Seyfarth Publishes New Treatise: The Future of Health Care in the US

(June 16, 2020) – Seyfarth has published a new comprehensive treatise titled, The Future of Health Care in the US: What A Post-Pandemic Health Care System Could Look Like.

This living document, authored by attorneys in Seyfarth’s Health Care group, provides insights into what the post-pandemic landscape may entail for the Health Care industry. The treatise identifies the realized and potential consequences of the pandemic, suggests possible outcomes, and summarizes the lessons learned from the emergency measures put in place to stabilize a fragmented health system.

“As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to alter every industry in the economy, the US Health Care system has simultaneously been tasked with unparalleled challenges involving patient care,” the co-chairs of Seyfarth’s Health Care team, Jesse Coleman, Kristin McGurn, and Cynthia Mitchell, said in a joint statement. “While medical professionals tend to the need of a nation, Health Care leadership across the board have been tested with new operational, regulatory, and enforcement changes. With this treatise, our cross-departmental team of Health Care lawyers addresses the key questions weighing on the industry and discusses the future landscape for the medical community.”

In the 50-page treatise, the authors explore how historic changes will impact key players in the US Health Care system, including licensed Health Care professionals (the individual providers), licensed Health Care facilities (the institutional providers), the third party payers (including government payers), the workforce, and the research community that will eventually find a reliable diagnostic test and a vaccine for future protection against the virus.

The Seyfarth treatise is comprised of six main chapters:

1. The Evolution of Physician and Health Professional Regulation: This chapter raises five important areas for how practitioners will deliver care post-pandemic:
   1. How will the rapid expansion of digital health technology be used and regulated?
   2. Will the current relaxation of professional licensing requirements during the crisis continue? What will be the effect on quality and standards of care?
   3. How will COVID-19 affect the way practitioners staff and see patients in their offices/facilities?
   4. Will the location of the patient and the physician continue to be an issue in determining the point of service and delivery of care?
   5. How will this affect provider reimbursement?
2. A Turning Point for Hospitals and Facilities: The COVID-19 crisis is a turning point for US Health Care, and has left many leaders and practitioners with important, unanswered questions about how services are delivered, and how they will adapt and thrive post-pandemic. Besides Health Care challenges, the current pandemic crisis has created a financial catastrophe not seen since the Great Depression.
3. The Effect of COVID-19 on Modernizing Fraud and Abuse Regulation and Enforcement: This chapter includes a primer on regulations, including the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute, while also exploring the potential for regulatory flexibility as the country moves towards a post-pandemic world.
4. Six Ways FDA Regulations, Oversight, Collaboration, and Funding Will Change:
   1. Diagnostic Test Regulation
   2. Medical Device Regulation
   3. Treatments and Clinical Trial Procedures
   4. Continued Cooperation
   5. Funding for Infectious Diseases
   6. Research
5. HIPAA and Privacy Regulation, Post-Pandemic: COVID-19 promises to have broad, long-term effects on the HIPAA obligations and compliance of Health Care organizations.
6. Envisioning Tomorrow’s Health Care Workplace: Responding to the fast-moving coronavirus pandemic, teams across the Health Care ecosystem flexed their agility and collaboration muscles like never before. And they will need to do it again.

To request a copy of the treatise please visit here.

The Seyfarth editorial team behind the production of the treatise includes authors Jesse Coleman, Dr. Sheryl Dacso, Chris DeMeo, William Eck, Dean Fanelli, Adam Laughton, Kristin McGurn, Jamaica Potts Szeliga, Janice Suchyta, Vince Smolczynski, and Robert Terzoil, Jr.

Comprised of more than 180 attorneys, Seyfarth’s Health Care, Life Sciences & Pharmaceuticals industry group helps guide clients through the complex regulations addressing fraud and abuse, provider reimbursement, anti-kickback, licensing, certification, health information privacy and security and HIPAA.

About Seyfarth
With more than 900 lawyers across 16 offices, Seyfarth Shaw LLP provides advisory, litigation, and transactional legal services to clients worldwide.

Contacts:

Martin Grego, Senior Public Relations Manager, (312) 460-6659, mgrego@seyfarth.com