On Friday, April 17, President Barack Obama signed into law the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, repealing the "sustainable growth rate" formula or "SGR" which was set by Congress in 1997 to control Medicare spending by limiting annual increases...
PLDO Law Blog
Month: April 2015
Revocation of Home Health Agency’s Medicare Enrollment and Billing Privileges Upheld
The revocation of a home health agency's (HHA) Medicare enrollment and billing privileges was recently upheld by an Administrative Law Judge in the Civil Remedies Division of the Health & Human Services Departmental Appeals Board (ALJ). The ALJ determined that the...
Health Care Providers Cannot Sue States Over Low Medicaid Reimbursement Rates
On Tuesday, March 31, 2015, in a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court of the United States ("SCOTUS") ruled in the case Armstrong v. Exceptional Child Center, Inc., that health care providers cannot sue a state to challenge low Medicaid reimbursement rates. Initially,...
HOW LIFE INSURANCE PROCEEDS COULD AFFECT A COMPANY’S VALUATION FOR ESTATE TAX PURPOSES
A recent case brought to light the impact that a stock-purchase agreement and life insurance proceeds may – or may not - have on the valuation of a closely held company for estate tax purposes. In this case that caused a split between the 8th and 11th Circuits, the...
HASTE MAKES WASTE . . . CASH THE CHECK.
One never knows what corner the grim reaper lies behind. A final illness can often accelerate quickly and deprive a donor of adequate time to complete gifts for tax purposes that he intended to make. In a recent federal court case, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals...
ATTENTION SNOWBIRDS: DO YOU PASS THE DOMICILE TEST?
“A person doesn't know how much he has to be thankful for until he has to pay taxes on it.” This anonymous quote is timely. It is rumored that the Rhode Island Division of Taxation (“the Division”) is reviewing its procedures for determining whether a Rhode Islander...
HOW CLOSELY HELD BUSINESSES CAN PREVENT MANAGEMENT DEADLOCKS
Differences in opinion on how to achieve a stated goal in a closely held business can lead to disputes that block the enterprise from moving forward. Closely held businesses are characterized by a limited number of shareholders and a lack of public trading. The...
WHY ESTATE PLANNING FOR BUSINESSES IS CRITICAL (NOT OPTIONAL)
Owning your own business can be extremely demanding. From your customers to your employees, there’s hardly enough time in the day. While most entrepreneurs are consumed by the day-to-day challenges of running their businesses, they often neglect the critical task of...