Legal & Regulatory Issues

Legislators who authored the Physician Payments Sunshine Act — Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) — are again putting pressure on CMS, insisting in an open letter the government organization start data collection by June.

CMS has released the full set of proposed clinical quality measures for 2014 as part of the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs Stage 2 Notice of Proposed Rule Making.

Local physicians and residents are opposing plans by Saint Clare's Hospital in Sussex, N.J., to convert the 106-bed hospital into an emergency and outpatient center, according to a New Jersey Herald report.

An appellate court panel has rejected a request by Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, N.J., and Englewood (N.J.) Hospital and Medical Center to stop plans to reopen former Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood, N.J., according to a Record report.

President Barack Obama's administration confirmed that the courts have the right to strike down federal laws after a judge demanded an explanation of recent remarks by the president, according to a New York Times report.

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced an agreement from radiation oncology practice Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia and its affiliates to pay $3.8 million to settle claims that they violated the False Claims Act.

A surgeon group has been denied a certificate of need application to build an ambulatory surgery center in Kenai, Alaska, according to a Peninsula Clarion report.

Southwest General Health System, based in Middleburg Heights, Ohio, has acquired a minority stake in Big Creek Surgery Center in Middleburg Heights, according to a Crain's Cleveland Business report.

Physicians who apply for hardship exemptions from the CMS e-prescribing incentive program are not getting them because of a backlog, according to The American Medical News.

U.S. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has made public a prediction of how the Supreme Court justices will vote on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in June.