On October 24, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a record-breaking $145 million settlement with Life Care Centers of America Inc. (Life Care), marking the largest settlement with a skilled nursing facility chain in the DOJ's history.

According to a study published this month in Health Affairs, although the number of ACO contracts and the proportion of ACOs with multiple contracts have grown, the proportion bearing downside risk has only increased slightly.

On May 15, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Kentucky nursing home's use of mandatory arbitration agreements in nursing home admissions.

Susan Huntington authored a chapter, "Enterprise Risk Approach to Successful Population Management," in the recently published third edition of the "Enterprise Risk Management Handbook for Health Care Entities."

Eric Fader was quoted in a January 27 article, "Trump DOJ Likely to Keep Heat on Individuals for Health-Care Fraud," in Bloomberg BNA's Health Care Daily Report and other publications. The article discussed the U.S. Department of Justice's so-called Yates memo which, among other things, encouraged federal prosecutors to focus on individual accountability in enforcement actions against corporations.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on June 24, 2019, seeking, among other things, disclosure of hospital pricing for common tests and procedures.

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development ("DOL") has determined that the State minimum wage rate will remain unchanged at $8.38 per hour in 2016.

Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and other retirement plans often make great vehicles for implementing charitable intentions.

As mentioned in our July 2015 Estate Planning Update, last year Connecticut substantially increased the probate fees for all Connecticut estates.

In its recently published 2016 Physician Fee Schedule Rule (the "Rule"), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized two new exceptions from the federal physician self-referral regulations ("Stark Law") on (1) employment assistance for certain non-physician practitioners and (2) timeshare arrangements.

Eric Fader authored a chapter in the 2017 edition of Westlaw's "Data Security and Privacy Law" treatise, published by Thomson Reuters.

On May 28, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Ashland Hospital Corp., the operator of King’s Daughters Medical Center, has agreed to a $40.9 million settlement to settle allegations that the hospital billed Medicare and the Kentucky Medicaid program for medically unnecessary procedures and had illegal financial relationships with physicians who referred patients.

An article in InsuranceNewsNet reported that only 2% of all eligible businesses have investigated small business health options program (SHOP) exchanges in the 15 states, plus the District of Columbia, where they have been available since October 2013. SHOP exchanges were established under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

On November 21, Massachusetts Attorney General (AG) Martha Coakley announced that Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has agreed to pay a $100,000 fine to settle allegations that a hospital physician failed to protect the personal information (PI) and protected health information (PHI) of almost 4,000 patients and hospital employees.

In an alert issued on June 22, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services clearly announced its increased enforcement focus on physicians who have improper arrangements with home health agencies.

On March 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published a proposed rule that amends regulations under 42 CFR 405, 424, 455 and 457.

Although Connecticut does not have a broad confidentiality statute like the CMIA, the Connecticut Supreme Court held last year that the HIPAA privacy standards can be used to establish the standard of care required...

Rebecca Tunney co-authored an article, "Reconciling the Limits of Agency Law and the Reach of the Federal Arbitration Act," published by the Massachusetts Law Review.

On October 26, the Connecticut Senate and House of Representatives voted to give final legislative passage to a 2017-2019 biennium budget (the Budget Act).

Each year, certain federal estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax figures are subject to inflation adjustments.