Department of Health & Human Services (HHS)

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The comment period for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR proposed changes to Privacy Rule ended on June 16, 2023, and the first portion of comments have been released to the public. As of June 19, 2023, 25,905 comments were submitted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR), with 65 of those comments being made publicly available for review.

The publicly available comments can be viewed on Regulations.gov under the “Browse Posted Comments” tab. The relevant changes at issue were announced on Monday, April 12, 2023 by the OCR issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to modify the HIPPA Privacy Rule to address the release of reproductive health care information to third parties for the purposes of civil, administrative, or criminal proceedings for care that is lawfully obtained.Continue Reading HIPAA Privacy Rule commenters express concerns about privacy, health outcomes, LQBTQIA+ rights, and historical health care disparities

Health care and health care-adjacent organizations are seeing a steep increase in risk arising from the frequently utilized third-party analytics and advertising services on their websites, mobile applications, patient portals, and other Internet-connected services. Those organizations should pay attention to new regulatory guidance, published settlements with regulators, and an onslaught of class action filings stemming…

In a notice published on April 7, 2022, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the division of HHS that manages the distribution and oversight of CARES Act Provider Relief Funds (PRFs), requested comments from stakeholders on proposed changes to its Information Collection Request (ICR) Form that it will be submitting to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The approved ICR uses an OMB form that is set to expire on January 1, 2023, so HRSA is requesting comments before submitting revisions to OMB. This is the first opportunity for providers who were subject to the first two PRF reporting periods (Period 1 and Period 2) to comment on the reporting program and provide feedback on requirements related to those reports. In addition to revising the PRF reporting form, HRSA is looking to add reporting for the American Rescue Plan (ARP) rural provider program to the ICR.

The ARP rural provider program was put in place by Congress to provide payments to providers and suppliers who served rural Medicaid, CHIP and Medicare beneficiaries from January 1, 2019 through September 30, 2020. The ARP Rural plan is distinct from the PRF, but it has similar reporting requirements and uses the PRF reporting portal for applications.
Continue Reading HRSA asks for comment on provider relief fund and ARP rural reporting requirements

On August 1, 2021, the Senate released the legislative text of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” H.R. 3684.  The Senate is expected to vote this week, before a month-long recess beginning on August 9, 2021.  The 2,702 page legislation contains several relevant health care-related provisions, including a delay of the implementation of the rule eliminating the Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”) safe harbor protection for Medicare Part D rebates.

Rebate for Discarded Amounts of Medicare Part B Single-Dose Container or Single-Use Package Drugs

First, the legislation requires manufacturers of single-dose container or single-use package drugs payable under Medicare Part B to provide a rebate to the government for any discarded portion of that drug.  The rebates will be charged each quarter, beginning with the first quarter of 2023, and must be paid in regular intervals, as determined appropriate by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”).  The legislation provides that, in order to enforce this provision, HHS will conduct periodic audits of both drug manufacturers and providers who submit claims.  For violations of this provision, HHS will impose Civil Monetary Penalties in amounts equal to the sum of the amount that the manufacturer would have paid and twenty-five percent of such amount.Continue Reading Health Care Provisions in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Over the last decade, members of the medical and public health communities around the world have widely studied and acknowledged the impact of social determinants of health (SDOH)—the conditions in the environments where people live, learn, work, play, and age—on a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life-risks and outcomes.[1]  In the past year…

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released complementary rules this past Friday, November 20, 2020, to modernize and clarify the regulations that interpret the Physician Self-Referral Law (the Stark Law) and the federal Anti-Kickback Statute.

As we wrote when the proposed rules were released last autumn (see client alerts here and here),…

After nearly a full year of public comment consideration, last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced and published a Final Rule and Fact Sheet addressing 42 C.F.R. Part 2 (Part 2). Generally speaking, Part 2 affords privacy protections to patient records pertaining…

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released its Spring 2014 Semiannual Regulatory Agenda, which outlines planned regulatory initiatives across the Department and in a wide range of policy areas. Major prospective HHS rulemakings likely to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities are compiled in a …

On December 27, 2013, the Office of Inspector General and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services each published, in the Federal Register, a final rule that amends regulations protecting, from the Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark law, certain arrangements related to the donation of interoperable electronic health records (EHR) software or information technology and training services related to such EHR software. Among these amended regulations was the extension of protections of the Stark law exception and the Anti-Kickback safe harbor from December 31, 2013 to December 31, 2021 (the “sunset” provisions).
Continue Reading Final Rules Issued Extending Protections of Electronic Health Record Donations

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published the long-awaited Final Rule to implement the “Sunshine” provisions of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA).  The Sunshine provisions – intended to provide increased transparency regarding the scope and nature of financial and other relationships among manufacturers, physicians, and teaching hospitals – require that…

This post was written by Mel Beras. As part of the Obama administration’s ongoing effort to combat health care fraud, Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder announced a new public-private partnership designed to share information and best practices in order to improve detection and prevent payment of…

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), tasked with implementing the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, announced yesterday that it will not require pharmaceutical, device, and other applicable manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (GPOs) to begin collecting reportable data before 2013.
Continue Reading CMS Announces Data Collection for the Physician Payments Sunshine Act Will Not Be Required Before 2013

On December 19, 2011, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published a proposed rule (the “Proposed Rule”) related to section 6002 of the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as the “Physician Payment Sunshine Act” (so referenced herein, or as the “Act”). The Physician Payment Sunshine Act requires applicable manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologicals, or medical supplies covered under Medicare, Medicaid, or CHIP to report annually to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (“Secretary”) certain payments or other transfers of value to physicians and teaching hospitals. Additionally, applicable manufacturers and applicable group purchasing organizations (“GPOs”) must report certain information regarding the ownership or investment interests in them that are held by physicians or their immediate family members.
Continue Reading Overview and Analysis of the Proposed Federal Sunshine Regulations

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released today a proposed rule implementing the physician payment transparency provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Section 6002), commonly referred to as the “Physician Payments Sunshine Act.” Among other things, the Act requires drug, device, biological or medical supply manufacturers to report payments or other transfers of value to physicians and other covered recipients. In addition, the Act requires manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (GPOs) to report certain information regarding ownership or investment interests held by a physician in the manufacturer or GPO.
Continue Reading CMS Releases Long-Awaited Physician Payments Sunshine Act Proposed Rule

HHS has issued its final “Strategic Framework on Multiple Chronic Conditions.” The initiative is designed to represent a “paradigm shift” from a focus on individual chronic diseases to one that uses a multiple chronic conditions approach. HHS highlights the health care resource implications associated with MCCs, since 66% of the country’s total health care…

The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the HHS OCR have issued technical assistance guidance for medical providers on requirements for providing accessible medical services to people with mobility disabilities. Specifically, “Access to Medical Care for Persons with Mobility Disabilities” describes how the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the…