California’s new Office of Health Care Affordability recently adopted emergency regulations (Final Regulations) implementing the Health Care Market Oversight Program, required under California’s Health Care Quality and Affordability Act (HCQAA). HCQAA, which created the Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA), requires “health care entities” to provide written notice of certain “material change transactions” to OHCA. (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 127500 et seq.) OHCA may then conduct a cost and market impact review (CMIR), with the overarching goal of ...
The California Supreme Court recently issued its decision in Boermeester v. Carry. Though the case deals with fair procedure within a private university’s internal disciplinary proceedings, it provides helpful guidance for peer review bodies navigating medical disciplinary hearings.
Boermeester reiterated the long-standing admonition that courts should not try to impose “rigid procedures” upon private organizations’ administrative proceedings. Rather, the organizations themselves should develop methods for providing the fundamentals of fair ...
On May 18, 2023 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a Notice for Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) for updates to the Health Breach Notification Rule, 16 C.F.R. Part 318 (the Rule). The Rule serves to ensure entities that are not defined as Covered Entities under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are nevertheless accountable when the sensitive health information of consumers is compromised and that entities cannot conceal breaches from consumers. The Rule imposes notification requirements for a breach of unsecured identifiable health ...
Parties in peer review hearings can present a wide range of relevant evidence, regardless of its admissibility in a court of law. But California has passed a new “apology law” that modifies that standard, erecting a potential hurdle for medical staffs to admit relevant evidence against practitioners in peer review hearings.
Under California law, statements, writings, or benevolent gestures expressing sympathy or a general sense of benevolence relating to the pain, suffering, or death of a person involved in an accident are inadmissible in civil trials. (Evid. Code, § 1160.) ...
As healthcare grows increasingly complex, delivery structures continue to evolve. A popular arrangement is the “Friendly PC” model, where large medical groups are backed by private equity or health system investment and administrative support. But courts and lawmakers have become concerned that certain Friendly PC arrangements encroach on physician autonomy and violate the century-old prohibition on the corporate practice of medicine (“CPOM”). A recent lawsuit—American Academy of Emergency Medicine Physician Group, Inc. v. Envision Healthcare Corporation ...
On September 29, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 890 into law, launching significant changes to the scope of practice for Nurse Practitioners (“NPs”) over the next few years.
Effective January 1, 2021, NPs who meet certain education and training requirements will be able to perform certain functions without standardized procedures in specified healthcare settings where one or more physicians …
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