“The definition of a data ‘breach’ was changed. The Omnibus Rules replaced the more subjective ‘harm standard’ with a more objective test that requires the covered entity to determine (based on a four-factor risk assessment) whether protected health information has been ‘compromised.’” (Snell & Wilmer) One of the key components of the new HIPAA /… Read more »
The business community as a whole can expect President Obama’s second term to be one of most intense periods of regulatory activity in nearly 40 years. But the health care, energy, and financial services industries will be the hardest hit. From law firm Venable: “Several themes will shape the regulatory process over the next four… Read more »
Dodd-Frank, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, social media in the workplace, cybersecurity, SEC regulations… all front-and-center corporate issues at the start of a new year. Your job, among many other things, is to know what to do about each of them. That’s why it helps when leading lawyers with expertise in each of these fields… Read more »
“Wellness programs take many forms; however, the common feature of all wellness programs is that they are designed to encourage healthier lifestyles, often by rewarding participants for attaining or improving certain health factors. Most wellness programs are subject to HIPAA’s nondiscrimination rules … [h]owever, the HIPAA nondiscrimination rules contain an exception whereby group health plans… Read more »
“Since 2010, when the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act was passed, a gazillion news stories, articles and seminars have talked about what the act means and requires… One of the many issues that everyone has been talking about is whether employers should play or pay… If you are an employer who has decided to… Read more »
Earlier this month, the Internal Revenue Service issued important guidance for employers on the rules for identifying “full-time” employees for the purposes of the Affordable Care Act. It’s an important clarification, write employment attorneys Josh Bobrin and Edward Leeds (Ballard Spahr), because: “Effective January 1, 2014, employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees are… Read more »
Last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act means that states will need to act quickly to develop health insurance exchanges as mandated by the law. From law firm McKenna Long: “With the ACA emerging relatively unscathed in the Supreme Court’s ruling, exchange planners have a… Read more »
Last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provided insurance companies with a greater degree of certainty regarding health care reform than they have had since the act was first signed into law. Although legislative and legal challenges to the reforms continue (see updates by Patton Boggs and Littler),… Read more »
“Like insurance companies, institutional providers have devoted substantial effort and resources to preparing to comply with the Act’s requirements… Indeed, prior to the Court’s opinion, many institutional health care providers argued in favor of upholding the Act because the projected expansion of coverage to 30 million additional Americans would result in additional revenue for the… Read more »
“With [the] Supreme Court affirmance of the bulk of the Affordable Care Act, the specter that the BPCIA framework for biosimilar introduction could be dismantled is no longer a concern. Presumably it will be full speed ahead through the regulatory process, and we will see biosimilar applications for approval and attendant patent litigation before too… Read more »
One of the key components of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is the establishment of health insurance exchanges in each state, intended to function as one-stop-shopping marketplaces where individuals and small businesses can select from affordable health care options. To participate, insurers must offer qualified health plans that meet minimum standards of coverage… Read more »
From Is that Legal?: Later this month, the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services v. Florida, the lawsuit chosen to give the Court an opportunity to rule on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Here are three interesting… Read on: Obama Health… Read more »
