On October 20th, the federal government released a final rule and other companion releases relating to Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) under the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), a key component of the Affordable Care Act enacted in March 2010. The proposed rule, issued in March 2011, generated extensive comment from the healthcare industry ...
Taxpayers subject to Tennessee ad valorem taxation should take note of the recent Initial Decision and Order by the Tennessee Board of Equalization in In re: Signal Mountain Cement Company (Hamilton County, Tax Years 2008-2011). The Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) rejected both the “value in use” methodology as well as the use of federal capitalization principles in valuing tangible personal property ...
Only two days after the government’s announcement that it recovered a record-breaking $4.1 billion from its healthcare fraud enforcement efforts in 2011, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published a draft regulation in today’s Federal Register implementing the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) 60-day overpayment report and return provision ...
Healthcare providers and other HIPAA covered entities have until Wednesday, February 29, 2012 to submit notice of breaches of unsecured Protected Health Information which affected fewer than 500 individuals during 2011. Notice must be submitted electronically to the Secretary of Health & Human Services, and separate forms are required for each data breach occurring in the course of the calendar year ...
The Stage 2 Meaningful Use requirements proposed last week by CMS as part of the Medicare and Medicaid incentive programs to expand the use of Electronic Health Record (EHRs) maintain the same core and menu structure as the Stage 1 criteria. The proposed rule, however, gives providers an additional year, until 2014, to implement Stage 2 criteria ...
Please enjoy this edition of The Employer, a bi-monthly newsletter prepared by the members of Waller Lansden's Labor and Employment Law Practice Group. Designed to provide readers with useful and timely guidance on a variety of labor and employment issue, The Employer offers short articles on interesting topics ...
A Business Friendly Decision from the Tennessee Supreme Court By: Woody Woodruff and Becca Brinkley In a recent opinion, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that a lender that extends credit to a business may, under the right circumstances, also enforce a personal guarantee against the business owner, even if the owner does not sign in his personal capacity ...
On March 16, 2012 the President declared the Tennessee counties of Bradley, Claiborne, Cumberland, DeKalb, Hamilton, Jackson, McMinn, Monroe, Overton and Polk federal disaster areas because of the severe storms and tornadoes that hit those counties on March 2, 2012.If you suffered an uninsured or underinsured loss of property due to the March 2, 2012 storms in a county included in the federally declared disaster areas, you could qualify for assistance from FEMA ...
The global financial crisis which began in 2008 elevated the prosecution of crimes affecting federally insured financial institutions to near the top of the Justice Department’s priority list. Directors and officers of those institutions, already under scrutiny from the regulators and law enforcement agencies traditionally charged with examining their actions (e.g ...
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected the petitions of numerous states and industry groups that challenged several rules EPA issued to control greenhouse gas emissions from stationary and mobile sources.1 Following the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v ...
The Federal Trade Commission’s increased focus on the antitrust implications of healthcare mergers and acquisitions has been widely publicized. While scrutiny has largely been directed toward hospital and health system transactions, a recent case in Nevada indicates that the FTC is now taking an interest in relatively small provider combinations in highly concentrated markets ...
Skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) billed one-quarter of all claims in error in 2009 – resulting in $1.5 billionin inappropriate Medicare payments – according to a report released by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) on November 9, 2012. The OIG noted that the majority of the inappropriate claims were upcoded, and many involved claims for so-called “ultrahigh therapy ...
On November 15, 2012, the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (OIG) issued a report titled “Personal Care Services: Trends, Vulnerabilities, and Recommendations for Improvement,” which included a response from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) ...
The IRS plans to begin recurring market segment examination of tax-exempt bonds, including the hospital market, according to statements made by Bob Griffo, Supervisory Tax Law Specialist with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), at a recent National Association of Bond Lawyers conference. For the first year of the program, the IRS plans to examine between 20 to 40 tax-exempt hospitals ...
The so-named “American Taxpayer Relief Act,” now signed by the President after having been passed in the wee hours by the Senate on January 1, 2013, and later that day by the House, may pull the country back from a self-created fiscal/political ditch, but leaves the country at the edge of a fiscal cliff with spending cut issues, debt ceiling issues and undoubtedly more tax issues to be dealt with before March 1, 2013. Overview ...
On April 1, 2013, employers will be permitted to submit new H-1B petitions to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) for Fiscal Year 2014. As in previous years, April 1 is the earliest date that employers may submit new “cap subject” petitions to USCIS, and October 1, 2013, is the earliest date that a foreign worker may commence employment under a “cap subject” petition ...
In re: Signal Mountain Cement Company – Assessment Appeals Commission Upholds Assessor’s Use of “Value in Use” Methodology for Standard Valuation of Tangible Personal Property in Tennessee but Affirms Taxpayer Use of “Fair Market Value in Exchange” Methodology in Nonstandard Valuations ...
A small nonprofit hospice in Idaho became the first healthcare provider to settle a potential violation of the HIPAA Security Rule affecting fewer than 500 individuals. On January 2, 2013, Hospice of North Idaho agreed to a settlement in the amount of $50,000 with the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights (OCR) following an investigation relating to a 2010 breach involving a stolen, unencrypted laptop containing patient information ...
Omnibus HIPAA Rule, Including Significant Breach Notification Rule Changes, Released by HHS - The long-awaited final rule modifying the HIPAA Privacy, Security, Enforcement, and Breach Notification Rules (the Rule) was released on January 17, 2013 by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ...
Legislators filed bills before the official start date of the 83rd Texas Legislative Session; many of the bills already filed address healthcare issues. 1. The Budget. Texas legislative leaders recently approved a self-imposed budget cap for the 2014-2015 biennium based on a conservative estimate of growth in the state’s economy, holding lawmakers to not more than a 10 ...
A new program taking effect in March provides hospitals with a new option to secure funds for financing acquisitions and refinancing debt. On February 5, 2013, the Office of Hospital Facilities published a new rule that will enable qualifying hospitals to finance their acquisitions and/or refinance their existing debt with FHA insurance even if the hospitals do not have FHA-insured mortgages ...
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and the Department of Labor (DOL) appears determined to make it a memorable one. On January 14, 2013, the DOL issued an official administrative interpretation regarding FMLA leave to care for an adult son or daughter with a serious health condition who is incapable of self-care because of a physical or mental disability ...
Historically there has been relatively little enforcement focus on the typical physician-ownership model used by many ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). A qui tam lawsuit filed recently against an ambulatory surgery center company based in Nashville, however, indicates that qui tam relators are leaving no stone unturned as they look for cases. Although the federal government has declined to intervene in U.S. ex. rel Thomas Reed Simmons v. Meridian Surgical Partners, et ...
