Health Care Reform Tops Bloomberg BNA List of Most Important Health Law Issues for 2012

Survey respondents said these health law issues rank in the top 10 for 2012: 

1. Health care reform, because implementation uncertainties affect all health care industry sectors.
2. Fraud and abuse, as concerns proliferate with reform-related collaboration.
3. Medicare, and Medicaid, as payment methodologies and state programs change.
4. Antitrust, as the threat of government enforcement exposes provider consolidation risks.
5. Health care quality, which continues to underpin third-party payment reform.
6. Health information, which will be affected by final HIPAA privacy and security rules.
7. Health plan regulation, an arena dominated by PPACA health insurance reforms.
8. Labor and employment, as unionization initiatives and a partisan NLRB challenge providers.
9. Taxation, as implementation of new exempt hospital requirements burdens IRS and providers alike.
10. Corporate governance, as concerns intensify with compliance and enforcement risks.

Following March 2012 oral arguments on the constitutionality of provisions of the federal health reform law, known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), survey respondents said they expect the second half of the year to be spent either on issues surrounding the implementation of PPACA-at least whatever is left of the statute after the Supreme Court rules-or developing new health reform laws to replace PPACA if it is overturned.

According to Thomas Wm. Mayo, of the SMU/Dedman School of Law in Dallas, the Supreme Court's review of the PPACA decision "isn't just the Case of the Term; it's the Case of the Decade."  In the interim, however, as the country awaits that decision there is "tremendous uncertainty in the industry at a time when the program challenges require quick and efficient action," Kirk Nahra, with Wiley Rein, in Washington, said.

Survey respondents said that 2012 will be marked by continued consolidation in the provider and payer arenas, new partnerships seeking to adjust to changing payment regimes, and increased and expanded enforcement efforts on numerous fronts, all against a backdrop of continued political and health care problem-solving gridlock.

Peyton Sturges, a senior legal editor in Bloomberg BNA's health division, said the Health Law Reporter's advisory board members "once again demonstrated their thorough knowledge of the somewhat tumultuous state of health care law in the age of health care reform."

"Relying on their collective and comprehensive knowledge across a wide range of health law practices areas, including taxation, antitrust, fraud and abuse compliance, and Medicare reimbursement and compliance, they predicted that 2012 will be a blockbuster year for health law, especially as the industry awaits a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the Obama administration's signature health reform law, which passed in 2010 and has been only partially implemented," said Sturges.  

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