On August 18, 2022, in the wake of the uncertainty visited upon the healthcare industry by the pandemic, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law new legislation protecting employees during the transfer in ownership of healthcare entities. The new law prohibits employers from terminating employees absorbed through a consolidation, merger, reorganization, etc., during a
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced a proposed rule to strengthen nondiscrimination in healthcare by advancing health equity and reducing disparity. Entitled “Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities,” the proposed rule revises Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and also includes proposals to provisions in the
The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) is expected to soon release regulations implementing the New Jersey Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) program, which will apply to commercial and institutional entities including hospitals and medical facilities.
Adopted on August 24, 2021, the C-PACE law establishes a mechanism to finance, among other things, commercial renewable
A bill to prohibit healthcare providers from reporting unpaid medical debt to a collection or credit reporting facility is working its way through the New Jersey Legislature.
Assembly Bill 3802 (and its companion S2428) define “medical creditor” as any healthcare provider that provides healthcare services and to whom the consumer owes money for healthcare services,
In an effort to reduce the number of medical malpractice claims without merit, the New Jersey Legislature enacted the Medical Care and Access and Responsibility and Patients First Act in 2004. Now more commonly referred to as the Patients First Act (PFA), this legislation included provisions specifically for “an action alleging medical malpractice” that amended
Legislation revising the arbitration provisions of New Jersey’s Out-of-Network Consumer Protection, Transparency, Cost Containment, and Accountability Act was signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy on July 29, 2022. New Jersey’s law was a predecessor to, and in some ways supplements, the federal “No Surprises Act.
As we noted in an earlier Client Alert,
On July 11, 2022, at the direction of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a memorandum to State Survey Agency Directors reminding them of their continuing federal obligations under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) when treating pregnant patients.
The guidance
Restrictive covenants are commonplace in the healthcare space. Doctors and hospitals routinely enter into non-compete and non-solicitation agreements in an effort to retain talent, among other reasons. However, in May of 2022 the New Jersey Assembly proposed legislation that may serve to significantly limit the scope of restrictive covenants, both within the healthcare space and
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Clinic that overruled the nearly 50-year-old precedent of Roe v. Wade, which had recognized a constitutional right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy, opens the way for greater restrictions on abortions at the state level. Before the Dobbs decision was released, Texas had
The July 16, 2022 issue of the well regarded journal Lancet considers a persisting issue concerning editorial peer review. Done on a double-blinded basis as to the identity of author and reviewer, it has traditionally been undertaken without compensation. Peer review of medical journal articles is important. It is intended to provide an assessment of