Category:Uncategorized
Threat of the Border Wall: Impact on the Enforcement of Environmental Regulation
In early January of this year, the House Committee on Armed Services granted an extension to a bill that would increase border security. An unlikely opponent of this bill is the environmental lobby, since the bill would allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to waive the requirements of some of the most important environmental protection statutes. These statutes have been the basis for almost all the citizen enforcement in the environmental arena; they work to maintain protections for 73 different areas along the border, along with numerous endangered species.
Market Giants Move to Redesign Healthcare
In January 2018, Warren Buffet, Jamie Dimon, and Jeff Bezos announced that Berkshire Hathaway, JP Morgan Chase, and Amazon would partner together to form a non-profit company aimed at improving the United State healthcare system and combating ever-increasing costs. The idea for the project came about from the ongoing discussion between the three CEOs regarding providing healthcare for their, collectively, approximately 840,000 employees. Even though details are scarce, given the importance of the issue and the prominent names attached to this project, the press, the public, and the market have reacted accordingly. In other words, people are scrambling to figure out what this might mean for their companies and our healthcare system as a whole.
TAX TALK SERIES Understanding Notice 1036: IRS Adjusted Withholding Tables to Accommodate New Tax Plan
On December 20, 2017, Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”) designed to decrease the taxable rate for corporations and individuals, and to limit allowable deductions. Since this change to the Tax Code was one of the largest since the Reagan era, the Internal Revenue Service will need to publish many regulations in the coming months to better clarify provisions of the TCJA. This multi-part series will explore prominent IRS regulations as they relate to the TCJA, and what these regulations mean for both individual and corporate taxpayers.
Doing the Right Thing: Labor Force Compliance
Corporate compliance professionals will often define compliance as “doing the right thing.” Indeed, both compliance professionals and scholars agree that ethics are an important aspect of effective compliance programs. This is particularly true when it comes to compliance with forced labor regulations. Using forced labor can be appealing to companies seeking to reduce their operating costs and increase profits. However, in the face of a toxic business culture that values maximizing profits, compliance professionals must convince their colleagues that forced labor is not worth the savings in operating costs.
CMS Issues Proposed Rule Addressing Multiple Fraud and Abuse Concerns
Kaitlin Lavin Executive Editor Loyola University Chicago School of Law, JD 2017 The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently proposed a new rule in the Federal Register that addresses changes in Medicare payment policies. The proposed rule aims to inform providers of proper billing practices and prevent fraud and abuse. This post …
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Medicare Regulations Compliance for Long-term Care Hospitals-within-Hospitals
Christine S. Kim Assistant Editor Loyola University Chicago School of Law, J.D. 2017 Due to the inextricably association between long-term care Hospitals-within-Hospitals (“HwHs”) and their respective Long Term Care Hospitals (“LTCH”), or host hospitals, efforts to circumvent compliance with federal reimbursement regulations have evolved. This blog article discusses the ways in which the Centers …
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Impaired and On the Clock: Developing Policies and Procedures to Cope with Impairment in the Workplace
Brittany Tomkies Executive Editor Loyola University Chicago School of Law, JD 2017 Drug and substance abuse has become an epidemic in the United States over the past 15 years, reaching an alarming 9.4% of Americans ages 12 and older in 2013. The human and economic costs of substance abuse are astonishing – some estimate …
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FTC Final Order against LabMD – The Intersection of Unfair Practices, Privacy, Security, and Compliance
Logan Parker Privacy Editor Loyola University Chicago School of Law, LL.M. in Health Law 2017 The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued an Opinion and Final Order on July 29, 2016 against LabMD, a now defunct medical testing laboratory, for its lax data security practices that constituted an unfair practice under Section 5 of the …
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Legislation Involving Disclosure of Data Breaches
Gilbert Carrillo Executive Editor Loyola University Chicago School of Law, JD 2017 Yahoo is just the latest company to have a major cyber security data breach. What is more troubling is how this data breach occurred about 2 years ago and only just now the public is being told about the incident. Was Yahoo …
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Detroit Receiving Hospital, an affiliation of Detroit Medical Center Allegedly Used Contaminated Surgical Equipment
Fannie Fang Executive Editor Loyola University Chicago School of Law, JD 2017 On September 15, 2016, Michigan state regulators cited the Detroit Medical Center (“DMC”) for violating the State’s Public Health Code for failing to properly sterilizing surgical instruments. Although DMC promised to address the issue with correction actions, the violation has left an …
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