Tom Ealey co-authored an article on upcoming changes in compliance (recommended by and soon to be mandatory) from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
http://ltlmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=90A70F27DC174BD797730522E24570BD
Friday, May 13, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Obamacare Set Back
The Community Living Assistance Services and Support (aka C.L.A.S.S.) is a lesser discussed but important feature of Obamacare (PPACA).
The Act requires the feds to set up a quasi-insurance self-funding mechanism for long-term care services (for more details see my write up at http://www.issuu.com/
During testimony in February before the Senate Finance Committee DHHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted that as designed by Congress C.L.A.S.S. is not financially sustainable.
The battle now is whether or not Sebelius can 1) fix the Act via regulatory changes or 2) Congress must redesign the Act.
In the latest volley the Congressional Research Services says the regulatory powers are NOT broad enough for Sebelius to effectively rewrite the statute via regulation.
A bigger question remains for many of us, “can this program ever be financially sustainable?”
As predicted, with Obamacare the devil will be in the regulatory details.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Social Media and Employee Speech
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) forced a settlement on American Medical Response of Connecticut Inc. after AMR fired an employee (and Teamsters member) who went home from work and profanely blasted her supervisor as being mentally ill on Facebook. Other employees posted responses supporting the employee.
The law protects the free discussion of working terms and conditions, and concerted activity, even in a crude and lewd manner in a public Internet space.
AMR agreed to loosen its Internet policies and a confidential settlement was reached with the former employee.
Since the employee posted from her home computer the issue of social media use on the job was not addressed, but it is another thorny problem.
In reviewing more than a dozen news reports, various attorneys had weighed in on the impacts of this ruling . It is likely we will need more cases to get a better definition of the boundaries, and there is no indication the ruling contradicts various laws protecting patient and customer privacy, intellectual property or prohibiting the dissemination of insider information. No indication how this might mesh with slander and defamation laws.
The NLRB announced the results of its settlement - on its Facebook page - of course.
The law protects the free discussion of working terms and conditions, and concerted activity, even in a crude and lewd manner in a public Internet space.
AMR agreed to loosen its Internet policies and a confidential settlement was reached with the former employee.
Since the employee posted from her home computer the issue of social media use on the job was not addressed, but it is another thorny problem.
In reviewing more than a dozen news reports, various attorneys had weighed in on the impacts of this ruling . It is likely we will need more cases to get a better definition of the boundaries, and there is no indication the ruling contradicts various laws protecting patient and customer privacy, intellectual property or prohibiting the dissemination of insider information. No indication how this might mesh with slander and defamation laws.
The NLRB announced the results of its settlement - on its Facebook page - of course.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
C.L.A.S.S. commentary
C.L.A.S.S. is the new long-term care financing mechanism in the PPACA health care reform act, a brief commentary is found at.
Commentary
January 2011
Commentary
January 2011
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