healthcare

Subscribe to healthcare

At the start of June 2022, the City of Los Angeles approved an ordinance to raise the minimum wage for certain healthcare workers at privately-owned healthcare facilities within the city. Since June, more cities have passed nearly identical ordinances. There is also a push for a California statewide healthcare minimum wage. However, no formal bill…

Healthcare organizations across the United States are facing an unprecedented labor shortage. Many healthcare employers are moving quickly to implement creative solutions that will attract and retain a qualified workforce. Kaiser Health News reports that “after the pressure cooker of the past two-plus years led to staff turnover and a rash of early retirements, hospitals…

Healthcare companies continue to face increased risks of ransomware attacks on their operations. According to the recently released BD Cybersecurity Annual Report for 2021, such attacks are also increasingly sophisticated. Management can take important steps to minimize the risks of this form of cybercrime.

Ransomware

Ransomware is malware that encrypts files on a device,…

Employers in the healthcare setting have been grappling with issues related to COVID-19 vaccinations that raise many practical and legal questions, starting with: should we ask about vaccination status? Should we require employees to be vaccinated? If not required, should we encourage employees to be vaccinated? How should we encourage it? Identifying these questions is…

Before the pandemic hit, remote work was, in most cases, a thing of the future. Concern about the productivity of remote workers caused many employers to resist these arrangements. Employees, they thought, would rather be taking care of laundry or kids than taking care of their duties. Enter Covid-19 – and most employers around the…

In March 2021, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released results from a national survey conducted between February 22-26, 2021 of front-line hospital administrators at 320 hospitals across 45 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.  The purpose of the survey was to assess…

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has taken enforcement action against a small New Jersey plastic surgery practice for its failure to timely respond to a patient’s records access request. Putting in place relatively simple policies, carefully developing template forms, assigning responsibility, training, and documenting responses can go a long way toward substantially minimizing the…

Processing delays for immigration cases have increased by 46 percent in the past two fiscal years and 91 percent since FY 2014. One healthcare staffing company has sued Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services, alleging the delays in issuing H-1Bs “is impairing [their] ability to effectively and efficiently meet the medical…

During a recent webinar, our Healthcare team provided practical case studies with clear takeaways and best practices for reasonably accommodating employees’ sincerely-held religious beliefs without compromising patient safety. You can watch the webinar recording at your convenience. Additionally, the team compiled a list of frequently asked questions about Title VII of the Civil Rights Act …