guidance, HHS softened its […]
Proposed Changes to Supervision Levels for Therapeutic Hospital Outpatient Services Would Create More Staffing Flexibility for Hospitals
In the 2021 Outpatient Prospective Payment System (“OPPS”) proposed rule issued on August 12, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) proposed implementing on a permanent basis certain changes to the requirements for the supervision levels for hospital outpatient therapeutic services. As background, in its 2020 OPPS rule, […]