On December 27, 2020, former President Trump signed into law the No Surprises Act, which aims to protect healthcare consumers from surprise billing. The act went into effect on January 1, 2022.

HPS attorneys David Hall and Krista Luzio secured a not guilty verdict for all defendants in the first post-pandemic, in-person jury trial for the firm and in Will County.

Residents leaving a facility against medical advice creates a tricky liability situation for skilled nursing providers. Hall Prangle & Schoonveld (HPS) Partner Elizabeth Neidig recently spoke with Caralyn Davis of the American Association of Post-Acute Care Nursing (AAPACN) to identify the key ways in which a facility can protect itself from liability stemming from an "AMA" discharge. Below is an overview of that conversation that Elizabeth wrote. Click here to read the conversation on AAPACN.com (membership required).

Hugh Griffin headed up a defense team that obtained final dismissal of a wrongful death complaint against a meat packing company in a suit alleging that an employee's wife died from Covid 19 that she contracted from her husband who contracted it from other employees at the meat packing plant.

HPS Partner, Jennifer Ries, has been named one of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin & Chicago Lawyer’s 2021 Salute! Women in Law Award honorees. The Law Bulletin describes the honorees as “exceptional women leaders in the law.”

Three HPS attorneys have been featured in the 2021 issue of Marquette Nurse, the Magazine for Marquette University College of Nursing.

Chicago Lawyer magazine has highlighted Hall Prangle and Schoonveld's (HPS) remodeled Chicago office in their April/May 2021 issue.

In April 2021, the Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) issued a statement paper to provide guidance to obstetrical providers on managing the care of patients with amniotic fluid embolism (AFE) through a checklist created from standard management guidelines.

On November 20, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published two new final rules aimed towards supporting care coordination and value-based care. As part of the Trump Administration's "Sprint to Coordinated Care" plan, the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) revised the safe harbors under the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) revitalized the physician self-referral regulations ("Stark Law").

Recently, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a rare Special Fraud Alert pertaining to medical device and pharmaceutical speaker programs. The OIG defines speaker programs as "company-sponsored events at which a physician or other health care professional makes a speech or presentation to other health care professionals about a drug or device product or a disease state on behalf of the company." The sponsoring company typically pays the speakers an honorarium.

On Wendsesday, December 2, 2020, HPS Partners Ann Ford and Laura Ginett will take part in a virtual lunch discussion of Telehealth.

On Friday, November 20, HPS Partners Ann Ford and Laura Ginett will present at the Chicago Healthcare Risk Management Society's (CHRMS) Annual Risk Management and Patient Safety Day. This event is digital due to COVID-19.

In the ever-evolving pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 (commonly referred to as Covid-19), there appears to be an ongoing shift in the medical community with respect to the question of whether Covid-19 can be transmitted in utero from mother to fetus. While early studies showed that transmission was unlikely, recent reports of apparent transmission have emerged creating conflicting findings.

"John Travis exemplifies the attorneys at HPS: He is dedicated, hardworking, and driven to provide each client with an expert legal defense tailored to their needs. His addition to the partnership at HPS strengthens the Firm's ability to provide each client with the legal services they need."

As a supplement to its Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19 issued in March 2020, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ("OSHA") recently issued Guidance on Returning to Work, which focuses "on the need for employers to develop and implement strategies for basic hygiene, social distancing, identification and isolation of sick employees, workplace controls and flexibilities, and employee training." While not creating additional binding regulations that are enforceable against employers, these OSHA resources aid in identifying areas of risk in the workplace and determining where appropriate control measures should be implemented. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC") has issued similar guidance and considerations.

The United States Supreme Court ended its Term in June 2020, with a landmark ruling that applies to all employers across the country with 15 or more employees – and it applies immediately. In Bostock v. Clayton County , the Court concluded that an employer violates Title VII's "because of sex" provision if the employer takes an adverse job action against an employee for being homosexual or transgender.

In May 2020, the Illinois Department of Public Health ("IDPH") informed the State Emergency Operations Center that many Illinois hospitals may need to implement crisis standards of care to combat the COVID-19 public health emergency

As a result of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been actively promulgating nonbinding recommendations to address a litany of issues that have surfaced in the wake of the global pandemic

In the wake of COVID-19's harmful economic impact on several individuals and businesses, the federal government passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.1 This legislation created, among other economic boosts, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a $349 billion loan program made available through the Small Business Administration (SBA).

For all employers – small or large – Covid-19 continues to create unique challenges in the workplace. A paramount consideration for all employers must be to ensure all members of its HR Department and supervisory personnel comply with federal antidiscrimination law when making employment decisions in the workplace.