News & Insights

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a new rule that revises the requirements that long-term care facilities must fulfill in order to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.  This rule, which becomes effective on November 28, 2016, is the first major update to th... Read more >

Valuation discounts for lack of control and lack of marketability can significantly reduce estate and gift taxes otherwise payable in connection with gifts or bequests of creatively-structured family enterprises.  The result is less tax paid on intra-family transfers and greater wealth accumula... Read more >

The Maryland legislature has joined national efforts to clamp down on misclassification of employees as independent contractors through amendments to the state unemployment law that create interest assessments on unpaid unemployment contributions, civil penalties for misclassification, and cross-age... Read more >

The Maryland legislature recently made several modifications to the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program ("PDMP"), which collects and securely stores information on drugs that contain controlled dangerous substances ("CDS") and are dispensed to patients in Maryland.  Some of these changes affec... Read more >

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently issued new regulations creating notice requirements for employers intended to improve employee reporting of work-related injuries and illnesses.  The new regulations take effect August 10, 2016. Under these new regulat... Read more >

Maryland’s highest court just granted parental rights to individuals who are not biological or adoptive parents of children but who are considered to be de facto parents. Before this landmark decision, there were only two categories of people who could petition Maryland courts for custody or vi... Read more >

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (sometimes called the “OCR”) has launched Phase 2 of the HIPAA Audit Program.  The audits are designed to assess whether covered entities and their business associates are complying with the HIPAA Privacy, Security, an... Read more >

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (sometimes called the “OCR”) has launched Phase 2 of the HIPAA Audit Program.  The audits are designed to assess whether covered entities and their business associates are complying with the HIPAA Privacy, Securit... Read more >

After a long delay, the federal Department of Labor published its new overtime regulations changing the base salary requirements for exempt executive, administrative, and professional (“white collar”) employees on May 17, 2016.  The regulations do not change the job duties tests used for de... Read more >

State and federal laws require employers to pay their employees equal pay for equal work.  Although this is a long-standing legal standard, discriminatory compensation practices persist.  These practices are, in large part, enabled by policies or practices of employers prohibiting employee... Read more >