Intro (00:02):
Welcome to Health Law Talk, presented by Chehardy Sherman Williams health Law. Broken down through expert discussion, real client issues and real life experiences, breaking barriers to understanding complex healthcare issues is our job.

Conrad Meyer (00:28):
good morning or good afternoon, whenever you’re listening to this. This is another addition of health law talk with Conrad Meyer and Rory Bellina here in the beautiful office of Chehardy Sherman William Studios in Metairie, Louisiana right now, overlooking a, I guess, overcast sky, which we were being told today that it, it, we might have some tornadoes, so what better time Rory to get together and talk about healthcare trends for 2022.

Rory Bellina (00:54):
Nothing better like the present.

Conrad Meyer (00:55):
Nothing better. And we haven’t done this in quite a while.

Rory Bellina (00:57):
I know, I know. It’s good to get back behind the, behind the mics and, and, and start again. So we, we look forward to getting regular content back out there to

Conrad Meyer (01:05):
Everyone. Absolutely. I mean, you know, life gets in the way. Sure. I mean, I mean, we had, I mean, in New Orleans, we have life in New Orleans. I mean, we are not short. And thank God, because for two years we’ve been cooped up. I mean, Mardi Gras this year we had that. We had a lot of holidays. I mean, I know we did. I know. I went to Disney. I know. I don’t know about you. Did you? I did as well. So we had two Disney trips, so it looks like we’re finally getting back into the swing of things. So health law 2022 I mean, lots of moving parts here, and it looks like there’s gonna be some wind down to the covid waivers and Covid. I guess I wanna say waivers. I’m talking about the Covid era, you know, swipe of the wand. Let’s cut all the red tape for various telemedicine billing practices, fraud and abuse. and, and now we’re gonna be sort of whining some of that back.

Rory Bellina (01:56):
Yeah, and I think a lot of our listeners that have listened since the beginning, they’ll probably remember that, you know, when we started this podcast and when we were talking a lot about the different Covid exceptions, or like you mentioned, the red tape being cut, you know, you and I would, would, would constantly say, This is really good. This is good policy, this is good. for the public and for the beneficiaries. We were curious to see what was going to be kind of, you know, clawed back or taken off the table. What were they gonna put the red tape back on? You know, where are they gonna go with, with a lot of the expansions that they had quickly made during the Covid pandemic since we’re we’re coming out of that, and things look like they’re going back to normal. So I think now’s a really interesting time to see the government’s had two years to evaluate what’s worked, what hasn’t worked, what they’ve spent a lot of funds on, and, and to see what they kind of want to what they want to, you know, regulate more or what are they gonna keep as is.

Conrad Meyer (02:54):
And I think, and, and when you look back on it, we are talking about major, major, you know, sectors of, of healthcare that were affected by Covid. I mean, everything we talking about telehealth, right? We’re talking about billing and charging for various arrangements that normally would’ve been prohibited under Stark and Kickback. We’re talking about the no surprise act. I mean, all these things came out and the new Stark rules, the new Stark AKs rules. So I’m curious to see the walk backs. and, and honestly, some of the stuff, it’s kind of like trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube. Sure. I mean, I mean, now that we’ve got the telehealth, we, we had several of the the podcasts on the mental health, for example, where they now are able to get greater access to patients because of the, of the telehealth regs and the rules.

Rory Bellina (03:49):
Yeah. I don’t think we’ve had a guest on here that said that they did not like the expansion to telehealth. I think a lot of them definitely spoke about it, some of the barriers that they’re faced and not seeing patients in person. And some of them might have preferred in person over telehealth, but, you know, no one seems to have complained about the expansion of access. And I think telehealth should be the biggest thing that the, the government looks at in particular, because you know, there definitely are some instances where you should go see your provider face to face. But for a lot of the instances, a a phone call or a video call we will do the job and it’s gonna save on time, money, resources, and ultimately the government’s reimbursement of

