Post-Acute Care & Nursing Facilities

Last week, Judge Richard J. Leon of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia vacated the “third-party” regulation on the federal companionship exemption, which would have prevented third-party employers from utilizing the companionship exemption from minimum wage and overtime, as well as the “live-in” exemption from overtime.

On Dec. 31, 2014, the judge temporarily stayed the regulations that would have significantly altered the duties an exempt companion could provide. The regulations, which were set to go into effect at midnight on Dec. 31, would have prevented exempt companions from providing any “general household work” at all, and would have prevented them from engaging in any “care” of the client for more than 20 percent of their working time.

Several Husch Blackwell attorneys contributed to the publication of the newest American Health Lawyers Association publication, “Post-Acute Care Handbook: Regulatory, Risk, and Compliance Issues.” The handbook extensively addresses the issues affecting the industry.

Husch Blackwell attorney Emily Park served as a chapter editor, and Jim Miles and Barb Miltenberger served as editors.

A Dec. 1 Strafford webinar on the legal and regulatory challenges of Ebola will feature five Husch Blackwell attorneys. The 90-minute CLE webinar with interactive Q&A will provide guidance to healthcare counsel and their clients in addressing HIPAA and EMTALA concerns when treating Ebola patients.

The panel will discuss state and federal mandatory reporting requirements, employment issues and lessons learned from the first U.S. Ebola cases.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee answered what it acknowledged was a novel question: whether statistical sampling and extrapolation are appropriate to establish liability under the False Claims Act (FCA). The court found the government could extrapolate from a sample of patient records to prove FCA liability. While the court’s decision approved the use of sampling, it emphasized the defendant could challenge the government’s methodology and that the government was not using sampling to prove all of the elements of the alleged FCA violations.

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) issued a proposed rule Oct. 2 that would add new safe harbors to the Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”) regulations and interpret existing, statutory safe harbors. The rule would also amend the Civil Monetary Penalties (“CMP”) regulations by adding statutory exceptions to the regulatory definition of “remuneration” and codifying the so-called “gainsharing CMP” found in the Social Security Act.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently published a new brochure titled “Safe Patient Handling: Preventing Musculoskeletal Disorders in Nursing Homes.” In the brochure, OSHA recommends strategies to reduce musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in nursing homes. OSHA recognizes that nurses and other healthcare workers experience some of the highest rates of non-fatal occupational injuries and illnesses of any industry sector.

Effective June 30, 2014, six attorneys and several staff members from Miles & Peters, P.C. will join Husch Blackwell LLP. Founded in 1980, Denver-based Miles & Peters focuses on health law matters and is especially well known for its work with post-acute providers, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and physician groups.

With the addition of these six attorneys, Husch Blackwell has welcomed 26 new attorneys across eight office locations since January 1, 2014.

The Federation of State Medical Boards recently endorsed a model policy that addresses the proper use of telemedicine services.  Only a few weeks later, a not-for-profit foundation released  a report highlighting the benefits of telemedicine and making recommendations for telehealth services.  It’s no surprise that telehealth and telemedicine have been in the news with increasing frequency given that the demand for telemedicine services are rising sharply.  According to a Law360 article, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. estimates that 75 million digital doctor visits will occur this year in North America.

This article was originally published by the American Health Lawyers Association. Copyright 2014, American Health Lawyers Association, Washington, DC.  Reprint permission granted.

On February 5, CMS issued Change Request 8569 instructing Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) to implement system edits to prevent payment of respite care for more than five days at a time for any hospice claim submitted…

This article was originally published by the American Health Lawyers Association. Copyright 2014, American Health Lawyers Association, Washington, DC.  Reprint permission granted.

Using authority provided by the Affordable Care Act, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) imposed new temporary moratoria and extended existing moratoria on the enrollment of home health agencies (HHAs) and …