Husch Blackwell received significant recognition as a top litigation firm in the 2015 edition of Benchmark Litigation’s annual nationwide rankings. The list includes 8 healthcare attorneys from the firm’s Illinois and Missouri offices. Husch Blackwell had 22 attorneys total named on the list.

Husch Blackwell’s Litigation practice received the commendable “Recommended” ranking in Missouri and Nebraska, and the firm was reputed to have “one of the strongest toxic and mass tort practices in the country.”

The Texas Health & Human Services Commission (HHSC) proposed changes on Oct. 17, 2014, to its regulations that largely prohibit “incident to” billing for advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) and physician assistant (PA) providers. Specifically, changes proposed to Tex. Admin. Code Title 1 §§354.1001 and 354.1062 prohibit a service performed by an APRN or PA from being billed under the billing number of a supervising physician unless the physician made a decision regarding the patient’s care or treatment during the billable medical visit and documented that decision in the patient’s record. See 39 Texas Register 8107 (Oct. 17, 2014).

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.

Now that patients with Ebola have landed on U.S. soil, hospitals and other healthcare providers must prepare for the possibility that a patient with Ebola will walk through the doors. In this Oct. 30 webinar, Husch Blackwell presenters will look at some of the pressing legal issues related to treating patients with communicable diseases such as Ebola, and what providers can do now to prepare their clinical, compliance and legal teams.

In the Electronic Health Records (EHR) space, unconnected and competing systems carry the potential for organizational train wrecks.

Until robust, efficient, and mandatory interoperability standards emerge, providers should consider linking systems through other means, as failure to do so may lead to malpractice and regulatory compliance issues.

A new White Paper, Driving the Golden Spike:…

Husch Blackwell attorneys Ed Barker and Joe Geraci discussed hospital legal issues related to a recent Ebola patient with the Texas Lawyer publication. The two-day period between the recent Dallas, Texas, Ebola patient’s first visit and isolation is the key to potential legal issues for the hospital, according to Barker and Geraci.

The Ebola patient…

Join our attorneys for an in-depth look at healthcare compliance and gain practical information about effectively navigating an audit or investigation. The Oct. 1 webinar “Getting Real: Real-Life Compliance issues” is part of the Husch Blackwell Healthcare Horizons webinar series.

What You Will Learn

  • How to work with auditors to obtain a fair conclusion
  • How to respond to investigations and control risk as an investigation progresses
  • How to develop effective communication plans

Dietary supplements represent a huge sector of the consumer market and changes in both intellectual property law and the regulations governing the market entry and advertising of these products is changing.

The new America Invents Act allows anyone to challenge the validity of patents under the inter partes review (IPR) process. In a Sept. 9 webinar, Husch Blackwell Partner Joseph Cwik, who recently won the first pharmaceutical IPR case, will provide an overview of this new process and explain how it is more cost-effective, efficient and successful than the traditional litigation.

The Kentucky Supreme Court issued an opinion Aug. 21, 2014, (Tibbs v. Bunnell, Ky., No. 2012-SC-000603-MR)  in which it held that the incident report developed by the University of Kentucky Hospital (“hospital”), through the hospital’s Patient Safety Evaluation System (“PSES”), following the death of a patient, was not protected as patient safety work product (“PSWP”) under the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (the “Act”).