Federal Judge in Florida Strikes Down the Health Reform Law
On January 31, 2011, a United States District Court in Florida held that the individual mandate provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("Act") is an unconstitutional exercise of...
View Article$12 Million More in Electronic Health Record Funding
On February 8, 2011, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology announced the availability of an additional $12 million in grant funding for the adoption and...
View Article$750 Million More in Prevention Funding
On February 9, 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that the Prevention and Public Health Fund would make an additional $750 million available to fund prevention...
View Article$45 Million More in Federal Funding to Assist Medicaid Beneficiaries
On February 22, 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it would provide $45 million in grant funding to 13 states for the startup and operation of Money Follows the...
View Article12 Proposed Recommendations for Accreditation of Patient-Centered Medical Homes
On March 8, 2011, a coalition comprised of physicians representing the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, and the American...
View ArticleA Summary of Medicare Shared Savings Program and ACO Proposed Regulations
On March 30, 2011, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid issued the long-awaited, proposed regulations for the Medicare Shared Savings Program, including details of the requirements for qualifying as...
View ArticleFTC and DOJ Propose Enforcement Policy for Healthcare Antitrust Laws
The Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice have jointly issued a proposed enforcement policy for the application of the antitrust laws to healthcare collaborations among otherwise...
View Article$71.3 Million in Federal Funding to Expand Nursing Workforce
On July 29, 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it would provide a total of $71.3 million in grant funding to expand the education and training of nurses and...
View ArticleCMS Transmittal Clarifies that Critical Access Hospitals are Included in CMS...
On July 29, 2011, CMS issued Transmittal 78 clarifying that critical access hospitals (CAH) are included in CMS’ laboratory demonstration project for certain complex diagnostic tests. Under standard...
View ArticleEleventh Circuit Declares Individual Mandate Provision in Health Reform Law...
On Friday, August 12, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that the individual mandate provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Act”) is an...
View ArticlePennsylvania District Court Finds Individual Mandate Unconstitutional
On September 13, 2011, the United States District Court of the Middle District of Pennsylvania held that the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate was unconstitutional as a violation of the Commerce...
View ArticleAccountable Care Act Funding Awarded to Community Health Centers
On September 15, 2011, HHS awarded $10 million in Accountable Care Act funds to 129 organizations seeking to become community health centers, which are geared toward meeting the primary health needs in...
View ArticleCMS Asking Providers to Submit Letter of Intent to Participate in Bundled...
Providers, including hospitals, physicians and non-physician practitioners still have time to contribute to the growing accountable care model by submitting to CMS a Letter of Intent to participate in...
View ArticleMedicare Advantage Premiums Falling and Enrollment Up for 2012
HHS recently announced its expectation that Medicare Advantage premiums will fall approximately four percent in 2012, with enrollment expected to increase by 10 percent. This drop in premiums has been...
View ArticleHHS Announces Launch of Primary Care Bonus Initiative
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) recently announced the launch of its new Primary Care initiative to provide bonuses to primary care doctors for improvement of care coordination...
View ArticleGovernment Accountability Office Reports that 340B Program Needs Greater...
Pursuant to a mandate in the Affordable Care Act, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently completed its review of the 340B Drug Pricing Program, which allows certain health care entities...
View ArticleCMS Releases Final ACO Regulations
Yesterday afternoon the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the long anticipated final Accountable Care Organization (ACO) regulations, after considering the nearly 1200...
View Article2012 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System Final Rule Released by CMS
On November 1, 2011, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released the 2012 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System Final Rule with comment period (“Final Rule”). The Final...
View ArticleDC Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Individual Mandate
On November 8, 2011, in the latest scrimmage regarding the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) individual mandate, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the mandate’s constitutionality. The Court found...
View ArticleUnited States Supreme Court to Hear Affordable Care Act Cases
In a highly anticipated decision, on November 14, 2011 the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in three cases on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”): National Federation...
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