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,...
GOVERNOR MCKEE MAKES LONG-AWAITED ANNOUNCEMENT OF RHODE ISLAND CANNABIS CONTROL COMMISSION NOMINATIONS
After much anticipation, Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee made a move critical to advancing the state’s cannabis legalization efforts by naming his appointments to the new Cannabis Control Commission (“CCC”). The announcement of Kimberly Ahern, the Governor’s...
FIRST CIRCUIT EXPLAINS FLSA OVERTIME REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMINISTRATIVE EMPLOYEES
It is well settled that the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) requires employers to pay certain employees overtime pay at one and one-half times the employees’ regular rate. 29 U.S.C.S. §207(a). However, certain employees are exempt from this overtime requirement,...
EXECUTING A CAREFULLY DRAFTED CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT IN AN M&A TRANSACTION
The execution of a confidentiality agreement - or what is also referred to as non-disclosure agreement (NDA) - is typically the first official stage of any merger or acquisition. Prior to this stage, a general discussion may have already occurred, and relevant...
THE IMPORTANCE OF CONDITIONS PRECEDENT IN LICENSING, PERMITTING AND PURCHASE AGREEMENTS
A condition precedent is a condition in a contract that must occur before another party is required to perform. In purchase and sale agreements, there are often several conditions precedent that must be satisfied before a party is required to close. Particularly, in...
REMOTE WORKERS IN RHODE ISLAND: STATE REGS MAY CREATE PERSONAL JURISDICTION IN RHODE ISLAND COURTS
The United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island recently held that it had personal jurisdiction over an out-of-state employer, despite the fact that the employer only had one remote employee who worked in Rhode Island. That employee—who was also the...