Conrad Meyer (04:29):
These. Well, and, and, and speaking of reimbursement, we’re going, we’re, we’re, we’ve, we’ve been talking about it. You and I have seen it on value-based care. And, and that to me is going to be I, I, I see that as a continued push an implementation of value-based care. And what I mean by that is pay episodic payment for care, right? More capitated rated models for care. and I think we’re gonna see the expansion of that e even with some sort of an incentive base for providers to get into into that sort of a range, get them used

Rory Bellina (05:04):
To it. And I think that’s a really important thing that, that I hope the government focuses on, because even, you know, the pre covid, the plan was to, to shift over from the, you know, the, the, the per patient compensation for, like you said, more of a value-based pay care. But then when Covid hit, that was the, the default. And that’s exactly how the government essentially paid for a lot of the covid reimbursements. It was based on beds filled or deaths or, you know, if it’s, it’s, if it’s, if it’s vaccinations or not the government that, that was, that’s kind of their bread and butter is the, the, the pay per use or the pay per patient. And so it’s gonna be interesting to see them now they have to even go, you know, going forward with us having to live with, with these covid issues going forward, are they gonna switch over to value based for that as well? So it’s one more thing that we’re definitely looking forward to seeing how it’s gonna be handled.

Conrad Meyer (05:55):
Just to give you the scope of that. Okay. When Covid hit you know, back in March of 2020 or you know, that, that that date has a little bit of flexibility with most people. So but on March 30th, 2020 CMS issue, these blanket waivers regarding stark requirements for covid 19 physician arrangements. And then, and, and again a few days later they come back and the OIG issues guidance that would from the, that state, it’s not gonna impose administrative sanctions under the anti kickback regarding stark blanket waivers. Okay. Interestingly enough, the number these waivers I’m wondering how they’re gonna ha they’re gonna wait. They’re gonna start walking that back. And so, so suddenly, and this, it goes to our clients, really, And, and I think healthcare lawyers and, and even providers alike me to be keenly aware of this, they need to be on top of any, you know, OIG or CMS rollbacks so that they’re not running a foul inadvertently, because remember, you can’t say I didn’t know about it. Sure. As, as a defense.

Rory Bellina (06:59):
And, and I think a few of the, the popular ones, at least from what I heard, you know, going back in time and trying to remember, you know, when we were here dealing with issues on the ground during Covid were some of the waivers where, you know, a lot of hospitals, since schools were closed, a big thing that they were doing is they were allowing you to bring your kids to the hospital or to your practice. And they were having various staff members, you know, watch the kids so you could treat the, the covid patients, you know, and that, and that was, you know, it wasn’t built into the compensation model. And it, it’s definitely considered a form of remuneration because it was free. You know, are they gonna walk those back? You know, some of the physicians were being provided housing onsite or offsite, so they could be at the hospital quicker. Again, that’s another form of compensation because they were trying to keep the doctors close and able to, to treat patients as other doctors got sick. So I, I think those are, are big things that, you know, people have gotten accustomed to or providers have gotten accustomed to. Is the government, you know, gonna be willing to keep some of these, or are they gonna say no, we’re going back to, you know pre 2020 regulations.

Conrad Meyer (08:07):
So if you think about it, what was, what would you say Rory was the biggest blanket waiver, or regulatory, I guess cut the red tape for covid, What area of healthcare would you say was affected the most?

Rory Bellina (08:26):
I would have to go with telehealth.

Conrad Meyer (08:28):
Agree. Smart, smart answer. Yeah. So, so what do you think the biggest walk back of the regulations, where do you think that’s going to occur?

