HLB's Podcast Library: Recent Episodes
Jennifer
As part of the $900 billion COVID-19 relief package signed on December 17, 2020, Congress passed the “No Surprises Act.” This statute, which will be effective next year, outlines new surprise billing protections for consumers, creates a federal dispute resolution process for certain out-of-network claims, and imposes compliance obligations on both providers and plans.
This webinar will give hospitals and physician groups practical tips for navigating:
- The Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) process and out-of-network rate factors
- Claims submission and billing requirements
- Provider transparency and notice obligations
- Federal all-payers claims database provisions
- Considerations for managed care contracting after the No Surprises Act
Speakers: Katrina Pagonis, Sansan Lin, Jeffrey Lin
The Hospital Price Transparency Final Rule requires hospitals to post a machine-readable file disclosing various charge and rate information for all hospital items and services and to either post charge and rate information for 300 shoppable services in a consumer-friendly format or provide a consumer price estimator tool beginning January 1, 2021.
This webinar provided hospitals with the following:
Summary of the machine-readable disclosure requirement under the Final Rule and key misconceptions and ambiguities
- Summary of compliance obligations for the consumer-friendly disclosure, including the alternative option of a price estimator tool
- Review of enforcement measures under the Final Rule
- Litigation outlook
- Overview of other price transparency initiatives
Speakers: Katrina Pagonis, Alicia Macklin and Nina Marsden
In response to COVID-19, the telehealth regulatory landscape at both the state and federal levels has drastically changed as government authorities relaxed many of the legal restrictions affecting telehealth coverage and reimbursement. As a result, telehealth utilization has significantly increased, with both patients and providers taking advantage of this convenient and efficient modality to receive and provide care. Please join us for this webinar as attorneys Jeremy Sherer and Andrea Frey examine the ongoing federal and state-level expansion of telehealth to address the pandemic, how providers can take advantage of these changes, and relevant best practices as well as legal and business considerations, including consent, privacy, fraud and abuse, and licensure, for building sustainable telehealth programs during the pandemic and beyond.
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to have a profound financial impact on health care providers, who are on the front lines of the pandemic response and seeing revenue decline as non-essential procedures have been postponed or cancelled.
On June 9, HLB’s COVID-19 Task Force hosted a webinar providing important updates with respect to HHS programs providing financial relief to providers, including compliance and reporting obligations associated with the acceptance of funds. HLB attorneys discussed developments regarding expanded sources of health care coverage for coronavirus-related services. Topics covered included:
The Provider Relief Fund, including the $50 billion General Distribution, the $12 billion distribution to highly impacted hospitals, and the $10 billion distribution to rural hospitals.
- Attestation and compliance obligations associated with the acceptance and use of Provider Relief Fund dollars.
- The COVID-19 Uninsured Program, which provides reimbursement to participating providers for testing and COVID-19 treatment.
- Other source of coverage (COBRA; Hospital Presumptive Eligibility for Medicaid; Exchange Special Enrollment Periods).
Providers are scrambling to address physician arrangements in response to COVID-19. While some contract modifications can be structured to meet existing Stark law requirements, others will require reliance on the broad waiver of the Stark law recently issued by CMS. Providers have many questions, including when existing Stark law exceptions apply and when to use the waiver, scope of the waiver and implications upon sunset of the waiver, and whether what constitutes fair market value and commercial reasonableness has shifted given the pandemic.
This webinar provided practical tips on navigating Stark law compliance during the public health emergency and feature a question and answer session with legal and valuation experts, to respond to participants’ most pressing issues in real time.
HLB’s COVID-19 Task Force will host a webinar analyzing the CARES Act’s impact on health care providers, in particular in the areas of Medicare reimbursement, telehealth, and privacy
As medical staffs of hospitals work to ensure patient safety in the face of COVID-19, we recognize that many of you are working diligently to credential additional providers during a time of increased need for qualified health care providers to provide health care in this critical time, in addition to managing your already heavy workload. Numerous questions about the impact of the pandemic and associated regulatory concerns have arisen, and Hooper, Lundy & Bookman's Medical Staff Practice Group provided practical advice to navigate these issues.
The webinar focused on key questions on a variety of topics, such as credentialing and reappointment issues; the effective use of emergency, disaster, and temporary staff privileges; balancing Federal and State guidance regarding the pandemic; physician behavior issues; and responding to concerns raised by members of the Medical Staff.
This Brown Bag webinar and Question & Answer session provided an opportunity for Medical Staff and Hospital professionals to ask questions of the Medical Staff attorneys and discuss current issues facing Medical Staffs who are at the forefront of these evolving issues.
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to have a profound financial impact on health care providers, who are on the front lines of pandemic response and seeing revenue decline as non-essential procedures have been postponed or canceled. There are several financial resources available to health care providers during this COVID-19 emergency, and our COVID-19 Task Force has assembled a team of attorneys to comprehensively address the providers’ financial distress by applying traditional approaches to relief from financial obligations, availing organizations of new revenue sources and loans, and pursuing insurance coverage for business interruption. We believe this crisis requires a global response that makes use of all available tools.
HLB’s COVID-19 Task Force will host a webinar exploring key sources of financial relief available to providers, including:
- Supplemental payments (e.g., $100 billion appropriation, Medicare add-on payments)
- Loan and accelerated payments (e.g., Accelerated/Advanced Medicare Payments, Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL))
- FEMA Public Assistance Program
- Renegotiating rent and other payment obligations; bankruptcy
- Business interruption insurance claims
- Coverage expansion and relief for care to uninsured
- Reducing or delaying liability for overpayments with governmental and private payers
We will also provide additional resources on financial relief for providers, which will be announced through a Health Law Advisory and on our website.