On Dec. 3, 2019, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) in conjunction with the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) issued a joint statement entitled “Providing Financial Services to Customers Engaged in Hemp-Related Businesses ...
A trio of federal statutes often referred to collectively as the P&A Acts, which includes the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Act (PAIMI), the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act (PADD), and the Protection and Advocacy of Individual Rights Act (PAIR), authorize the creation and operation of a protection and advocacy system (P&A system) to monitor the care of individuals with mental illness and developmental disabilities ...
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) vaccine mandate (Mandate)[1] has been preliminarily enjoined[2] on a nationwide basis due to a Nov. 30, 2021, decision by Judge Terry A. Doughty of the Western District Court of Louisiana, Monroe Division. Among other conclusions, Judge Doughty stated that mandating vaccination of health care workers should be done by Congress, not a government agency, although he also questioned whether even Congress had such authority ...
On Jan. 29, 2020, OCR released a notice regarding a recent federal court ruling in the case of Ciox Health, LLC v. Azar, et al ...
On March 8, 2024, just days before it was set to take effect, U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker of the Eastern District of Texas vacated the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB’s”) recent rule on determining the standard for joint-employer status. The NLRB issued the rule on October 26, 2023. It established a seven-factor analysis, under a two-step test, for determining joint employer status ...
In a recent opinion out of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras held that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) exceeded its authority when it substantially reduced the amount Medicare pays for 340B-acquired medications ...
A birth certificate is more than a piece of paper. An accurate birth certificate allows us to account for our population; it is often required in many aspects of life, ranging from employment, to obtaining state identification cards, to enrolling in school, to participating in government programs; and perhaps most importantly, it is an essential tool for establishing identity ...
Last week, in the culmination of a process that began in 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a Final Rule to update the Safeguards Rule promulgated under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act ...
In February of 2022, during his State of the Union Address, President Biden announced an action plan to improve the safety and quality of care in the nation’s nursing homes.[i] On October 21, 2022, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced new requirements to help with oversight of facilities selected to the Special Focus Facilities (SFF) Program ...
In the False Claims Act (FCA) case of Feinwachs v. Minnesota Hospital Association, the district court recently upheld relator David Feinwachs’ claim of work-product privilege over emails sent to his work email account. No. 11-cv-0008, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155027 (D. Minn. Sept. 11, 2019). Feinwachs was formerly general counsel of the Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA), a trade association of Minnesota hospitals and health care systems ...
In the False Claims Act (FCA) case of Feinwachs v. Minnesota Hospital Association, the district court recently upheld relator David Feinwachs’ claim of work-product privilege over emails sent to his work email account. No. 11-cv-0008, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155027 (D. Minn. Sept. 11, 2019). Feinwachs was formerly general counsel of the Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA), a trade association of Minnesota hospitals and health care systems ...
On Dec. 21, 2020, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the Act), which provides additional COVID-19 relief to individuals and businesses. The long-anticipated COVID-19 relief bill will now head to President Trump for approval or veto. The Act does not extend requirements for employers to provide emergency paid sick leave or emergency paid family and medical leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) past the original Dec ...
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld parts of a Texas District Court ruling by restricting the use of Mifepristone, while allowing Mifepristone to remain on the market.[1] This is the latest ruling in an ongoing legal battle that has left the future of abortion medications in a state of flux. Dinsmore previously discussed the original April 2023 ruling that led to the most recent development ...
On August 6, 2019, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a panel opinion in the case of Texas v. EEOC at al., Case No. 18-10638 (5th Cir. August 6, 2019), that looks to significantly impact the way employers may choose to treat employees or applicants with criminal backgrounds. Background In April 2012, the EEOC issued “Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII” (Guidance) ...
Over the past couple of years, school systems have been faced with several personnel issues related to the ECCAT classification. Several grievances were filed relating to determining seniority of the ECCAT classification, with employees mainly alleging that seniority as an Aide should serve as the seniority date as an ECCAT ...
In what appears to be a first under the False Claims Act, a case based on flawed cybersecurity has been settled, for nearly $9 million. On July 31, 2019, the Attorney General of New York announced that, alongside the U.S. Department of Justice, New York, eighteen other states, and the District of Columbia have reached an $8.6 million settlement with Cisco Systems, Inc. (“Cisco”) over sales of surveillance video software allegedly vulnerable to hacking ...
“Government efforts to manipulate markets and prices on consumer goods never work as intended, and in this case, would be counterproductive.” The waning days of summer signal the approaching midterm election season. Amid inflation, recession and voter discontent, it’s understandable that a group of congress members are anxious to put points on the board with a price-control scheme that they wrongly believe will lower prescription drug prices ...
Florida’s construction lien laws require a contractor to serve a contractor’s final payment affidavit “at least five days” before filing a lawsuit to enforce the lien. A general contractor recently had its lien rights reinstated when a court clarified how the number of days between the service of the affidavit and the filing of the lawsuit should be calculated and reversed a dismissal of the contractor’s lawsuit ...
A decision this week from the Third District Court of Appeals serves as a reminder for why contractors need to be aware of all of the terms of the warranties they rely on and pass on to their customers. In West Bay Plaza Condominium Association v. Sika Corporation, a condominium association appealed the dismissal of its lawsuit due to claims that the lawsuit was filed in the wrong location ...
In an opinion letter issued Aug. 8, 2019, the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor (DOL) concluded an employee may take leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to attend meetings to discuss the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) of the employee’s child with a qualifying serious health condition. BACKGROUND The employee has two children with qualifying serious health conditions under FMLA ...
On October 10, 2019, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (“Commission”) published a notice it would withdraw its simplified proceedings program. The withdrawal of the program becomes effective 45 days after publication in the Federal Register unless adverse comment is received ...
Stay focused on the interest, not on your position. Define the problem; you decide on your position. For every interest there usually exist several possible satisfying solutions to adequately address those interests. Remember that behind opposed positions lie shared and often compatible interests ...
It's a quiet Friday afternoon edging uneventfully toward the end of the day when a client calls: they’re interested in acquiring a U.S.-based widget maker. After your internal conflict check clears, reality hits – what do you do now? Whether your client is a foreign (non-U.S.) business targeting a U.S.-based company, or the U.S. target of a foreign purchaser, your deal may have Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) implications ...
The first quarter of 2024 was a busy time for regulatory action in the bank M&A space. Coming off a slow year for bank deal announcements in 2023, many bankers and bank advisors believed that 2024 would be a rebound year for bank combinations. Those expectations may be scaled back now that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) released proposed updates to their bank merger application rules and policies ...
HUD issued Mortgagee Letter 2022-16 (“the Letter”) on September 7, changing a Departmental policy on surplus cash distribution that had been in place for roughly half a century. Multifamily borrowers with loans that close after September 7 may, subject to certain preconditions, take distributions of surplus cash monthly instead of annually or semi-annually ...
