Cynthia Marcotte Stamer is board-certified in labor and employment law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, recognized as a top healthcare, labor and employment and ERISA/employee benefits lawyer for her decades of experience advising and defending public and private, rural and metro area hospital; health care system; nursing home; home health; rehabilitation; physical therapy; medical clinic; medical staff, physician practice group, independent practice association, and management services organization; staffing; HMOs, PPOs, ACOs, Medicare and Medicaid advantage and other managed care organization; pharmacy; life sciences; durable medical equipment; allied health; health care technology; and other health industry clients.
As a board certified in labor and employment law whose practice focuses on health industry clients, Stamer’s work throughout her career has included continuous involvement advising and representing health care organizations about employment, labor-management, peer review and staffing and other workforce management and compensation concerns. Stamer also continuously advises health industry clients about compliance and internal controls, workforce and medical staff performance management and discipline; quality; governance; privacy, data security and breach; health care and other fraud prevention, risk management and defense; Medicare, Medicaid, managed care and insurance and other billing and reimbursement; safety and contagious disease; FDA; DEA; STARK, fraud & abuse, false claims act and other fraud prevention, investigation, remediation, and defense; managed care contracting and compliance; health care, insurance and other licensure and accreditation; managed care, government and other contracting and contract enforcement; antitrust; nonprofit and other general corporate and business matters and transactions; disaster preparedness and response; government audits and other enforcement; investigation and discipline; board and corporate governance; and other compliance, reengineering and change management, risk management, regulatory and government affairs, public policy and operations concerns.
Employers and health plans! Don’t let the prospects of reform dupe you into failing to manage past and current Obamacare liability exposures. Contrary to popular perception, President Trump’s health plan executive orders do not insulate employers or their health plans from all Obamacare compliance or enforcement exposures. Among other things, the Internal Revenue Service continues to […]
Recruitment and retention of sufficient workers presents a growing challenge for many U.S. businesses in manufacturing, construction and many other segments of the economy. Competition for workers continues to grow as the improving economy drives down unemployment and applies pressure on employers to increase wages. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics November employment statistics, for instance, […]
The Internal Revenue Service is acting to help individuals who are eligible for Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) health subsidies and who live in regions where exchange insurers do not offer bronze (lowest-cost) coverage, even as it moves ahead to nail employers failing to comply with Obamacare’s employer shared responsibility rules (commonly referred […]
The $2.5 million payment and corrective action plan that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) required for CardioNet to settle potential charges of noncompliance with the Health Insurance and Portability Act (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules contains many important lessons for other healthcare providers, health plans, healthcare clearinghouses […]
Restaurant employers, beware! Restaurants are the target of a highly successful, U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division (WHD) restaurant enforcement and compliance initiative that WHD already has used to nail a multitude of restaurants across the country for “widespread violations” of Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) minimum wage, overtime, child labor and other […]
Healthcare providers, health plans, healthcare clearinghouses (covered entities) and business associates that provide services that deal with protected health information received another reminder to be prepared to prove they are properly handling and administering electronic and other protected health information. This came after the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced its latest in […]
Texas physician Dennis B. Barson Jr. and his medical clinic administrator are headed to prison. The 10-year prison sentence imposed against Barson, like an $8 million-plus healthcare fraud civil settlement announced by the Justice Department on July 24, 2014, illustrate the significant legal risks that physicians and other healthcare providers face when physician charges are […]
Health plans, insurers and other health plan industry service providers need to ensure that their Internet applications properly safeguard protected health information (PHI), based on a recent warning from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR). The warning comes in a resolution agreement with St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center (SEMC) that […]
Employers should move quickly to review and update as necessary their human resources and employee benefit policies and practices concerning when same-sex partners of employees are treated as the spouses of the employees in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 26, 2015, decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. Employer and employee benefit plan leaders and […]
Businesses, brace yourself for health plan enforcement! With the Supreme Court’s much anticipated June 25, 2015, King v. Burwell decision dashing the hope that the Supreme Court would provide relief for businesses and their group health plans from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandates by striking down ACA, U.S. businesses that offered […]
The news of a data breach at Premera Blue Cross, following on the heels of the recent announcements of large-scale, healthcare breaches at Anthem, is another reminder that employers and other health plan sponsors, fiduciaries and insurers need to take immediate steps to assess and tighten up their privacy, data security and data breach compliance […]
Employers trying to continue offering affordable health and welfare benefits amid the expanding costs and regulations enacted under the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (ACA) often are encouraged by some consultants and brokers to consider offering coverage options pursuant to a “private exchange.” While these options sound attractive, not all work for all employers. The consumer-driven healthcare […]
The new FAQS About Affordable Care Act Implementation, published Nov. 6, 2014, confirm that employers can’t reimburse employees for purchasing individual coverage, even though various vendors are promoting that approach in lieu of group health plan coverage. FAQ XXII makes clear that the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Treasury object to this practice. […]
