Last week, OSHA published its new “Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs,” which advises employers in the healthcare industry and other private sector industries to establish comprehensive internal safety and health programs. The OSHA bulletin also provides extensive guidelines and resources for creating such programs.

In releasing the updated recommendations, OSHA argues that employers adopting such programs could reduce injuries and illnesses and promote sustainability. To the extent that this new guidance creates new compliance burdens and risks (see below), healthcare is likely to be one industry in which OSHA focuses its efforts. After all, OSHA believes that “[m]ore workers are injured in the healthcare and social assistance industry sector than any other.”

The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) recently announced additional rule amendments intended to continue improving relations between the U.S. and Cuba by allowing even greater commerce and humanitarian efforts between the two countries. These new OFAC  and BIS  rules took effect last week.

Under MACRA, the merit-based incentive payment system (MIPS) automatically applies to an eligible clinician (generally a physician or mid-level – see our previous blog post for details) except in certain circumstances. One of the circumstances in which an eligible clinician is excluded from MIPS is when the clinician participates in an advanced alternative payment model (APM) that meets certain operational, risk and patient/payment volume requirements. Notably, a participant in a qualifying advanced APM receives a 5 percent annual bonus payment from 2019-2024. A participant in an advanced APM who does not meet the patient/payment threshold requirements may still be exempt from MIPS adjustments (although such a partial qualifying advanced APM participant may choose to participate in MIPS) but will not receive the advanced APM bonus.

MACRA is making big changes to Medicare clinician reimbursement, so which clinicians are affected?

Under MACRA, the merit-based incentive payment system (MIPS) automatically applies to an eligible clinician except in certain circumstances. A MIPS Eligible Clinician (defined at 42 C.F.R. §414.1305) is a:

  • physician, including: (1) a doctor of medicine or osteopathy; (2) a doctor of dental surgery or of dental medicine; (3) a doctor of podiatric medicine; (4) a doctor of optometry; and (5) a chiropractor;
  • physician assistant, a nurse practitioner, and clinical nurse specialist;
  • certified registered nurse anesthetist; or
  • group that includes at least one of the clinicians above.

For Husch Blackwell’s Northwestern University grad school alums, Laura Labeots (Ph.D. 1992) and Ed Gamson (Ph.D. 1970), it was a huge thrill to learn that one of their own, a fellow chemist from Northwestern, had won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry last week. Sir J. Fraser Stoddart, who specializes in Nanotechnology, will be awarded the Nobel this December in Stockholm, Sweden, for his groundbreaking work on “molecular machines.” He and his group have devised molecules that remarkably can do mechanical work, such as lifting and moving other small molecules.

On September 12, 2016, the EPA issued its Strategy for Addressing the Retail Sector under RCRA’s Regulatory Framework (Strategy Document), which addresses growing concerns about the application of federal hazardous waste regulations to pharmacies and retail operations. The Strategy Document takes into account practices common to pharmacies (e.g., reverse distribution) that present unique compliance issues…

As most are aware, on May 18, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released its much anticipated final rule, drastically increasing the salary requirements to qualify as an exempt executive, administrative or professional employee. The DOL estimates that the final rule will extend overtime protections to 4.2 million workers in the first year of implementation and boost wages by $12 billion over the next 10 years. The rule is set to become effective Dec. 1, 2016.

An entrepreneurial company may face an early decision as to how it can afford to develop new technology, particularly new technology that does not fit within the technical specialties of that entity. Whether a new company needs to develop a new website, new software, or a compatible piece of technology, that company might consider entering into a contractual alliance with another party to develop that technology.