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Health Care Reform Jumps to Top List of Health Law Issues for 2009

NEWS RELEASE

Contacts:
Karen James Cody,
703-341-3476

Arlington, Va. (January 13, 2009) – Health care reform will be the top health law issue in 2009, as the implosion of the U.S. financial system and the election of Barack Obama are seen as driving changes in the health law landscape, according to a survey of health law attorneys by BNA’s Health Law ReporterTM (HLR).

The majority of survey respondents raised health care reform from the fifth-ranked legal issue last year to the top of the list this year. Reforming a system as large and complex as the U.S. health care system implicates fully half the topics rated in the survey– including previously top-ranked quality of care, as well as taxation, antitrust, Medicare/Medicaid, and health information technology, advisers said. 

Fraud and abuse, which topped the list for several years, will continue to be an area of significant expansion for government enforcement action, according to the survey panel. Taxation issues will remain in the forefront, as the already heightened oversight of the exempt hospital sector by the IRS and Congress continues, and as the economic crisis causes financial stress for providers. The role of charitable hospitals also could be significantly affected, depending on how reform efforts unfold.

Health information technology (HIT) issues remain in the Top 10 because, survey participants said, they permeate just about every other Top 10 category. Most lawyers recognize that HIT will be a key component of whatever reform efforts unfold. Quality of care, last year’s top issue, dropped to fifth place, with some practitioners worrying that patient safety initiatives could be compromised due to the state of the economy. If health care providers are forced to lay off workers, staffing shortages will pose challenges for risk management and may halt the momentum that has been building in the quality of care arena.

Medical staff issues, primarily governance of the relationships between hospitals and their medical staffs, is the sixth highest ranked issue in the survey, followed by antritrust law (because economic pressure is expected to spur continued consolidation in the health care sector), and Medicare (expected to continue to drive, as well as reflect, the significant changes anticipated during 2009). Labor and employment (expected enactment of the “Employee Free Choice Act” is the biggest news) and corporate governance issues round out the Top 10.

The survey panel, whose predictions appear in an outlook report published by BNA every January, is composed of 26 HLR editorial advisory board members. Press copies of the full report are available to working journalists. Call (703) 341-3476 or email presscontact@bna.com

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