Article
Published 10/16/2020
Services Bankruptcy and Restructuring
Alert
Published 10/15/2020
By Christina Riggs
Industries Higher Education
In case you missed it, the Office of Postsecondary Education hosted a Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) webinar on October 14, 2020. A copy of the PowerPoint is available here . The panelists included, among others, Diane Auer Jones, Principal Deputy Under Secretary, Robert L. King, Secretary for Postsecondary Educations, and Chris McCaghren, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Higher Education Programs. As titled, the webinar’s intended focus was on reporting obligations, but there was also a lengthy discussion on how to properly use HEERF to cover lost revenue. We tackle the key...
Blog Post
Published 10/15/2020
By Francis X. Riley III
Alert
Published 10/14/2020
By Bruce Armon, Samantha R. Gross
Industries Health Care | HIPAA / Health Information Privacy and Security
On October 9, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced it had settled its ninth enforcement action in its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative (the “Initiative”). OCR announced the Initiative in 2019 as an enforcement priority to ensure individuals can easily and timely access their health information at a reasonable cost under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) Privacy Rule. OCR has recently announced several settlements under the Initiative including against St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical...
Alert
Published 10/13/2020
By Christina Riggs
Industries Higher Education
On Friday, October 9, 2020, the Department of Education announced the rescission of and a replacement for the 2016 Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting (“2016 Handbook”). The announcement also identified and explained the more significant changes between the 2016 Handbook and the “replacement,” which is a new Clery-related Appendix to the Federal Student Aid (FSA) Handbook. Why the rescission? Two reasons: First, the Department concluded that much of the guidance in the 2016 Handbook exceeded its relevant statutory (20 U.S.C. 1092) and regulatory authority (34 CFR 668.41 and 668...
Alert
Published 10/12/2020
By Bruce D. Armon, Samantha R. Gross
Industries Health Care | HIPAA / Health Information Privacy and Security
On October 7, 2020, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced it had settled its eighth enforcement action as part of its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative (the “Initiative”). The Initiative was announced in 2019 as OCR seeks to ensure individuals can easily and timely access their health information at a reasonable cost under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) Privacy Rule. In September 2020 OCR settled five investigations with five different providers under the Initiative. Dignity Health d/b/a...
Article
Published 10/12/2020
Services Cybersecurity and Privacy
Alert
Published 10/12/2020
By Mark Miller, Dennis Brennan
Services Corporate
The U.S. Small Business Association (the “SBA”) released on October 2, 2020 a Procedural Notice providing guidance as to a change of ownership of companies (a “PPP Borrower”) which received a loan (a “PPP Loan”) through the Paycheck Protection Program (the “PPP”). This guidance addresses some of the uncertainty as to how a PPP Borrower should proceed when there is a contemplated change of ownership, whether through a sale of equity or assets or a merger. This Alert confirms the importance of considering the effect of a PPP Loan when planning a transaction involving a PPP Loan. WHEN DOES A...
Blog Post
Published 10/12/2020
By Stephanie L. Denker
Article
Published 10/09/2020
Services Cybersecurity and Privacy
Alert
Published 10/08/2020
By Bruce Armon, Allison Burdette, Samantha Gross
Industries Health Care
Services White Collar and Government Enforcement
On September 28, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Lakeway Regional Medical Center LLC (LRMC) in Texas agreed to pay $13,580,822.79, and Surgical Development Partners LLC, Surgical Development Partners of Austin Enterprises LLC, and several individuals collectively agreed to pay $1.8 million, to resolve allegations they violated the False Claims Act and other statutes in connection with the development and operation of a hospital in Lakeway, Texas. [1] The other settling parties supported the development of the hospital and provided management and operational services...
Alert
Published 10/08/2020
By Laurie A. Kamaiko, Joseph A. Valenti, Christie R. McGuinness
Services Cybersecurity and Privacy | White Collar and Government Enforcement
Companies that make or facilitate ransomware payments were given a strong reminder of their due-diligence and compliance obligations by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”). OFAC’s recent October 1, 2020 advisory (the “Advisory”) noted that all entities involved in the chain of facilitating ransomware payments—from victim companies, company executives/employees, forensic vendors, incident-response firms that advise victims, cyber insurers that insure such payments, and the financial institutions [1] (including cryptocurrency exchanges and money-...
Article
Published 10/08/2020
Industries Cannabis Law | Food, Beverage and Agribusiness
Article
Published 10/06/2020
Services Labor and Employment
Article
Published 10/05/2020
Services Cybersecurity and Privacy
Alert
Published 10/02/2020
This month’s Friday Five discusses cases that explore some fundamental principles of disability benefit litigation. While players and fans return to the favorite fall pastime of football, albeit in the “new normal” under COVID-19 limitations, a constant focus in that sport is always on basic blocking and tackling. So too, claims administrators must focus on fundamental concepts for navigating disability claims, such as the appropriate standard of review and essential elements of an administrative record. The Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr Employee Benefits/ERISA Litigation Team October 2,...