Sept. 5, 2012 – Whether practicing in the fields of health law, labor, or employment law on a frequent or infrequent basis, with all the new health care rules and regulations lawyers must be more mindful of the need to be self-reporting in issues or incidents and must have more systems and resources in place to protect and assure compliance. In this video, Milwaukee attorney Michael Bamberger surveys developments in health law from the past year.

“Health care reform is the 800-pound gorilla that is really controlling the direction of health care both at a state and a national level,” said Bamberger. “Whenever you have new rules and regulations – and lots of them – it undoubtedly means a lot of litigation surrounds it.”

Some key points include:

• Many changes in transparency and reporting affecting employers, the health care system, and the patient mean the amount of information and the need for data in measuring quality and comparison will be key for the future.

• Many processes have been built into the law to ensure utilization is appropriate and incentives are correct – and to share the benefits of the cost savings.

• Huge cuts in the federal budget means physician compensations and compensation systems will bring challenges.

“There will be a lot of litigation associated with regulatory interpretations and changes, and there are many gaps in the law, so we will see a tremendous amount of rule setting and modification to the status quo,” said Bamberger. “It’s going to affect each of us.”

Bamberger advises that lawyers must be more mindful of the need to be self-reporting in issues or incidents and more systems and resources must be available to protect and assure compliance with all the new rules and regulations.

Bamberger and Daniel A. Kaplan, Madison, presented the Year-In-Review at the State Bar of Wisconsin PINNACLE^® Health, Labor, and Employment Law Institute last month. This and several other sessions will be available as webcasts in coming months.