Louisiana Passes Act No. 247 on Allowable Fees for Public Record Requests

Posted on July 31, 2023 by BSW

On June 9, 2023, Governor Edwards signed Act No. 247 of the 2023 Regular Session which relates to the costs for public records. The Act seeks to address a previously unanswered question on the allowed fees associated with public records requests in Louisiana’s public records law. The Act will become effective on August 1, 2023.

Louisiana Revised Statute 44:32(C) provides that custodians of public records may charge copying fees for the production of public records pursuant to a public records request (“PRR”). For state agencies, those fees are set according to a uniform fee schedule established by the Commission of Administration.[1] The fee schedule can be found in Section 301 of Title 4 of the Louisiana Administrative Code.[2] However, for non-state agencies (which includes Hospital Service Districts), the statute only provides that “[t]he custodian may establish and collect reasonable fees for making copies of public records.”[3]

This necessarily introduces the question: What constitutes a reasonable fee?

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CMS Ramping Up Hospital Price Transparency Enforcement

Posted on May 4, 2023 by BSW

Written by Catherine B. Moore.

It is more important than ever to ensure that hospitals are in compliance with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) Hospital Price Transparency Regulations (Section 2718(e) of the Public Health Service Act) (“Price Transparency”), as CMS reported that they will be tougher with their Price Transparency enforcement moving forward. On April 26, 2023, CMS issued a “Hospital Price Transparency Enforcement Updates” Fact Sheet detailing their efforts to double down on enforcement and compliance with the Price Transparency rules. The Hospital Price Transparency regulations generally require each hospital operating in the U.S. to make its standard charges publicly available in: (1) a single comprehensive machine-readable file; and (2) a consumer-friendly display of standard charges for shoppable services. The Price Transparency regulations are very detailed on the types of standard charges that must appear in each format. Hospital compliance with the requirements has been varied, with some hospitals arguing that the Price Transparency requirements are too difficult and complicated to comply with.

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CMS Finalizes New Medicare Provider Type: Rural Emergency Hospitals

Posted on November 4, 2022 by BSW

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized a new provider designation for rural hospitals, “Rural Emergency Hospitals,” in its Outpatient Prospective Payment System rule on Tuesday, November 1. Effective January 1, 2023, this new designation will allow certain eligible rural hospitals and Critical Access Hospital to receive a 5% payment increase for their services. This new designation is meant to increase payments to rural hospitals to avoid potential closures and provide essential services to their communities. However, under this new designation, the hospitals cannot provide acute inpatient care.

The full text of the final rule is available here: https://www.cms.gov/files/document/cy2023-hospital-outpatient-prospective-payment-system-and-ambulatory-surgical-center-final-rule.pdf

Written by Catherine B. Moore.

No Surprises Act Update: Louisiana Enforcement

Posted on November 4, 2022 by BSW

The No Surprises Act “NSA” went into effect January 1, 2022, and protects most consumers enrolled in individual and group health insurance plans from surprise medical bills in certain circumstances. Enforcement of the NSA generally involves both state and federal governments. The NSA originally allows the states to enforce the provisions of the NSA unless the state is unable to do so. In that scenario, the federal government will enforce the provisions of the NSA in that state.

Based on survey responses and CMS communications between the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Louisiana Department of Insurance, “CMS understands that Louisiana lacks authority to enforce the [NSA] provisions.” Therefore, CMS “will assume direct enforcement of these new protections.” Louisiana is one of a handful of states that has deferred enforcement of all provisions of the NSA to the federal government.

We will continue to monitor enforcement of the NSA on a federal level as it relates to enforcement in Louisiana.

Written by Catherine B. Moore.

CMS Use of Sub-Regulatory Guidance Challenged

Posted on October 20, 2022 by BSW

The Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Rule has become the zombie of federal reimbursement regulation. After it was withdrawn, CMS has nevertheless attempted to gradually implement it through a variety of “this has always been the law” positions. Hopefully, the litigation described in this article will bring some clarity, or at least provide some tools that will help us find clarity on this issue.

Written by Gregory D. Frost.