CLIENT ADVISORY: Congress Cuts into Future Off-Campus Hospital Department Payments

November 24th, 2015
The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 includes a provision that may significantly decrease reimbursement for services provided in new hospital outpatient departments. Click here for more information about the facilities that will be grandfathered into th… Read More
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Categories: Client Advisory

CLIENT ADVISORY: A Death Preference Not a Panel: Medicare to Pay for Advance Care Planning at the Beneficiaries’ Discretion

November 18th, 2015
On October 30th, 2015, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (“CMS”) issued its final rules for physician payment for CY 2016. As part of this rule, physicians will now be paid for providing Advance Care Planning consultation to Medicare… Read More
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Categories: Client Advisory

CLIENT ADVISORY: Alien Alert! New ALF Rules Propose Staff English Literacy Requirement, Changes in Incident Report Timing, and New Resident Rights

October 13th, 2015
The Virginia Department of Social Services (DSS) recently proposed new regulations for Assisted Living Facilities (ALFs). While many of the revisions are aimed at improving clarity through reorganizing regulation sections and updating language to ref… Read More
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Categories: Client Advisory

The Duty to Accommodate: Increasing Penalties and Sanctions for Providers Who Fail to Furnish Civil Rights Accommodations

October 8th, 2015
Recently, government agencies including the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Human Services (DHHS) (including the Office of Civil Rights (OCR)) have been actively pursuing healthcare providers who fail to provide adequate services or… Read More
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Categories: Client Advisory

Client Alert: Comments Due By September 14th on Sweeping CMS Proposed Rule That Would Comprehensively Revise Medicare and Medicaid Nursing Facility Conditions of Participation

September 4th, 2015
On July 16, 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published a sweeping Proposed Rule that would comprehensively revise Medicare and Medicaid participation requirements for nursing facilities for the first time since 1991. Mellett… Read More
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Categories: Client Advisory

Virginia CCRC Charged with Discrimination Under the Federal Fair Housing Act: Balancing Restrictions and Resident Rights

August 18th, 2015
Introduction A recent case may require residential health care providers—particularly continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs)—to carefully evaluate policies that could restrict resident access to facility amenities based on a resident’s… Read More
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Categories: Client Advisory

Send Which Data? The PBJ System for Staffing & Census Information

July 28th, 2015
Introduction The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is moving forward with implementation of the Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ), an electronic system through which nursing facilities will soon be required to submit staffing and census info… Read More
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Categories: Client Advisory

Text Messaging in Patient Care: HIPAA Challenges and Possible Solutions

May 12th, 2015
Text messaging has become popular in the health care field, permitting providers to multitask and to communicate more quickly than with phone calls or pages... providers should be aware of the consequences under the HIPAA and the HITECH Act Read More
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Categories: Client Advisory

The Prevailing Wage and Increased Costs for Nursing Home Providers

March 13th, 2015
Beginning January 1, 2015 long-term care providers may be required to pay employees a higher minimum wage if providers enter into new contracts with the US Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) for veteran admissions. On October 7, 2014, the US D… Read More
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Categories: Client Advisory

Physicians Will Pay a Penalty in 2015 for Failing to Report Quality Measures

January 6th, 2015
Beginning this year, eligible professionals (“EPs”) who participate in Medicare may be penalized for failure to report quality measures to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) through the Physician Quality Reporting System (… Read More
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Categories: Client Advisory