Rory Bellina (08:36):
I, I would think it’s gonna occur two prong. I think it’s gonna occur with the software side. Mm-hmm. . And I think it’s gonna occur with the reimbursement side as far as what’s required for reimbursement. So from the software side, it was really interesting because pre covid, you had to have certain approved software. It had to have certain technical requirements and overnight that went away. It could be whatever you have, whether it be teams or Skype, you know, FaceTime and that, that, that went away. I, I, I’m eager to see that stay or maybe, you know, some things be put in place because I think it overnight, again, it broadened the access to where, you know, the majority of Americans have an iPhone. So they were able to, to meet with their providers and they didn’t have to get some sort of special software, get a license from the doctor’s office or, you know, download something that they were unfamiliar with. I think that’s, I think that’s a really big one that I’m hoping stays and and is allowed to be continuing to

Conrad Meyer (09:39):
Use. So, so, so think about this now, and remember we had the mental health professionals in our podcast, and you know, and I can’t remember the exact number, but we talked about access to mental health, right? Wasn’t it, didn’t one of them tell us that on, based on telehealth, they were able to see almost four to five times more patients than they normally would in office because of the telehealth?

Rory Bellina (10:01):
Yeah. And I think it was because they were able to, you know, kind of be behind their office. They were able to have their scheduler schedule patients with like a buffer time. You know, one person that we spoke with, I know she said she had someone just dedicated to setting up all the zooms or the teams and, and having kind of the, the patients in the, in a waiting room per se. And their, the provider was just kind of behind their desk, just cranking these out and was able to, to see a lot more, as opposed to having someone go in for the waiting room than you have to put ’em into another room or wait for, you know, wait for the therapy office to become available. I think it really expanded on the number of patients that could be seen, which is definitely needed. Now as, especially like you said, mental health, there’s a lack of

Conrad Meyer (10:44):
Providers. Well, think about that just from a fraud abuse standpoint now that we’re coming to rolling things back, right? If you’re able to see five times more patients than then I think fraud abuse is gonna be targeting telehealth more than anything. I would agree with that. You know, so if you look at that and to give you an example, just, just some numbers the healthcare Strikeforce it’s a task force that’s used to combat fraud. linked telehealth right to 2021 or 20 20, 20 20 during the covid and even 2021 linked telehealth to a $4.5 billion in false billing and fraudulent claims. Okay? Now that number’s probably gonna go up.

Rory Bellina (11:23):
Sure, sure.

Conrad Meyer (11:24):
So, so you have to be looking at your, your compliance standpoint from a telehealth standpoint. And I mean, and that could involve, like you said, like you said, clinic visits. It could involve prescriptions DME and testing. So, you know, you have to really, really, I mean, if you’re a provider and you’re in that market, right, you have to really watch yourself.

Rory Bellina (11:45):
I think that’s a concern of the government, and I think that’s been a concern of, of ours that, you know, the government’s concern with these, you know, almost like a call center of providers where they’re just sitting there behind a monitor with a, with a microphone and a camera, and they’re just cranking out patient visits and ordering labs or ordering scans and ordering dme, and they’re just, it’s just a super high volume and there’s really not that patient care or patient encounter. So, you know, I, I might be naive. I’m, I’m optimistic that the majority of providers are, are doing the right thing, and they really are spending the time with a patient and doing a full evaluation and diagnosis and, and ordering what’s really medically necessary mm-hmm. . But are there bad actors out there Yeah. That are talking to a patient for five minutes and ordering and MRI and a CT scan and a ton of DME that they don’t even know if they need? Yeah, absolutely. So I think that’s what the government is gonna be looking at, and I think the government’s gonna do what they always do. They’re gonna look at who build the most, and they’re gonna start pulling those charts and seeing, you know, did you really treat a hundred patients in a day? And let’s see how long your clinic notes were on when the, when the encounter started, when it ended, and why did you order, you know, an MRI for every patient you saw that day?

Conrad Meyer (13:00):
So when you look, when you do a deep dive into this, cause I agree with you, it’s probably the biggest thing that occurred in Covid. interestingly, when you look at the public health emergency and how that’s sort of, you know, sort of winding down now, right? Everything you read on the news, everything’s winding down, they try to bump it up, They, you know, now we’ve got the O delta ocr, B one variant Delta, I mean, you know, they always come up with something new as some fear fu you know, fud, you know, fear uncertainty and what despair or something, you know? So we had some FUD going on, but, but, but I’ll tell you, the one thing to look at, and you know this cuz you’ve seen this too, is, is when you want know what the fed’s thinking and you want know where the fed’s going, you always look from a healthcare standpoint, you’re looking at the fee schedules, the physician fee schedule, the i p s, the inpatient perspective payment system, O P s, those regulations that come out on a yearly basis.

