Welcome to GreisGuide to LTACHs
This weblog is devoted to providing timely business and legal information about Long Term Acute Care Hospitals (LTACHs).
Each month this weblog (and the monthly eNewsletter) will provide the latest news on key regulatory issues facing LTACHs, developments in the purchase and sale of facilities, discussions about key operational challenges and successes, updates on recent litigation and government investigations, articles about pending Federal and state legislation and industry trends, and the movements of industry insiders.
Please contact me if you would like to report information about your organization or its leadership, if you have suggestions for topics, if you are interested in advertising on the weblog, or if you would like more information about anything you read on this weblog.
Jason S. Greis, Esq.
McGuireWoods LLP |
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Recent Publications
The November-December 2009 issue of the GreisGuide to LTACHs newsletter has been posted to the weblog. Happy HolidaysOn Friday, December 11, 2009, MedPAC released its draft recommendation to HHS to forego any market basket update to payment rates for LTACHs for the 2011 rate year. MedPAC found that profit margins on Medicare cases averaged 3.4% during RY 2008 and projected that Medicare margins will increase, on average, to 5.8% in RY 2010.On December 8, 2009 Rockland County Executive, C. Scott Vanderhoef ,and Hospitals Commissioner, Richard Maloney, announced the official opening of Summit Park Hospital’s new Acute Renal Dialysis Unit. Summit Park Hospital is a 100-bed acute care hospital with 57 physical medicine/rehabilitation beds and 43 inpatient psychiatric beds and is one of four LTACHs in New York State.I have posted a copy of my PowerPoint presentation entitled, The Art of the Deal: The Re-Emergence of Post-Acute M&A Activity, which was presented at the ALTHA Advocacy Meeting in Austin, Texas on December 4, 2009.The HITECH Act has been interpreted to require covered entities to amend all existing and any new business associate agreements by February 17, 2010 to ensure business associate compliance with HIPAA’s privacy and security rules. Amending hundred or thousands of business associate agreements strewn across organizations may be a monumental task for some LTACHs. The Senate continues to work on the health care bill, voting on several amendments this past week. In October 2009, a Federal judge in Arkansas sentenced the medical director of an Arkansas hospital-within-hospital LTACH and an account representative and emergency unit coordinator of the host hospital to fines and probation for violating HIPAA by unlawfully viewing a high profile patient’s electronic medical records. Each of the three defendants pleaded guilty to misdemeanor violations of the privacy provisions of HIPAA and entered into a plea agreement acknowledging that each had unlawfully accessed patient medical records without having any legitimate need to do so. Effective October 1, 2009, the State of New York implemented regulations requiring all health care providers that receive more $500,000 from the Medicaid program in a year to adopt and maintain an effective compliance program.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled the long-awaited Senate health care bill, titled the “Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act,” yesterday evening. The bill contains a number of provisions that would impact LTACHs, including: a 1 year extension of MMSEA's LTACH payment protection and LTACH development and bed expansion provisions; a provision that would require LTACHs to submit quality reporting data to CMS beginning in the 2014 rate year; a provision requiring CMS to conduct a study on expanding its healthcare acquired conditions policy to payments made to LTACHs and other healthcare providers; and LTACHs would also be included in a national pilot program on payment bundling.The EEOC recently issued guidelines on employee severance agreements: "Understanding Waivers of Discrimination Claims in Employee Severance Agreements". In the guidelines, the EEOC provides general information about the enforceability of releases in severance agreements, a checklist of factors an employee should consider when evaluating a severance agreement, and sample severance agreements. The guidelines inform employees of their right to file a charge with the EEOC, even if an employee signs a severance agreement containing a release of all claims. The guidelines also clarify the EEOC's position that no agreement between an employer and employee can limit an employee's right to testify, assist or participate in an investigation, hearing or proceeding conducted by the EEOC under the ADEA, Title VII, the ADA or the EPA - although employers can have an employee waive his or her ability to recover damages from such participation.
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