On April 21, 2021, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decided that the long-standing contract bar doctrine should remain unchanged “at this time.” The Board invited public comment on whether to overturn or modify the longstanding precedent and considered 17 amici briefs from unions, employer advocates, and other lawmakers, in ...
On April 20, 2021, Medicare announced that it will cover and pay for bamlanivimab, when administered alone, only for dates of service from November 10, 2020 to April 16, 2021. This change in payment policy was to align with the FDA announcement on April 16, 2021, that it had revoked the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for bamlanivimab, when ...
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 allows small and midsize employers to claim refundable tax credits that reimburse them for the cost of providing paid sick and family leave to employees due to COVID-19, including leave to receive or recover from COVID-19 vaccinations. This refundable credit is available for wages paid during such leave from ...
On April 15, 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a statement reminding providers and the public that the COVID-19 vaccine must be administered at no cost to recipients. The OIG has received complaints that providers are charging patients when administering the vaccines. Providers who ...
By: Stephen C. Hall
U.S. Patent 6,697,730 titled “Communications and computing based urban transit system,” and owned by RideApp, was already nearing the end of its life. But in a recent case, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals declared it deceased. Three years prior, RideApp had sued in a California District Court, alleging that ...
The surge in unemployment claims resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by an increase in unemployment insurance fraud. In fact, Kentucky took the unprecedented step of temporarily closing its unemployment claim system to address security concerns in connection with the wave of fraudulent unemployment claims. ...
On March 29, 2021, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) announced that data collection for 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 Component 1 filing will open one week from today—Monday, April 26, 2021. Employers will have until Monday, July 19, 2021 to submit their data for those years. Each year, employers with 100 or more ...
Following a March 22 report by the Wall Street Journal that hospitals and insurers have skirted price transparency requirements by using special coding that shielded pricing data, including insurer rates, from online search engines, CMS issued a new guideline clarifying that the regulations require the data to be “easily accessible and void ...
The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has published new guidance setting out legal standards and examples of applications of those standards meant to help improve access to COVID-19 vaccines for people with disabilities. The OCR reminds providers that during the COVID-19 public health emergency, civil ...
Certain individuals and businesses can now enjoy liability protection from COVID-19 related claims. Senate Bill 5, which protects qualifying Kentucky businesses, schools and individuals from liability for claims relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, was officially enacted into Kentucky law earlier this week. Wyatt attorneys, Douglas L ...
incremental: increasing in a small series of steps
Our patent laws protect innovations and investments by rewarding the person or company who advances technology in a distinct way. Some patented inventions are groundbreaking, such as one of the first patents for GPS technology (U.S. Pat. 3,789,409) issued in 1974. Conversely, other patents ...
Throughout the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE), the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has been answering frequently asked questions from the industry on whether certain provider arrangements directly related to the COVID-19 PHE would implicate the federal Anti-Kickback ...
Words matter. A recent case decided by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. v. DropBox, Inc., again highlights how true this statement is in the context of patent claims.[1]
In Synchronoss, the Court of Appeals affirmed the invalidation of every claim in Synchronoss’ patent 7,587,446 titled “Acquisition ...
On April 1, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ("CMS") published MLN Matters Article “Repayment of COVID-19 Accelerated and Advance Payments Began on March 30, 2021“ informing Medicare providers who requested and received COVID-19 accelerated and advance payments that CMS began recovering the earliest of those payments ...