Health Care Privacy Issues in Corporate Reorganizations
by: Andrew M. Troop
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP; New York
Arthur R. Cormier
Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP; Boston
Adam J. Levitin
Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP; Boston
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the HIPAA Privacy Rule
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), 104 P.L. 191; 110 Stat. 1936, sec. 261-64, authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to promulgate standards for health care information security and exchange. 42 U.S.C. §1320d-2. Pursuant to this authority, HHS promulgated the HIPAA Privacy Rule, 45 CFR Parts 160 and 164.
Read the full article. (Materials from the 2007 New York City Bankruptcy Conference)
Hoboken University Medical Center: The Revival of New Jersey’s Oldest Hospital
by: Kevin M. Kramer
Gibbons P.C.; Newark, N.J.
New Jersey’s hospitals, like acute care centers in many states, are facing an increasingly difficult future. This is especially true for the state’s urban hospitals, where the payor mix is skewed toward charity care patients instead of those who are fully insured. Medicaid and disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments, which help partially to compensate hospitals for services provided to uninsured and underinsured patients, are huge state budget items in New Jersey. To balance annual budgets, however, appropriations for Medicaid and DSH payments in the state have been shrinking, while the number of patients without insurance who use hospital emergency rooms for primary care is increasing. Medicare reimbursement for services to older patients likewise is being reduced through federal budget cuts. Competition from large academic medical centers in Philadelphia and New York places an additional squeeze on New Jersey’s hospitals.
The Patient Care Ombudsman: A New Professional Gets Added to Chapter 11
by: Robert A. Guy, Jr.
Waller, Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP; Nashville, Tenn.
John C. Tishler
Waller, Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP; Nashville, Tenn.
Daniel McMurray
Focus Management Group; Tampa, Fla.
The 2005 amendments to the Bankruptcy Code have been the source of much controversy. The “patient care ombudsman,” a new position created in health care bankruptcies, however, is one addition that has received little attention in the press. Congress added the position in the newly-codified §333 of the Code. While not utilized in many cases to date, the position creates an employment opportunity for turnaround professionals, as well as a new challenge for professionals representing other parties. Bankruptcy professionals should consider the impact expense, and potential resource the ombudsman position presents to them and their clients.