Background

On Tuesday, May 15, 2012, Cardinal Health (“Cardinal”) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (“DEA”) reported that they had reached a settlement related to Cardinal’s Lakeland, Florida distribution center’s (“Lakeland’s”) DEA license.  This settlement resolves the ongoing litigation between Cardinal and the DEA due to the DEA’s Immediate Suspension Order (“ISO”) issued to Lakeland on February 2, 2012.  On February 29, 2012, a federal judge lifted the temporary restraining order against the DEA.  As a result, Lakeland could no longer distribute controlled substances.  Although Cardinal appealed the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, it has since chosen to settle with the DEA.  A summary of the February 2012 actions against Cardinal is available here.

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On May 2, 2012, the National Association of Bond Lawyers (“NABL”) submitted suggested clarifications and changes to Revenue Procedure 97-13 (“Rev. Proc. 97-13″) to the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”).  These comments were prepared by a subcommittee of NABL’s Tax Committee, which subcommittee included Kendall Schnurpel of Hall Render’s Health Care and Public Finance Department.  On May 9, 2012, the American Bar Association Section of Taxation (the “ABA”) submitted comments to the IRS that are substantially similar to those provided by NABL.  On May 11, 2012, the American Hospital Association (the “AHA”) submitted a request for an update to Rev. Proc. 97-13, highlighting the challenges posed by Rev. Proc. 97-13 in implementing new hospital-physician arrangements and requesting that the IRS include accountable care organizations (“ACOs”), shared savings programs and bundled payments in the Rev. Proc. 97-13 safe harbors.

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Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin recently signed Vermont House Bill 413 into law.  The new law adds a new section to Vermont’s laws on abuse, neglect and exploitation of vulnerable adults residing in long term care facilities.  The new section allows Vermont’s Attorney General the right to pursue a civil action against individuals, nursing homes and other long term care facilities, who, with reckless disregard or with knowledge violate Vermont’s laws abuse, neglect and exploitation of vulnerable adults.   The new law provides that merely having a report filed with the Vermont Attorney General of abuse, neglect, exploitation or suspicion of those acts, is not be sufficient to demonstrate that a person or caregiver acted with reckless disregarded.  Fines start at $5,000 if no bodily injury results and can rise to $50,000 if death occurs.  The new law is effective July 1, 2012.

Vermont’s new law can be found here.
Should you have any questions, please contact:

Todd Selby at 317.977.1440 or tselby@hallrender.com;

Brian Jent at 317.977.1402 or bjent@hallrender.com;

David Bufford at 502.568.9368 or dbufford@hallrender.com; or

Sean Fahey at 317.977.1472 or sfahey@hallrender.com,

or your regular Hall Render attorney.

On May 10, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released an advance copy of a final rule (“Final Rule”) revising several critical access hospital (“CAH”) Medicare conditions of participation (“CoPs”).  These changes, together with a number of changes to the hospital CoPs, will benefit hospitals of both types by allowing for increased flexibility in a number of areas.

The Final Rule is scheduled to be published in the May 16, 2012 Federal Register and will be effective on or about July 16, 2012.  A copy of the Final Rule can be found here.  A summary of the changes to the hospital CoPs is available here.

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Overview 

CMS has released a final rule (“Final Rule”) revising the hospital and critical access hospital (“CAH”) Medicare conditions of participation (“CoPs”).  This Final Rule implements President Obama’s Executive Order 13563 calling for removal or modification of obsolete or unnecessary regulations on hospitals and CAHs.  Indeed, the Final Rule reduces burdens, provides flexibility and saves a great deal of money estimated to be almost $5,000,000,000 for hospitals and CAHs over the next five years.  The Final Rule finalizes a proposed rule published on October 24, 2011 and summarized in a previous edition of Hall Render’s Health Law News.  This Health Law News article will discuss the hospital CoP revisions.  A companion article found here summarizes the CAH CoP revisions.  The Final Rule will be effective on or about July 16, 2012 and is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on May 16, 2012.  An advance copy can be found here.

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Resumé fraud.  Resumé padding.  Falsified job applications.  Call it what you like, but the topic has figured prominently in the media as of late due to the discovery that a CEO of an international internet company, allegedly embellished his resumé. (more…)