By Allison D. Shelton and Beth Anne Jackson, Brown & Fortunato, P.C.   On May 27, 2019, the Texas 86th Legislature ended its regular session that began on January 8, 2019. After five months of committee proceedings, debates, and votes, the 86th Legislature passed 484 bills.  Several of the bills that were signed by Governor Greg Abbott will impact the health care industry.   Two bills, Senate Bill (SB) 749 and SB 1264, refine processes...

BY Beth Anne Jackson and Allison D. Shelton, Brown & Fortunato, P.C.   Recently, a 7th Circuit Court of Appeals case, Levitin v. Northwest Community Hospital (Levitin), concluded that a physician whose medical staff privileges were terminated could not sue the hospital for discrimination under Title VII because the hospital was  not the physician’s employer.   The physician had claimed that the hospital’s use of the peer review process exerted  sufficient control to grant it “employer”...

By Beth Anne Jackson and Elizabeth Jepson, Brown & Fortunato, P.C. With the passage of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (Farm Bill) in December 2018, Congress established a new category of cannabis: hemp, which is defined as cannabis with 0.3 percent or less concentration of compound delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).  Further, the Farm Bill specified that the definition of the term “marihuana” under the Controlled Substance Act does not include “hemp.”   Many assumed that the...

By Allison Shelton and Beth Anne Jackson, Brown & Fortunato, P.C. On March 5, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new guidance relating to “Immediate Jeopardy” (IJ) determinations. The instructions for such determinations that had been in place since 2004 in Appendix Q of the State Operations Manual were overhauled by CMS. Appendix Q guides surveyors in the determination of IJ situations, which is the most serious citation that may be...

By Elizabeth Jepson and Allison Shelton, Brown & Fortunato, P.C. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) ended 2018 with a bang by announcing a total $28.7 million collected in enforcement actions and settlements with healthcare providers under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The most recent settlement announced at the beginning of February (but negotiated in December 2018) was with Cottage Health, which operates four hospitals...

By Beth Anne Jackson and Elizabeth Jepson, Brown & Fortunato, P.C. On January 14, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (Fifth Circuit) affirmed a federal district court in Louisiana’s dismissal of a physician’s claims that his due process rights were denied in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Louisiana Constitution. Although the case is from Louisiana, Texas falls within the Fifth Circuit’s jurisdiction, and the rationale behind the...

By Elizabeth Jepson and Allison Shelton, Brown & Fortunato, P.C. In 2019, the health care industry will be watching a case from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. In Texas v. United States, Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional and invalid. Judge O’Connor’s decision was appealed on January 3, 2019. If upheld, the decision will significantly affect the regulatory and compliance landscape as we know...