HOUSE PASSES HEALTH CARE REFORM

Late in the night on November 7, 2009, the House of Representatives passed its version of health care reform.  If the Senate can pass health care reform legislation, it will be up to a conference committee to work out differences between the two versions.

HHS EXPANDS HIPAA PENALTIES UNDER THE HITECH ACT

On October 30 the Department of Health and Human Services published an interim final rule to conform HIPAA’s enforcement regulations to the new statutory revisions required by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (the HITECH Act), which was enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA, commonly known as the “Stimulus Package”).

HEALTH CARE REFORM MISSES DEADLINE

President Obama had set a deadline for Congress to pass health care reform legislation in each house before the August recess.   Even though Congressional committees have approved different versions of health care reform legislation, no bill has been acted upon by either the House or Senate.

COURT RULES FAIR TREATMENT OVERCOMES CONFLICT OF INTEREST

In one of the first cases involving conflict of interest since the Supreme Court’s ruling last year, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that defendants did not abuse their discretion when they terminated disability benefits. Under the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. v. Glenn, 128 S. Ct. 2343 (2008), courts must consider a conflict only as a factor in determining whether a plan’s determination was reasonable.

President Signs Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act

On May 21, 2008, President Bush signed H.R. 493, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) of 2008. This new law prohibits discrimination on the basis of genetic information with respect to health insurance and employment.

House Passes Expansive Mental Health Parity Bill

On March 5, 2008, the House of Representatives passed the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007. This bill would significantly expand the scope of the Mental Health Parity Act approved by Congress in 1996.

The original law prohibits lifetime and annual limits on mental health treatment. The new bill would require that plans that cover mental health provide the same level of benefits for both mental health and substance abuse treatment as are provided for medical and surgical treatment. As with the original law, the new bill only applies to employers with more than 50 employees.

The Senate passed a similar bill several months ago and now a conference committee must work out the differences between the two bills.