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
As we previewed in our blog article in March on the establishment of California’s new Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA), OHCA has issued proposed regulations available on the OHCA website, that provide anticipated details on OHCA’s advance review authority regarding certain transactions in the healthcare space.Continue Reading Update from California’s Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA): Proposed Regulations re Material Change Transactions and Pre-Transaction Review
California has a new regulatory review process that could have implications for healthcare mergers and acquisitions and similar transactions in the state. By way of background, after nearly two years of negotiations with state legislators, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law healthcare omnibus bill SB 184 on June 30, 2022, which created the new Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA). With this new law and state agency, California joins several other states, including Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington and Nevada in implementing oversight and funding measures geared towards healthcare cost growth targets and containment. While the goal of the law appears to be clear – monitoring and managing the costs of healthcare in California – healthcare industry stakeholders seeking to carry out applicable transactions will now need to be mindful of OHCA’s regulatory review authority.Continue Reading California Office of Health Care Affordability: Another Regulatory Hurdle for California Healthcare M&A Transactions?
In its December Hospital Flash Report, Kaufman Hall identified and reviewed the continued, negative impact of COVID-19 on hospital operating margins. After a dramatic drop in hospital margins during the height of the pandemic in 2020 and early 2021, hospitals experienced a fluctuation of decreasing and increasing margins in the latter-half of the year. Overall, hospital margins remain significantly narrower than they were in 2019, before the pandemic. As a result, the industry may see an increase in hospital transactions in 2022 to offset the operational and financial hardships that continue to burden the health care system, as described in greater detail below.
Continue Reading COVID-19 Impacts and Outcomes on Hospital Margins in 2021: Increased Activity in Hospital Transactions in 2022?
On March 10, 2021, President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (the “Act”). This $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package not only includes a whole host
Continue Reading The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021: A New Lease on Life for the Affordable Care Act?
Executive Orders and the Biden Administration’s promises to postpone or withdraw certain last-minute, so-called “midnight rules” promulgated by the Trump Administration are currently grabbing everyone’s attention, especially those in the healthcare space. But while President Biden may have success in reversing much of his predecessor’s last minute regulatory activity, he is likely to face at least some headwinds as it relates to one of those midnight rules – the “Department of Health and Human Services Transparency and Fairness in Civil Administrative Enforcement Actions” (the “Final Rule”) – that was published in the Federal Register on January 14, 2021 and became effective on January 12, 2021.
Continue Reading Secret Rules and Hidden Penalties: Biden Executive Order Takes Aim at the Trump Administration’s Efforts to Limit HHS’s Use of Guidance Documents in Civil Enforcement Actions
On November 10, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments for California v. Texas, a case that will potentially decide the fate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”).
Continue Reading Texas v. California: SCOTUS Hears Oral Arguments About the Constitutionality of the ACA
The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and alongside it the high probability of a conservative successor to the open seat she left behind, is likely to shift the Court substantially to the right. Among the most notable cases that will likely be presented before the newly constituted Court is the pending challenge to the Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”).
Continue Reading The Death of RBG…and the ACA?