EMPLOYEE BENEFITS LAW ALERT
June 25, 2008
EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY – NEW LAW PROVIDES NEW EMPLOYEE BENEFIT
PLAN RIGHTS TO MEMBERS OF THE MILITARY AND THEIR SURVIVORS
Effective immediately, a new federal law, called the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act of 2008 (HEART Act), requires action to be taken by sponsors of qualified retirement…
Introduction
A properly designed retirement program can increase a physician’s retirement plan benefit by more than $80,000 while decreasing the practice’s contribution to the non-physician and even non-owner physician employees by $20,000. If this $100,000 plus difference catches your attention, read the rest of the article! Our examples illustrate how similarly situated physicians can have dramatically different…
A recent blogger (RB) posted a comment that it would be helpful if the MedLaw Blog (MLB) included the full descriptions of all the acronyms used in the posts. Therefore (TF), I am including a link to the Department of Health and Human Services Health Law Acronyms Webpage (DHHSHLAW).
Michael A. Cassidy (MAC).
Collection Notices Must Interpreted From The Point Of View Of The “Least Sophisticated Debtor”
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania has reinforced that collection notices must be interpreted from the point of view of the “least sophisticated debtor.”
Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692 (FDPCA), the…
The Supreme Court of Kansas ruled on May 16, 2008 affirmed in the case of Kansas Heart Hospital, LLC and Cardiac Health of Wichita vs. Badr Idbeis, M.D. and 13 other shareholder defendants, that the Kansas Heart Hospital, LLC and Cardiac Health of Wichita were justified in forcing a mandatory redemption of the other …
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee concluded that a hospital’s affirmative defenses pursuant to the Healthcare Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA) were not sufficient to independently establish federal jurisdiction, and therefore approved a physician’s motion to remand the state court case that had been removed to federal court by the hospital defendant.…
The Joint Commission announced the suspension of the planned July 2009 implementation date for the revised MS1.20 Medical Staff Standards. The Implementation Task Force has recommended a full field review and anticipates both changes to the existing proposals and a delayed implementation date. The full text of the news release is available …
The American Health Law Association has just published its revised Peer Review Hearing Guide Book. Mike Cassidy is one of five co-authors, the others being Patricia Hofstra, Steven Schnier, Ann O’Connell and Al Adelman, the last two of whom were co-editors.
Mike was also reappointed as the Chair of the American Health …
Issues arise when one re-publishes material created by others — i.e., another’s intellectual property. Generally, the intellectual property involves copyrights and trademarks/servicemarks. Text, images, and sounds on a web page may be copyrighted. Trademarks and servicemarks which are commercial identifiers for a particular company’s product or service are proprietary to that company. Both copyrighted and trademarked material must be…
Highmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield announced in the April 2008 PRN that the reduction for technical component reimbursement for multiple procedures, originally intended to be effective as of July 1, 2008, will be postponed until September 1, 2008. A copy of that announcement is contained in the link below.
