For Your Health:
Keeping the Pulse of the Law
We highlight a recent advisory opinion, OIG Advisory Opinion No. 21-18, regarding a long term care provider’s proposed arrangement with a therapy services vendor. The facts presented in the Opinion are straightforward and include elements not unlike many typical joint venture (JV) and management service organization (MSO) arrangements in the health care space.
There is good news for health care providers this holiday season with HHS’s recent announcement of numerous revisions liberalizing the AKS, Stark and CMP Laws. Among the helpful changes are modifications to the popular AKS personal services and management contracts safe harbor for part-time arrangements, and new AKS safe harbors and Stark exceptions for care coordination activities that could benefit post-acute care providers.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that it will use payroll-based journal (PBJ) data to identify nursing homes that have several days in a quarter without a registered nurse (RN) on site, or have a significant decline in staff on the weekends. The States will be required to inspect such facilities and cite any non-compliance resulting from such surveys.
With Democrats in control of the New York State Senate for the first time in nearly a decade, it remains to be seen what the fallout might be for the health care industry. But one area where you can be sure to expect to see a push is legislation for mandatory staffing minimums in health care facilities.
