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The U.S. has long had a shortage of physicians in various practice areas. The shortage is even more pronounced in rural areas. International medical graduates (IMG’s) who come to the U.S. to complete a residency in a specialty area primarily come to the U.S. on J-1 visas. By statute, any physician who enters the U.S. on a J-1 must return home for 2 years before applying for H-1B status or permanent residency.Continue Reading Having Trouble Recruiting Physicians? The Conrad 30 Window is Opening Soon

On May 16, 2024, the Subcommittee on Health of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce (the “Subcommittee”) announced that it advanced the Telehealth Modernization Act of 2024 (H.R. 7623) as amended (the “Bill”) during a markup session. The Bill is meant to extend a number of telehealth flexibilities under Medicare through 2026. This corresponded with 22 other bills advanced by the Subcommittee to strengthen access to healthcare.Continue Reading Congress Seeks to Extend COVID-19 Telehealth Flexibilities Through 2026 and Expand Reimbursement

Late last month, the Biden Administration announced the second installment of its recovery plan, dubbed the “American Jobs Plan” (the “Plan”).  The Plan’s $2.3 trillion price tag includes…
Continue Reading The American Jobs Plan and the American Rescue Plan: The Biden Administration Bets Big on Home and Community-Based Services

While congressional Republicans spent much of September pushing for passage of the Graham-Cassidy “repeal and replace” bill, other time-sensitive legislative tasks were left to languish, including a September 30 deadline to reauthorize funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (“CHIP”) that has since come and gone. The failure to timely reauthorize the program has put the fate of CHIP in limbo, at least in the short term.
Continue Reading Nine Days and Counting – The Fate of CHIP Remains Uncertain Amid Congressional Deadlock

In Part V of our blog series, Very Opaque to Slightly Transparent: Shedding Light on the Future of Healthcare, we outlined some of the key provisions of the American Health Care Act (AHCA). Roughly two weeks after our post was published, GOP congressional leadership pulled the legislation from a floor vote, recognizing that the bill did not have sufficient support to pass in the U.S. House of Representatives. Nevertheless they persisted, and an amendment to the legislation negotiated in substantial part by Representatives Tom MacArthur and Mark Meadows injected new life into the AHCA. The so-called “MacArthur Amendment” sought to bridge the gap between conservative Republican members of the House Freedom Caucus and more moderate GOP members of the House, and an additional amendment – the “Upton Amendment” – helped seal the deal. With those two amendments attached, the bill narrowly cleared the House on a party-line vote (albeit with some GOP defectors), 217-213.
Continue Reading Part VI: An Update on the American Health Care Act