As we reported in our annual series highlighting the various healthcare related provisions of the 2018-19 New York State Budget (here), the Enacted Budget reflects the state’s overall policy towards consolidation of the home care marketplace. Nowhere is the effort to force consolidation more apparent than in the Licensed
Continue Reading DOH Issues Additional Guidance on New LHCSA Moratorium and other Restrictions Imposed by the 2018-19 Enacted New York State Budget.
This, the last of our posts on the 2018-19 New York State Health Budget (the “Enacted Budget”), focuses on an area of healthcare that has perhaps the broadest impact of the sector as a whole — managed care. A prior post in the series (
Continue Reading The Broadest Impact: 2018-19 New York State Managed Care Budget Highlights
Since the beginning of the administration of Governor Andrew Cuomo, there has been a strong emphasis on reform of the acute, primary, and long term care systems, and, particularly with the recent focus on the opioid crisis, that attention has extended to the behavioral
Continue Reading A Renewed Focus: 2018-19 New York State Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Budget Highlights
Several provisions in the recently adopted 2018-19 New York State Budget (the “Enacted Budget”) are intended to address the ongoing opioid crisis. As discussed in a prior post (here), some were focused on pharmaceutical manufacturers. Some of the most significant provisions
Notwithstanding the enactment of a first-in-the-nation drug spending cap last year, in light of the $4.4 billion deficit and ongoing concerns about the opioid crisis it was inevitable that this year New York State would once again seek to enact substantial reforms impacting the pharmaceutical industry.
Continue Reading Pharmaceutical Reforms in 2018-19 New York State Budget
Periodically over the years, and consistently since 2005, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) has received funding through the New York State budget process to provide capital support for infrastructure improvements at institutional providers. The rationale for this state funding has varied – at times, it has ostensibly been intended to incentivize certain actions (e.g., facility consolidation, development
Continue Reading State Authorizes Another $525 Million in Capital Grants for Providers
In the wee hours of the morning on March 30, almost two days ahead of the April 1 deadline, the Legislature passed and the Governor signed a $168.3 billion State Budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year. The Enacted Budget maintains a self-imposed cap of 2% on spending increases, and averts
Continue Reading 2018-19 New York State Healthcare Budget
Stemming from the recent drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan, which has had life-lasting effects for many of its residents, including children, due to unsafe lead-related toxicity levels in the drinking water, New York State Governor, Andrew M. Cuomo, announced that various New York municipalities were awarded $20 million dollars in the aggregate to replace lead service lines as part
Continue Reading Learning a Lesson from Flint: New York State Takes Important Steps to Ensure Clean Drinking Water
The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MCFU) of the New York State Office of the Attorney General has recently issued restitution demand letters to providers for allegedly entering into percentage-based contracts with their billing agents. The MCFU letters cite the Medicaid Update March 2001, titled “A Message for Providers Using Service Agents” as follows:
Billing agents are prohibited from
An interesting SDNY settlement agreement resolves some False Claims Act allegations, but leaves others for another day. Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNS) paid just under $35 million to the United States and New York State to settle allegations that VNS improperly billed Medicaid for 1,740 members whose needs did not qualify for a managed care plan. The government
Continue Reading Visiting Nurse Service Settles Some SDNY False Claims Act Allegations, Leaves Others Open As Part Of A “Remaining Investigation”