Author: Alissa Smith

Alissa represents health systems, hospitals, pharmacies, long-term care providers, home health agencies and medical practices, as well as nonprofit and municipal organizations. Alissa’s transactional practice includes contracts, leases, mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. Alissa’s regulatory practice includes the interpretation and application of state and federal fraud and abuse laws, Medicare and Medicaid rules, tax-exemption laws, HIPAA and privacy laws, EMTALA laws, licensing matters, employment laws, governmental audits and open records and open meetings matters. She also assists with corporate and health system governance issues, including the revision and negotiation of medical staff bylaws.

The Affordable Care Act in the Trump Administration

One of President Trump’s first actions in office was to sign an Executive Order stating that his Administration will seek to repeal the Affordable Care Act (the “Act”). In the meantime, President Trump directed the executive branch to take “all actions consistent with law to minimize the unwarranted economic and regulatory burdens of the Act,...

The Impact of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 on Off-Campus Hospital Outpatient Departments

November 23, 2015 On November 2, 2015, President Obama signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (“Act”) into law significantly impacting how Medicare pays certain off-campus hospital departments.  Specifically, Section 603 of the Act provides that items and services furnished at off-campus departments of a hospital will not be reimbursed under the hospital outpatient prospective...

CMS Proposes Significant Revisions to Stark Law

July 23, 2015 In its CY 2016 physician fee schedule proposed rule, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) proposes significant amendments and clarifications to the federal physician self-referral regulations, commonly known as the “Stark” rules.1 In response to CMS’ experience reviewing several hundred self-disclosures made under the Voluntary Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol, many of...