By: Alec Dobson The $2 trillion CARES Act, passed by the House on Friday and promptly signed into law by President Trump, provides $200 million for nursing homes for infection control and $100 billion for grants to a broad range of health care providers. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will receive $200 million to help nursing...
By: Mark G. Kmiecik, Abby S. Busler and Ryan M. Spott The State of Wisconsin has joined several other states in shutting down all nonessential businesses with its newly issued Safer At Home Order, which is effective at 8:00 a.m on Wednesday, March 25, 2020, and will remain in effect until 8:00 a.m on Friday, April 24, 2020, or until a superseding...
By: Mark G. Kmiecik On March 18, 2020, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced that covered healthcare providers (“providers”) may now use Apple FaceTime, Facebook Messenger video chat, Google Hangouts video, and Skype to provide telehealth to patients during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency without fear or the risk that...
(1) COVID-19 Student Loan Impact As many Americans throughout the country participate in self-quarantine, mortgage and rent payments, heat and electricity payments and student loans continue to weigh heavily on smaller paychecks. In response to many citizens working a reduced schedule or temporarily losing employment, during this time of...
By: Mark G. Kmiecik Effective March 15, 2020, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Alex M. Azar, exercised the emergency authority granted to him under Section 1 of the Proclamation on Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak (the “COVID-19 National Emergency...
By: Alec Dobson The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is suspending non-emergency inspections of nursing homes so inspectors can focus on the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). CMS also announced guidance for controlling COVID-19 in nursing homes. CMS announced March 4 that, effective immediately, it will conduct only the...
By: Alec Dobson The U.S. Department of Justice began an initiative this week to pursue and “bring to justice” nursing homes that provide “grossly substandard care.” The initiative is not meant to accuse the long-term care industry in general, Attorney General William Barr said. Barr announced on March 3 that the DOJ’s National Nursing Home...
The federal government has now finalized its rule allowing pre-dispute arbitration agreements in nursing homes. The final rule, announced July 16, abandons an Obama-era rule that would have banned pre-dispute arbitration agreements but never went into effect. Some restrictions are imposed under the final rule. In October 2016 the U.S. Centers for...
Ryan Wiesner of Davis|Kuelthau’s Litigation team published an article, Identifying and Combatting Standard of One Expert Opinions in Medical Negligence Litigation, in DRI’s April 2019 For the Defense Medical Liability and Health Care Law Committee’s Newsletter. His article explores the Standard of One issue in medical negligence cases, discusses...
By: D|K's Health Care Team The White House is nearing approval of a regulatory change that would allow pre-dispute arbitration agreements in nursing homes participating in Medicare or Medicaid. On January 30, 2019, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) began the review of a final rule (first published June 8, 2017) that would...
