Legal & Regulatory Issues

Jim Witt, president and CEO of Mokena, Ill.-based Provena Health, is supporting his U.S. Congressman's vote in support of federal health reform, according to a report by the Daily Herald.

A new report to CMS says most hospitals receiving wage index reclassifications and exceptions would not benefit from a new methodology proposed by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, according to AHA News Now.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a nationwide conservative physicians' organization, has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the new health reform law, according to a report by the Arizona Daily Star.

New decision by the U.S. Supreme Court limits the use whistleblower lawsuits against hospitals and other organizations for alleged fraud against the federal government, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has asked a U.S. District judge to block the construction of two replacement hospitals in New Orleans' Mid-City district, saying it would ruin the historical district, according to an Associate Press report in New…

Once again, on Thursday, physicians will face a huge cut in Medicare reimbursements resulting from Congress' failure to extend a short-term patch to delay implementing the sustainable growth rate formula.

27 U.S. Senators submitted a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services urging it to revise its "meaningful use" definition and requirements, which are used to determine which hospitals will qualify for incentive payments for implementing electronic health…

1. More paying patients. Adding 32 million paying patients will save hospitals with high volumes of uninsured, such as Grady Health System in Atlanta. Health reform "should take some of the operational pressure and the near-death experience Grady faced in…

A 65 percent federal subsidy to enhance COBRA health insurance premiums for the newly unemployed will end on April 1 because the Senate failed to pass a bill extending it before Congress went into a two-week recess, according to Kaiser…

The Physician Sunshine Payment Act, part of the new health reform law, is expected to discourage payments to physicians from medical device and pharmaceutical companies, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal Health Blog.