Insights

Washington – August 15, 2024: The 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® has recognized 42 Crowell & Moring lawyers as "Best Lawyers" and 29 lawyers as “Ones to Watch.”

Washington – August 17, 2023: The 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® has recognized 47 firm lawyers as "Best Lawyers" and 41 lawyers as “Ones to Watch.”

On May 10, 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published a Final Rule that, for the first time, imposes national minimum nurse staffing requirements for nursing homes. Specifically, the standard adopted by CMS requires minimum staffing of 3.48 hours per resident day (“HPRD”), as discussed in more detail below. CMS estimates that the new requirements will cost facilities $43 billion over the next 10 years, which is more than the $40.6 billion cost that CMS estimated for Proposed Rule of 3.0 HPRD. Some industry sources estimate that less than 25% of nursing facilities across the country currently meet the full scope of staffing standards laid out in CMS’ Final Rule due to a myriad of factors including labor shortages and increasing wage pressures. Indeed, the impact and cost of these staffing requirements will vary significantly by state. For example, CMS reported that at least one state will need to increase certain staff by nearly 96% to meet the minimum standards, while other states already meet the requirements.

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published the General Compliance Program Guidance (GCPG) on November 6, 2023. The GCPG provides updated descriptions of the seven elements of an effective compliance program that health care entities have long relied upon. The new guidance also includes recommendations to conduct annual internal risk assessments, to consider quality of care as a component of the compliance program, and to emphasize the importance of a board’s and executive leadership’s oversight of compliance.

An amendment to New York’s Certificate of Need (CON) law, set to go into effect on June 22, 2023, will require every CON application to include a “health equity impact assessment.”  The new law, N.Y. Public Health Law § 2802-b, requires an assessment be prepared by an independent entity that addresses whether, and if so how, “a project will improve access to hospital services and health care, health equity and reduction of health disparities.” The assessment must also make “particular reference to members of medically underserved groups, in the applicant’s service area.” Importantly, this new requirement does not apply to CON applications filed before June 22, 2023. To date, the Department of Health (DOH) has not yet issued implementing regulations.

The Supreme Court has taken up two trademark cases this term. In the first case, Andrei Iancu v. Erik Brunetti,18-302 (SCOTUS), the Court will review the government ban on Fuct and other "scandalous" trademarks. In the second, Mission Product Holdings Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC, Case No. 17-1657, cert. granted (Oct. 26, 2018), the Court will address the effect a trademark owner's bankruptcy on a licensee's right to continue to use a mark licensed before the bankruptcy was filed. This CLE will have oral arguments from both cases presented before a panel of judges.