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has challenged the legality of provisions commonly included in severance, separation or other settlements with employees being terminated. These provisions state that settlement benefits are to be paid only if the employee doesn’t file charges or otherwise communicate with the EEOC. Employers planning to use such provisions should note a […]
Employer and other plan sponsors should start working now with their insurers, administrators and advisors to understand the implications of and their options for addressing the “Transitional Reinsurance Program” and other new Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (ACA)-associated cost and plan design changes so that they are prepared to finalize and implement their health plan design, […]
Businesses should heed the expansion of the Internal Revenue Service voluntary classification program (VCS) as yet another warning to clean up their worker classification practices and defenses for all workers performing services for the business in any non-employee capacity. When businesses treat workers as nonemployees, yet they render services in such a way that they […]
Business owners, executives, board members, and other business leaders of companies facing financial challenges should heed a mounting series of recent fiduciary liability settlement orders, judgments and prosecutions as strong reminders of the potential personal risk they may face if their health, 401(k) or other employee benefit programs are not appropriately funded and administered as […]
The Affordable Care Act “pay or play” penalty under §4980 now, after a delay, takes effect for large companies in January 2015 and for smaller companies (with at least 50 employees) a year later. There is a great deal for all employers to do now to get ready. Here are the 13 steps you should take […]
The Affordable Care Act “pay or play” penalty under §4980 now, after a delay, takes effect for large companies in January 2015 and for smaller companies (with at least 50 employees) a year later. There is a great deal for all employers to do now to get ready. Here are the 13 steps you should take […]
“Encrypt your laptops and other mobile devices.” That is one of the key lessons that leaders of health plans, health care providers, health care clearinghouses (“covered entities”) and their business associates should take away from the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR)'s April 22 announcement that Concentra Health Services and QCA […]
Think your healthcare organization or health plan has healthcare privacy covered? Think again. A series of supplemental guidance issued by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in recent weeks is giving healthcare providers, health plans, healthcare clearinghouses (covered entities) and their business associates even more to do. They must […]
Health plans, their insurers, employer and other sponsors, and business associates have work to do. Health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses and their business associates will need to review and update their policies and practices for handling and disclosing personally identifiable health care information (“PHI”) in response to the omnibus restatement of the […]
Properly encrypt and protected electronic protected health information (ePHI) on laptops and in other mediums! That’s the clear message of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in its announcement of its first settlement under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Security Rule involving a […]
September’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) order requiring the buyer of a California nursing home to pay approximately $1.25 million in backpay and interest, rehire 50 employees and recognize the seller’s union reminds buyers of union-organized businesses of some of the significant risks of mishandling union-related obligations in merger and acquisition, bankruptcy and other corporate […]
Citing “knowing, deliberate and intentional” violations of federal wage and hour law, the Labor Department is suing Boston Hides and Furs Ltd. and company officials seeking at least $500,000 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages for allegedly underpaying employees of the Chelsea wholesale animal hide business. See Solis v. Boston Hides […]
President Obama’s declaration on October 1, 2012 of October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month reminds business that U.S. businesses and their leaders need to tighten their disability discrimination risk management and compliance in light of the Obama Administration’s emphasis on aggressively interpreting and enforcing disability discrimination laws, rising private plaintiff lawsuits and other recent […]
The consent decree between the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program and Leprino Foods Inc., resolving charges of systemic hiring discrimination at the company’s Lemoore West facility and signed recently by a Labor Department administrative law, highlights the growing aggressiveness of the Labor Department in challenging employment screening practices. The Leprino […]
… To Complete ACA-Required Summary of Benefits & Communications & Other Health Plan Updates The June 28, 2012 Supreme Court National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius ruling rejecting constitutional challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act) means most health plans, their employers and other sponsors, fiduciaries and administrators, and […]
Effective August 1, 2012, federal regulators expanded the list of prevention-related services that the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act) requires that non-grandfathered group health plans cover in-network at no cost to covered persons to include eight more prevention-related health services for women including coverage for the mandate to cover certain contraceptive […]
August 1 marked the effective date of yet another Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act) mandate: the controversial contraceptive coverage and other women’s health preventive coverage benefits mandates. Although many new Affordable Care Act and other federal health benefit requirements have taken effect over the past two years, few employer plans are […]
Employers And Plan Fiduciaries Reminded To Confirm Credentials And Bonding For Internal Staff, Plan Fidiciaries And Vendors Dealing With Benefits Businesses sponsoring employee benefit plans — along with officers, directors, employees and others acting as fiduciaries with respect to these employee benefit plans — should take steps to confirm that all of the appropriate fiduciary […]
Shows Underpaying Or Violating Other Rules For Employing Foreign Workers Risky Business Underpaying and failing to meet other H-2A visa program requirements for its employment of temporary foreign agricultural workers was an extremely costly mistake for Yerington, Nevada-based onion grower Peri & Sons. Under a consent order entered by U.S. Department of Labor Administrative Law […]
A $27 million plus settlement announced by the Department of Labor on July 7 shows the big liability that employer, union or association plan sponsors and their fiduciaries risk by failing to take appropriate steps when deciding who will serve as fiduciaries or other plan sponsors or setting the compensation paid by the plan for […]