(13:53):
Well, interestingly, the 2021 PFS or physician fee schedule came out to address some of the telemedicine issues. And, and what they’re gonna do is be because COVID issued a blanket waiver basically saying Medicare will pay fee for service for all telehealth services during the pandemic. Well, hey, that, that really opened the floodgate, right? And that included everything from, like I said, prescription DME and so forth. Well, now you can see under 2021 pfs, they’re gonna basically make nine codes on telehealth that were norm nine billing codes that were normally never active or whatever permanent, they’re going to take 23, I’m sorry, 74 codes are gonna be removed. So, so I mean that’s a lot. Yeah. So, so you know, I mean, are we going back to ratcheting down and hopefully going back, you know, I mean, I don’t know how they’re gonna do that cuz the public outcry for this is, is so high. Now,

Rory Bellina (14:45):
My guess is that they’re going to make the, they’re gonna, like you said, they’re gonna have these special codes for tele telehealth visits, right? And I think those are gonna be reimbursed lower as opposed to an in person visit. I, and with the thought of there’s less, you know, when they look at these codes, they build in, it’s a dollar amount, but they, they’re building in your administrative costs, your overhead. So, you know, they’re the government’s thinking, my thinking of the government’s thinking is that they expect that, okay, if you’re doing more tele visits, then you have less administrative overhead costs. You might not need that large waiting room, or you might not need someone, you know, staffing the reception area and, and a ton of patient rooms to, to treat people. If you’re just sitting be in one office and, and going through the patients your costs are going down. So in turn we’re gonna reimburse you less.

Conrad Meyer (15:34):
Agreed. And, and I, I think when you look at 2021 and, and where things are going, because remember, everything was cut in 2020, it’s still that we’re ruling it back. I mean, everything from DEA registration, state waivers for telehealth services for patients. I, I agree with you, the genie at the bottle telehealth will increase across the board both on a clinical side and on the mental health side. So I I, I agree. I think that’s gonna continue to move forward. So what about hipaa? What about other types of, of healthcare issues, post pandemic, pre pandemic? because remember too, and that sort of falls in with telehealth using Facebook and you, I mean FaceTime, sorry and sort of these other platforms I mean, do you see that kind of rolling back or do you think now, hey, wait, we’re using FaceTime now, guess what? We’re gonna continue to use FaceTime?

Rory Bellina (16:34):
That I, I really don’t know. I don’t know how much of a vested interest, you know, the government has in that. I, I could see them, you know, coming out and, and putting some sort of approval list on what types of, you know, systems you can use. you know, it’s unfortunate for the, the telehealth vendors that went out and developed and met and developed their software and met all the criteria, the security criteria that the government did once require to do these visits. Because, you know, they spent a lot of time developing apps that just got, you know, no one cared about overnight because everyone had FaceTime or, or Skype or Google Meet. So I think that’s gonna be really interesting. I don’t know what they’re gonna do in that case. You know, they might come out and say, these, these are approved, or they might issue some sort of, you know, waiver or release where, you know, if you do use one of these non-approved, you know, systems will reimburse it, but we’re going to, you know, we’re not making any guarantees or, or your provider can’t make any guarantees that your, your information is protected because there, there is no, you know, they don’t have any oversight on that.

(17:47):
So I’m not sure where they’re gonna go with, with that. you know, and that segues into, it’s really gonna segue into, you mentioned HIPAA and phi. I think that’s really gonna segue into largely what are the changes gonna be kind of in the workplace for, you know, vaccinations with the, with the vaccination laws and vaccination requirements. Where are things gonna go with that as far as employers asking status of vaccination? You know, we, we’ve done numerous podcasts on that and what the Supreme Courts come down with. But I think there’s gonna be definitely some work needing to be done in, in the HIPAA area, because, you know, now everyone kind of wants to know, are you vaccinated or not? And it’s, it’s unclear who can ask that, who cannot ask that, who can ask that you become vaccinated versus not vaccinated. I think that that area is gonna continue to evolve.

