The Delta variant, which increased COVID cases and hospitalizations, also prompted new federal and local COVID rules and mandates, and required employers to revisit their existing COVID policies.
OSHA announced a new COVID Emergency Standard for health care employers to take effect in July 2021. This new Emergency Standard requires health care employers to address
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont recently signed into law “An Act Incentivizing the Adoption of Cybersecurity Standards for Businesses” (Public Act No. 21-119). Under the Act, “covered entities” that implement certain cybersecurity measures to protect against data breaches of “personal information” and “restricted information” will be insulated against the imposition of punitive damages arising
An article in the August issue of Healthcare Risk Management, “Healthcare Employers Can Mandate Vaccines, but Some Caution Necessary,” discussed recent federal guidance and court decisions that allow hospitals and other healthcare employers to require COVID-19 vaccines for their employees. Rivkin Radler’s Brian Conneely was quoted in the article.
“Based on recent
A new federal hospital price transparency rule that took effect on January 1, 2021, requires hospitals to post all prices for services online in an easily accessible format. However, a report recently released by PatientRightsAdvocate.org found that 94.4% of hospitals were not in compliance with the rule, because one or more price transparency requirements were
The New York Department of Labor has issued Model Safety Plans and Standards for airborne infectious diseases. All employers, regardless of size and with a worksite in New York, must adopt a safety plan by August 5, 2021, and must post, distribute and include the plan in their handbooks to all employees and new hires
The proposed 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule released on July 13 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) includes a new category of CPT codes for “remote therapeutic monitoring” (RTM). The new codes are in addition to the set of codes introduced in 2019 for remote physiological monitoring, usually called remote patient monitoring
The proposed 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, released on July 13 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), includes expanded reimbursement for behavioral health services delivered by telehealth, including reimbursing providers for audio-only telephone calls. The proposed expansion would allow Medicare beneficiaries with mental health or substance abuse disorders to receive diagnosis,
An article in the July issue of Hospital Peer Review, “NPDB Reporting Protected by Law in Some Cases, Gray Areas Problematic,” discussed hospitals’ obligations to report doctors to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) and their protection against liability for doing so. Rivkin Radler’s Chris Kutner was quoted extensively in the article.
On June 23, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) posted on its website an Issue Brief entitled “Medicare Lacks Consistent Oversight of Cybersecurity for Networked Medical Devices in Hospitals.” According to the OIG, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should amend interpretative guidelines or other nonbinding guidelines, or
New York’s State Disaster Emergency declaration, which had been extended through June 24 through a series of Executive Orders by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has expired. Among many other things, the Executive Orders had removed certain restrictions on the provision of telehealth services.
For example, since March 18, 2020, Gov. Cuomo’s Executive Order No. 202.5 had