On August 31, 2024, the California State Assembly and State Senate passed Assembly Bill 3129 (“AB 3129”). If signed by Governor Newsom, AB 3129 would establish a comprehensive transaction review law that (i) targets private equity firms and hedge funds, and (ii) grants the Attorney General explicit consent rights over
The Corporate Transparency Act: Key Considerations for Health Systems and Practice Management Companies (MSOs/DSOs)
In 2021, Congress enacted the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”) to “better enable critical national security, intelligence, and law enforcement efforts to counter money laundering, the financing of terrorism, and other illicit activity.”[1] The CTA, which became effective January 1, 2024,[2] is described, in detail, in a series of Proskauer alerts compiled by Proskauer’s CTA Task Force. The CTA will create a national registry of the “beneficial owners” and “company applicants”[3] of millions[4] of entities across the country. A reporting company must disclose certain information about its beneficial owners and (for entities formed in 2024 and later) company applicants, including: (i) legal name; (ii) date of birth; (iii) residential address (or business address for certain company applicants); (iv) unique identifying number from a non-expired government-issued identification document; and (v) an image of such identification document.[5] In addition, states are following the Federal government’s lead and have adopted similar regulatory regimes; last month, for example, New York enacted the LLC Transparency Act, which comes into effect in December 2024.
2024 New York Budget Proposes Wide-Ranging Transaction Approval Requirement That Targets Private Investment in Physician Practices and MSOs, and Permits DOH to Extract Concessions
On February 1, 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the 2024 Executive Budget. As alluded to in the Governor’s State of the State address, and as described in an earlier Proskauer Health Care Law Brief article, the Governor is proposing to adopt a wide-ranging approval requirement for health care transactions that appears to target investor-backed physician practices.
The legislative proposals related to health care, as contained in the Governor’s budget, were introduced as Senate Bill 4007 and Assembly Bill A3007. The bills propose to amend the Public Health Law (“PHL”) to introduce a new Article 45-A, named “Review and Oversight of Material Transactions.” See 2023 New York Senate-Assembly Bill S4007, A3007, Part M § 5.
Where Are We Now? Trends in Telehealth Utilization
Many forces have been driving the growth of telehealth over the past decade, including value-based reimbursement models, population health management trends, and technology advancements. As we have discussed in previous blog posts, the COVID-19 pandemic was the jet fuel that propelled telemedicine utilization into the stratosphere. This growth was, in large part, due to the necessity of limiting in-person contact to avoid widespread COVID-19 transmission. In fact, as COVID-19 began to spread across the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) advised health care providers to offer care via telemedicine technologies wherever appropriate. However, not all of this growth in the telehealth space can be attributed to the necessity of social distancing during the pandemic; even as transmission of COVID-19 has slowed in many areas, providers continue to offer telehealth for patient care, and patients continue to utilize it.
CMS to Discontinue Next Generation ACO Model as Expected but Allows Program Participants to Apply For Direct Contracting
Many of us have been waiting to hear the final word about what’s next from CMS for the Next Generation ACO Model. On May 21, 2021, CMS’s Innovation Center (“CMMI”) confirmed that the Next Generation ACO Model would not be extended and will conclude at the end of this year as planned. The Next Generation ACO Model has been the most advanced value-based contracting model offered by CMS with participating risk-bearing entities taking between 80%-100% upside and downside risk. However, according to reports, the model didn’t achieve sufficient savings to justify making it a permanent CMMI program.
Three Health Care Investment Trends That We Are Currently Following
The COVID-19 pandemic has had well-documented transformative effects on the delivery of health care. Investors, providers, payors and other stakeholders have often been at the forefront of the industry shifts in the trailing twelve-month period. We have set forth below three investment trends that may be particularly compelling.