On May 18, 2020, California Senate Bill 977 (“SB-977”) was passed out of the California Senate Health Committee and is now scheduled for its first hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee on June 1, 2020. SB-977 as written would subject all acquisitions and affiliations on and after January 1, 2021 by larger health systems,
…
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court in NFIB v. Sebelius struck down a provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”) which, for all intents and purposes, made the expansion of the Medicaid program voluntary for individual states. As a consequence, the Medicaid expansion provided for in the ACA has
…
On April 27, Sheppard Mullin and Citrin Cooperman released a white paper entitled “Telehealth Development: Addressing the Current Need, While Strategically Position for the Future” addressing how federal and state regulators are promoting the expansion of telehealth. Healthcare organizations, of all types and sizes, are working to respond to the rapidly-changing regulatory environment.
…
In recent years, there has been a trend towards the provision of cardiovascular procedures in the outpatient setting and particularly in ambulatory surgery centers (“ASCs”). This trend is in part motivated by the fact that outpatient cardiovascular services, in comparison to cardiovascular services performed on an inpatient basis, tend to be less expensive
…
As discussed in a prior blog post, in order to manage the unprecedented medical need due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some states have loosened scope of practice restrictions imposed on healthcare professionals. The relaxing of these restrictions has enabled registered nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists and other health care professionals to provide certain
…
As we discussed in our April 27, 2020 blog post, nursing homes have become the focus of significant attention during the COVID-19 crisis. In many respects, the attention is well deserved:
…
As the COVID-19 emergency continues to heavily impact the U.S. and its health care system, CMS has issued additional flexibilities for providers and payors seeking to respond to the pandemic. These new flexibilities are described both in revisions to CMS’ blanket waivers and in a new Interim Final Rule with comment period, both issued on
…
On Thursday, April 16, 2020, the California Department of Managed Health Care (the “Department”) released an all plan letter (the “Letter”) regarding changes to the Department’s General Licensure Regulation (the “Regulation”) in light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The Letter updated the Department’s previous guidance concerning the Regulation that
…
On April 23, 2020, the Kaiser Family Foundation (“KFF”) issued a report authored by Priya Chidambaram entitled, “State Reporting of Cases and Deaths Due to COVID-19 in Long-Term Care Facilities.” In the KFF report, Ms. Chidambaram cited to previous KFF studies showing that COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on people who reside
…
The unprecedented impact of COVID-19 has created a myriad of challenges for healthcare providers to safely meet the evolving needs of their patients solely through a traditional in-person model. Telehealth has quickly shifted from a “nice-to-have” strategy to an essential tool for all healthcare organizations.
In an effort to promote the expansion and utilization of
…
On April 16, 2020, the Trump Administration issued its “Opening Up America Again Guidelines” (the “OUAA Guidelines”) as a self-styled roadmap to the staged reopening of the American economy.
On Sunday, April 19, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) followed suit by issuing new guidance (the “Reopening Guidance”)
…
On April 21, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released “Explanatory Guidance” related to the March 30, 2020 Blanket Waivers of Section 1877(g) of the Social Security Act (information about those waivers available in our previous blog post here), applicable during the COVID-19 public health emergency (“PHE”). The Explanatory
…
When Alex Azar, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”), declared a national emergency on January 31, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he triggered an exception to the “in-person medical evaluation” requirement for online prescribing as set forth in the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008…
On Wednesday, April 9, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) hosted a call entitled “COVID-19 with Nursing Homes.” CMS leadership aimed to provide updates on the agency’s latest guidance, joined by leaders in the field interested in sharing best practices with their peers.
CMS was represented on the call by Jean D.
…
On Tuesday, April 7, 2020, the California Department of Managed Health Care (the “DMHC”) released a guidance letter (the “Letter”) to all health care service plans regarding billing for and delivering telehealth services during the COVID-19 state of emergency. The Letter provides follow-up guidance to previous guidance the DMHC released on Wednesday, March
…
On April 2, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced a Notification of Enforcement Discretion to allow certain uses and disclosures of Protected Health Information (“PHI”) by HIPAA business associates during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Understanding that the CDC, CMS
…
