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On May 3, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law provisions that will require health care entities to submit a notification to the state Department of Health (DOH) providing information about any material transaction involving that health care entity.

The law, passed as part of the state’s budget, was originally crafted to give the DOH authority to review and approve those transactions. Ultimately, following several iterations during the legislative process, that approval power was stripped out by the state general assembly and replaced with the current notice requirement.

The law will take effect on August 1, 2023 and states on its face that it will apply to all “material transactions” involving health care entities that close on or after that date. That said, the requirements for transactions that close between August 1 and August 31 are a somewhat open question, given the 30-day notice requirement in the law. The DOH is tasked by the law with creating regulations that may address this situation.Continue Reading New York Passes Health Care Transaction Notice Requirements

The U.S. Senate recently voted unanimously to approve the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act (Act), which the House of Representatives had already passed earlier in the fall. Currently, health insurers have federal antitrust immunity under the McCarran-Ferguson Act for state-regulated activity that constitutes the business of insurance. Should President Trump opt to sign CHIRA into…

On June 12, 2019, three Congressional committees have scheduled hearings on health care policy topics:

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A number of recent Congressional hearings focused on federal health policies, including the following:

  • House Energy and Commerce Committee hearings on the impact of health care consolidation, oversight of the Department of Health and Human Services (including the Trump Administration’s HHS budget request), and drug compounding.
  • Ways and Means Committee hearings on President Trump’s HHS

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The House of Representatives has approved HR 372, the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act of 2017, which would repeal the antitrust exemption for health insurance companies provided under the McCarran-Ferguson Act (although the antitrust exemption for certain collaborative activities between health insurance businesses would be retained). HR 372 was approved by a vote of…