Insights

May

• 5/10/2013
  Labor and Employment Alert: Is Your Health Plan 'Affordable?'
  Under the pay-or-play penalties going into effect next year, an employer is subject to penalties if it does not offer "affordable" health coverage to its full-time employees (using the new 30-hour federal standard). The IRS has now proposed that premium discounts and other rewards for participation in an employer-sponsored wellness program not be taken into account in determining whether the health coverage offered by your company is affordable.
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• 5/3/2013
  Immigration Alert: CBP Begins Rollout of Automated Form I-94
  The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently published an interim final rule indicating its intention to automate its Form I-94, Arrival/Departure Record.
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April

• 4/29/2013
  Immigration Alert: Employers Must Use New Form I-9 on May 7, 2013
  The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently published a revised Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 for use by employers.
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• 4/26/2013
  Health Care Alert: CMS Proposed Rule Would Establish Powerful New Measures for Uncovering and Combating Medicare Fraud
  On April 24, 2013, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Proposed Rule revamping the Medicare Incentive Reward Program (IRP) and providing CMS with greater discretion to deny or revoke enrollment privileges to certain providers and suppliers posing a higher risk of fraud to the Medicare program.
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• 4/22/2013
  Health Care Alert: OIG Revises Its Provider Self-Disclosure Protocol
  On April 17, 2013, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a notice completely revising its Provider Self-Disclosure Protocol (SDP). OIG originally published the SDP in 1998 to establish a process for providers to voluntarily identify, investigate, disclose and resolve potential fraud involving federal health care programs.
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• 4/10/2013
  Ohio Statehouse Update: Ohio House Finance Committee Unveils Substitute Budget Bill
  The Ohio House Finance and Appropriations Committee accepted a substitute version of House Bill 59, the state’s biennial budget bill, at a hearing yesterday afternoon. Among numerous significant changes in the bill, the substitute legislation removes Governor Kasich’s proposed tax reforms and replaces them with an across the board 7% income tax reduction, and removes the proposed expansion of Medicaid that was projected to leverage $2.4 billion in federal funds to provide coverage for uninsured Ohioans over the next two years.
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• 4/5/2013
  Immigration Alert: Automation of Form I-94 Arrival/Departure Record
  The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published an interim final rule on March 27, 2013, indicating its intention to automate its Form I-94, Arrival/Departure Record. Form I-94, among other purposes, provides documentation of the admission and approved length of stay for individuals in a temporary immigration status.
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• 4/5/2013
  Immigration Alert: USCIS Reaches FY 2014 H-1B Cap
  The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petition to reach the statutory cap for the fiscal year 2014. USCIS will use a computer-generated random selection process (commonly known as the “lottery”) for all FY 2014 cap-subject petitions received through April 5, 2013.
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• 4/2013
  April Vorys Shale Report
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• 4/1/2013
  • Jeffrey A. Marks
  Real Estate Chapter 11 Filings: Key Issues
  Jeffrey A. Marks, a partner in the Vorys Cincinnati office, authored a chapter for Inside the Minds: Creditors’ Rights in Chapter 11 Cases. Marks’ chapter was titled “Real Estate Chapter 11 Filings: Key Issues.”
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• March/April 2013
  • Elizabeth E.W. Weinewuth
  Important Guidance for Ohio Trustees: Newcomer V. National City Bank
  Vorys attorneys Daniel Buckley, Lisa Babish Forbes, Elizabeth Weinewuth and Elizabeth Davis Conway authored an article for the Probate Law Journal of Ohio titled "Important Guidance for Ohio Trustees: Newcomber V. National City Bank."
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• April 2013
  Educating Creditor Clients on the Chapter 11 Process
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• 4/2013
  The Rise of Hospital Outpatient Departments in the Era of Decreased Provider Reimbursement
  Jonathan Ishee, of counsel in the Vorys Houston office and a member of the health care group, authored “The Rise of Hospital Outpatient Departments in the Era of Decreased Provider Reimbursement” for the April 2013 edition of the American Health Lawyers Association’s Business Law & Governance publication.
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March

• 3/26/2013
  Oil and Gas Alert: Proposed Legislation to Eliminate Aggregation Exemption for Oil & Gas Industry
  On March 14, 2013, Representative Jared Polis (D-CO) introduced a bill (H.R. 1154) to amend the Clean Air Act (CAA) to eliminate the exemption for aggregation of hazardous air pollutants from oil and gas sources. CAA § 112(n)(4) currently prohibits the aggregation of emissions from "any oil or gas exploration or production well (with its associated equipment) and emissions from any pipeline compressor or pump station."
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• 3/22/2013
  Labor and Employment Alert: OFCCP Issues New Directive For Analyzing Pay Discrimination Claims For Use By The Federal Contracting Community
  Recently, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) officially withdrew the Bush-era guidance regarding pay discrimination. In its place, the OFCCP issued Directive 307, accompanied by a fact sheet and answers to frequently asked questions.
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• 3/20/2013
  Immigration Alert: Update on April 1 H-1B Filings
  At the beginning of each fiscal year, which starts October 1, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) makes available an allocation of new H-1B visas. The number of these new visas that are available each year is capped at approximately 65,000 (plus an additional 20,000 that are exempt from the cap for individuals with advanced degrees from an accredited U.S. college or university). Applications for these new visas can be filed as soon as April 1.
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• 3/18/2013
  Health Care Alert: CMS Releases Final Rule Regarding Physician Payment Sunshine Act
  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a final rule on the Physician Payment Sunshine Act. The final rule imposes new reporting requirements on group purchasing organizations (GPO) and manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologicals or medical supplies for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
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• 3/18/2013
  Client Alert: Have Your Cake and Eat It (Too)
  Asset protection planners in Ohio will soon have one more arrow in their quivers. Effective March 27, 2013, Ohio law will permit the creation and funding of a domestic asset protection trust.
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• 3/18/2013
  • Evelyn Lundberg Stratton
  Medicaid expansion adds up for Ohio families, taxpayers
  Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, who prior to joining Vorys served for 16 years on the Ohio Supreme Court, authored an op-ed on the proposed expansion of Ohio’s Medicaid program for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
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• 3/12/2013
  Immigration Alert: USCIS Releases Revised Form I-9
  On March 8, 2013, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a revised Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 for use by employers.
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