Dorsey Health Law Blog

New Minnesota Assisted Living Licensure Requirements Have Gone Into Effect and the First Survey Results Are Out

On August 1, 2021, an overhaul of the licensing requirements for Minnesota assisted living facilities (codified at Minn. Stat. 144G.08-9999) went into effect. Under the new law, which was also discussed in a previous Dorsey Health Law Blog post, Minnesota assisted living facilities are now required to obtain either an assisted living facility license or,...

Stark Regulatory Changes Require Modifying Certain Group Practice Compensation Methodologies by January 1, 2022

There are now less than three months until changes to the federal physician self-referral law (“Stark Law” or “Stark”) group practice definition special compensation rule go into effect on January 1, 2022.  As we wrote about here, these changes include revisions to the rule related to overall profits to prohibit pooling and distributing profits from designated...

Biden Administration Announces Broad Employer-Based Vaccination Requirements

On September 9, 2021, the Biden Administration announced its new COVID-19 Action Plan (the “Action Plan”), which outlines a six-pronged approach to combat the pandemic.  The wide-ranging Action Plan lays out plans to vaccinate the unvaccinated, further protect the vaccinated, keep schools safely open, increase testing and masking, protect the economic recovery, and improve care...

CMS Advisory Opinion Approves Parent and Wholly-Owned Subsidiary Qualifying as “Single Legal Entity” under the Stark “Group Practice” Definition

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released Advisory Opinion No. CMS-AO-2021-01 in June 2021, which gave the requestor the green light to provide designated health services (“DHS”) through wholly-owned subsidiaries while the parent and subsidiaries could qualify as a “single legal entity” under the “group practice” definition of the federal physician self-referral law...

Biden Administration Orders Long Term Care Facilities to Require COVID-19 Vaccinations To Receive Federal Funds; OSHA Issues Updated COVID-19 Recommendations For All Workplaces

As we have previously written, the landscape for employers in the time of COVID-19, particularly health care employers and long term care facilities, is ever-changing and quickly moving.  In the last year, health care employers have had to navigate state laws, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services...

Living in a Virtual World: The Post-Pandemic Future of Telehealth

The COVID-19 pandemic required health care providers of all sizes to make drastic changes to the mode of patient care delivery. Telehealth quickly emerged as a safe alternative to in-person patient visits, and many providers quickly transitioned to virtual services. The pandemic-initiated expansion of telehealth was rapid and significant, but the pandemic likely accelerated existing...