The N.C. Institute of Medicine launched www.nchealthcarehelp.org on June 6 in an effort to help the state’s 1.5 million people without healthcare insurance find services in their respective counties, like free clinics, and pharmacies, doctors, and dentists who take Medicaid patients.  The News & Observer reported that the Duke Endowment and Blue Cross & Blue [...]

The Department of Justice claimed that Baptist Health South Florida, Inc., headquartered in Miami, violated the False Claims Act and the Stark II regulations (Section 1877, Social Security Act) between 2003 and 2005 by making payments to the Oncology Hematology Group of South Florida, which helped oncologists plan radiation treatments for their cancer patients.  The [...]

Elissa Moore (also an attorney with McGuireWoods) and I recently co-authored an article on provider-based status titled “Provider-Based Status: The Rules and Common Issues.” If you would like a copy of the white paper, please contact either me at bwalker@mcguirewoods.com. document.getElementById(“post-47-blankimage”).onload();

 On April 4, CMS issued the New Conditions for Coverage for End-Stage Renal Disease (“ESRD”) Facilities.  These rules serve as the minimum standards for a facility to be eligible for participation in the Medicare program.  They are in part the standards used when state agencies conduct a facility’s survey and certification process.  The new rules [...]

Recent capital markets turmoil has set off a chain reaction across a whole spectrum of industries – not the least of which is healthcare.  Over the last couple of months the “credit crunch” has resulted in a full-blown crisis for many tax-exempt bond issuers.  Very simplistically here is the formula that has led to massive [...]

Last month, the North Carolina Court of Appeals reversed a final decision by the Division of Health Services Regulation that its proposed relocation, expansion and addition of radiation therapy services required a Certificate of Need.  Originally, the Division of Health Services Regulation ruled that a CON would not be required.  Shortly after the initial decision, [...]

The Health Services Council of the Charlotte Chamber will host its 1st Annual Charlotte Healthcare Conference on September 10, 2008 at the Westin Hotel here in Charlotte.  The event will focus on providing highly relevant and useful information for healthcare providers, employers of all sizes, and anyone involved in the biotechnology and life sciences industries [...]

In an interim final rule promulgated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services a 3-year moratorium was placed on the establishment of new LTCHs and LTCH satellite facilities and on increases in beds in existing LTCHs and LTCH satellite facilities.  This interim final rule with comment period also implements a 3-year delay in the [...]

We are pleased to announce that former N.C. Governor Jim Martin has joined McGuireWoods Consulting and will be working in our Charlotte office.  We are delighted to welcome former Governor Martin to McGuireWoods.  Mr. Martin was previously with Carolinas Healthcare System here in Charlotte. document.getElementById(“post-34-blankimage”).onload();

A bill in the North Carolina House of Representatives, H.R. 2196, would require the Division of Medical Assistance of the Department of Health and Human Services to pay the same rate to long-term acute care hospitals as it pays to short-term acute care hospitals that provide services to Medicaid patients.    If passed, the new [...]

Medcath Corp. and its partner in Dayton Heart Hospital have closed on the sale of the facility to Good Samaritan Hospital.  Reported in the Charlotte Business Journal on May 19, 2008, Ohio-based Good Samaritan purchased the specialty-heart hospital for $55 million.  Net proceeds to MedCath are expected to total about $32 million, after income-tax expenses [...]

The federal Technical Advisory Group (“TAG”) for the EMTALA issued in a recent report to the U.S. DHHS that included several recommendations for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”).  Among the advisory group’s high-priority recommendations in the report are: §         CMS should continue to not require doctors to take emergency calls as a [...]

In the last year, there have been at least five health care fraud settlements in excess of $100 million each and total recoveries from health care providers amounting to $2 billion.  Two of my colleagues in the Health Care Department in the Chicago office of McGuireWoods LLP, Gretchen Townshend and Elizabeth Campbell, recently authored an [...]

The April 4, 2008 edition of the North Carolina Healthcare Report is now available.  Please click here. document.getElementById(“post-64-blankimage”).onload();

 A recent New York Times article addressed recent Senate and House legislation aimed at stopping the proliferation of physician-owned hospitals, arguing that physician-owned hospitals drive up healthcare costs by encouraging physicians to order more procedures.  On three occasions in the last ten months, either the House or the Senate has approved legislation that would bar [...]

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently issued an advisory opinion that a hospital system’s proposal to license a custom software interface for use by physicians on its medical staffs does not constitute a “compensation arrangement” for purposes of the self-referral prohibition in the Stark law. The facts underlying the opinion included an [...]

    Bart Walker, an attorney in the Charlotte office of McGuireWoods LLP, was elected to the board of directors of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce Health Services Council. “My hope as a director of the Chamber’s Health Services Council is to help foster a cooperative environment in which the health care providers in the [...]

On April 30, 2008, 12:30 p.m – 1:45 p.m. (Eastern Time), McGuireWoods will present “10 Keys to Turning Around Financial Ambulatory Surgery Centers: A Case Study Approach”.  The key speakers on this teleconference will be Brent Lambert, M.D., Founder of Ambulatory Surgical Centers of America (ASCOA) and Thomas Mallon, President of Regent Surgical Health. The [...]

The 6th Annual Orthopedics, Pain Management and Spine Driven ASC Conference will be held June 19-21 at the Westin Michigan Avenue in Chicago. At the event, I will be speaking on a panel titled “Financing and Recapitalizations for ASCs and Specialty Hospitals”. I will be speaking with Ken Seip of Citicapital, Anthony Mai of CIT, [...]

Memorial Health, Inc., which owns Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia, will pay $5.08 million to the federal government to settle allegations that it defrauded the federal Medicare program through various Stark Law violations.             The lawsuit alleged that the medical center violated the Stark Law between January 2003 and December 2006 by [...]