Health Law Advisor

On Epstein Becker Green's OSHA Law Update blog, Eric Conn reviews an article about OSHA's web-based "Worker Safety in Hospitals" guidance.  The article is entitled "Hospitals' Heavy Lifting: Understanding OSHA's New Hospital Worker and Patient Safety Guidance" and is co-authored by our colleagues Eric Conn, James Frank, and Serra Schlanger.

Following is an excerpt from the blog post:

The article, published in AHLA's Spring 2014 Labor & Employment publication, summarizes OSHA's new web-based "Worker Safety in Hospitals" guidance, explains how the guidance relates to ...

Epstein Becker Green and EBG Advisors announce the eighth webinar in a series focusing on emerging trends in population health.  The next session—entitled "How Will 'Big Data' and 'IT Integration' Impact Population Health Management?"—will examine the rise of big data and other innovative computational methods.  The speakers will explain how these tools and applications are being leveraged to promote better clinical and financial outcomes for patients, providers, and payors.

To register for this must-attend event, scheduled for June 24, 2014, at 12:00 p.m. ET, click here.

A Nelson Hardiman and Epstein Becker Green Webinar Series

The post-acute spectrum of care is going through a period of profound legal changes, from newly emerging risks to integration with acute care and the transition to managed care.  This series features leading attorneys sharing insights into compliance challenges and strategies.  Join us for this series and stay ahead of the latest regulatory updates in long-term care.

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A Complimentary Two-Part Webinar on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Health Care Entities and the ADA: Part I - Complex Issues in the Reasonable ...

We recommend our colleagues’ post on the Retail Labor and Employment Law blog: Three Lawsuits Brought by the U.S. EEOC Challenge Employer Separation Agreements, by Lauri F. Rasnick, Susan Gross Sholinsky, Frank C. Morris Jr., and Nancy L. Gunzenhauser.

Following is an excerpt:

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC” or “Agency”) has been spending a fair amount of time in recent months challenging the validity and legality of employers’ separation agreements. This is apparently part of the EEOC’s core priorities, including “targeting ...

By Arthur J. Fried

The Controversy - 2012 Rulemaking Attempts

Roughly two years ago, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the Department of Health and Human Services ("CMS") published final regulations announcing two controversial rule changes addressing hospital governance.  The industry was taken by surprise, to say  the least, as neither of these requirements had been in the proposed rule.  The changes, promulgated as amendments to the Governing Body Condition of Participation (CoP) included (i) the requirement that a hospital's board include at least one member of ...

By Robert S. Groban, Jr. and Matthew S. Groban

On March 24, 2014, the USCIS Ombudsman reported that the agency has been improperly denying employment authorization to the dependents of J-1 doctors who are participating in the Conrad 30 program. Normally, foreign physicians who pursue medical training in the United States in J-1 status must leave the country and return home for at least two years when they finish their residency programs. The Conrad 30 program waives this two-year foreign residence requirement and allows those J-1 physicians selected for the program to change their ...

By: Michael F. McGahan

My colleagues have a new post that will help many of our readers at this time of year: “Summer’s Coming! How to Handle Unpaid Internships,” by Jeffrey M. Landes, Susan Gross Sholinsky, and Nancy L. Gunzenhauser.

Following is an excerpt:

A hot topic for every summer – but particularly this summer – is the status of unpaid interns. You are probably aware that several wage and hour lawsuits have been brought regarding the employment status of unpaid interns, particularly in the entertainment and publishing industries. The theory behind these cases is that ...

By Lori A. Medley

A recent decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that collection or "dunning" letters sent after a debt has become time-barred by the applicable statute of limitations violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq. ("FDCPA"), unless the dunning letters advise the debtor that the debt is no longer legally enforceable pursuant to the applicable statute of limitations.

In the consolidated appeals of McMahon v. LVNV Funding, LLC and Delgado v. Capital Management Services, Nos. 12-3504 & 13-2030, the Seventh ...

One of the largest hurdles to the growth of telehealth—the lack of a streamlined process for obtaining physician licensure in multiple states—is one step closer to being scaled. The Federation of State Medical Boards (“FSMB”) recently released a revised draft of its Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (“Compact”). This revised draft is a continuation of efforts by FSMB and its member boards to study the feasibility of an interstate license portability. Additionally, the revised draft of the Compact reflects changes based upon comments received from FSMB member ...

By:  Kara M. Maciel, Adam C. Solander and Lindsay A. Smith

As the Employer Mandate compliance deadline looms for employers under the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) and employers are closely monitoring employee hours, it is critical that employers take appropriate and lawful steps to record all hours worked by an employee.  If employers try to play games and manipulate how time records are maintained, they could find themselves in hot water under both the ACA and the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”).

In what appears to be one of the first lawsuits challenging how hours are recorded ...