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Jordan Grushkin is a partner in the Corporate Practice Group in the firm’s Century City office and is a member of the firm’s healthcare practice team.

On April 29, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) issued a final rule (the “Final Rule”) rescinding the 2018 Association Health Plan rule (“2018 AHP Rule”), thereby marking a return to the more rigid pre-2018 regulatory framework governing association health plans. The 2018 AHP Rule, officially titled “Definition of Employer Under Section 3(5) of ERISA – Association Health Plans,” allowed these plans to bypass certain requirements under the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). The Final Rule will take effect on July 1, 2024.Continue Reading U.S. Department of Labor Rescinds Trump-Era Rule on Association Health Plans (AHPs)

As we previewed last year regarding SB 184 and the establishment of the California Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA), California now has taken a significant regulatory step aimed at restraining growth in health care costs. On April 24, 2024, OHCA’s board (the “Board”) voted to implement its long anticipated statewide health care cost target, beginning with a 3.5% cap on spending growth in 2025 and decreasing in the following years. As with OHCA’s cost and market impact review (CMIR) reporting regime,[1] this cap will apply to “health care entities,” which include providers such as hospitals, facilities, outpatient clinics, large physician groups and clinical laboratories, payors and fully integrated delivery systems.Continue Reading California is Capping Health Care Cost Increases – Starting at 3.5% in 2025

Parties involved in or considering health care transactions in California have been focused on navigating the new rules set by California’s Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA),[1] and newly proposed legislation could present additional challenges in consummating certain health care transactions, particularly those involving private equity. Introduced in February 2024, California’s Assembly Bill 3129 seeks to curb consolidation in the health care industry allegedly driven by private equity firms and hedge funds. As summarized in greater detail below, the bill would require that these parties obtain prior written consent from California’s Attorney General (AG) before an acquisition or change of control of many types of health care businesses and assets.Continue Reading California’s AB 3129: A New Hurdle for Private Equity Health Care Transactions on the Horizon?

Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”) in 2021 with the aim of enhancing transparency in entity structures and ownership as well as combating terrorism, money laundering, and other forms of corporate misconduct. This sweeping new rule is designed to cast a wide net over entities that, except in the case of taxes, do not regularly report to federal agencies (i.e., non-publicly traded entities), regardless of the degree to which they are already regulated at the state level. This post specifically speaks to medical groups and management services organizations (“MSOs”) that now need to navigate the new CTA requirements and account for their complex contractual relationships (e.g., management services agreements, equity restriction or succession agreements). For additional information on a particular topic, links to helpful resources have been provided in the footnotes.Continue Reading The Corporate Transparency Act: A Reporting Guide for Medical Groups and MSOs

Will your business have to go through the new Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) reporting regime for material healthcare transactions? What would such a filing involve, and how long would it take to complete the process? Those questions will be among key discussion items addressed in Sheppard Mullin’s upcoming webinar on February 7, 2024, co-sponsored with America’s Physician Groups and Moss Adams LLP. As we have highlighted in our blog series[1] on SB 184 and OHCA throughout the past year, OHCA’s recently finalized cost and market impact review (CMIR) regulations set forth the framework for OHCA’s authority to receive advance notice of and review a large scope of healthcare transactions in the coming months, reflecting a dramatic change to California’s healthcare regulatory landscape moving forward. Please tune in to this important webinar where our knowledgeable presenters will present an overview of the key components and practical considerations surrounding this new law, including:Continue Reading Webinar: New OHCA Rules Requiring Notice and Review of Material Healthcare Transaction

At long last, the cost and market impact review (CMIR) regulations promulgated by the California Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) have been approved by the California Office of Administrative Law (OAL). The final regulations, which are available to view here, were submitted by OHCA on December 8, 2023 and approved by OAL on December 18, 2023. As we have highlighted in our series of posts[1] throughout the year, these regulations, in combination with the related statutory provisions in SB 184, set forth the framework for OHCA’s authority to receive advance notice of and review a large scope of healthcare transactions in the coming months of 2024, reflecting a dramatic change to California’s healthcare regulatory landscape. To refresh and update our readers regarding the CMIR regulations, this article will provide an overview of the key components and practical considerations regarding this new reporting regime, while also commenting on the key final tweaks to (and omissions from) the regulations.Continue Reading The Stage is Set: California Finalizes OHCA Regulations Requiring Notice and Review of Material Healthcare Transactions in 2024

In the final days of November, the Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) published three updates related to its proposed regulations regarding the review of certain healthcare transactions in California:Continue Reading OHCA Published Near-Final Draft of Regulations Requiring Notice and Review of Material Healthcare Transactions in 2024

As we anticipated in our previous blog article, the Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) made revisions to its proposed regulations following the public workshop hosted by the California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) in August. On October 9, 2023, HCAI and OHCA published a revised draft of the regulations. Our August blog article outlined the substance of the original draft regulations; this article summarizes the critical takeaways regarding the revisions.Continue Reading OHCA’s Revised Regulations Following Comments from Industry Stakeholders

As we previewed in our previous blog article, the California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) hosted a live public workshop on August 15, 2023 for in-person and virtual attendees to make comments and pose questions regarding the proposed regulations governing the Office of Health Care Affordability’s (OHCA) review authority for certain healthcare transactions.Continue Reading Public Workshop for OHCA’s Proposed Regulations Sparks Lively Discussion Among Industry Stakeholders