Conrad Meyer (18:40):
So interestingly, you said that because one of the trends that we’re seeing too is big data and the use of big data meaning patient data by large players, if you will, to make, make changes in, in terms of healthcare delivery. also maybe innovate new drugs and new therapy maybe. but that also brings up a very, very important point from the HIPAA standpoint that you were just mentioning, privacy and people’s private healthcare data. And interestingly enough with the, the continued interoperability of EHRs that where for example, you know, if, if everyone who uses Epic, you know, a lot of providers use Epic, a lot of systems use Epic, you know that, that data, that patient data could be shared with research to come up with new drugs or new therapies or new modalities. But people don’t know that. People don’t know if their data’s being shared.

(19:45):
Interestingly enough, I wanted to to share this with you. something that, that I think is currently evolving that the there’s something called the Cures Act that was you know, in 20, I think 21st Century Cures Act that basically takes measures that prevents information blocking. So here we have hipaa, which is supposed to protect your personal phi, your protected health information, yet you’ve got a, a, a body of legislation that wants to share your, your data in order to come up with these new ideas, new therapies. So, you know, this goes back to the whole thing of how mu how much do people know about the privacy of their healthcare data and how is this gonna flush out? Sure.

Rory Bellina (20:35):
I think you, and I’ve had some, I’ve had some run-ins with 21st century, like, like you mentioned, and information blocking actually from a clinic that had their information blocked when they were trying to, to switch vendors to answer your first question. And it’s, it’s a pessimistic outlook, but I think, I think that patients patient data or people’s patient data is much less secure, much less, I don’t wanna say secure. I think your actual patient data is secure. I think that if you go to a provider and they put it in ehr, I think there’s a lot of Oh, I agree. Safety barriers. Totally. However, I think it’s being shared and sold all the time. Now, it’s not gonna say, you know, Roy BLA is six feet tall, he lives at this address, He’s, he’s his weight is this, he’s,

Conrad Meyer (21:23):
But do you know that? But do you know that?

Rory Bellina (21:25):
But it probably says everything but my name. So I think that, I think that your data is out there. I think your data is being, you know, mine, I think it’s being sold to either research companies or like the big tech companies because they’re very interested in patient data. I would hope that names are being scrubbed from it, but that’s kind of my outlook on it. You know, when people come up to me and, and they, and they, and they ask me questions about, well, is it, is it secure? Should I, should I make an account online so I could view my online records or, you know have this on my phone? And, and, and it’s kind of my answer for other things is that yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s secure, but only to an extent. I don’t think that I, I think that it’s out there somewhere. So you just have to be, I’m, I’m, I have a pessimistic Yeah, look, you just have to be comfortable with having nothing private

Conrad Meyer (22:17):
Anymore. So the EU already did GDPR and you know, I know America was looking at doing something similar to that, another regulatory overlay to give people the right to control their personal data online in that universe, Right? We haven’t had that yet. And, and so that’s why the, the, I guess the tech oligarchs and things like that want to con want to, you know, get their hands around data because as you said they’re making a fortune off of it. They’re making a fortune off of, of personal data. I mean, I give you an example, right? And one is very innocuous, 23 and me, you see the commercials mm-hmm. , ancestry do com, ancestry.com mm-hmm. , you know, submit a DNA sample and then figure out who your ancestors are. What they’re not telling you is, is when you read the fine print, which I’m, it is pages and pages and pages of Pine print, that data that you send to them not only is gonna give them, you know, your personal dna mm-hmm.

(23:14):
, right? But then they can use that and sell to any research firm they would now, I mean, they want, So imagine if I’m, I like, I’m not saying they do this, I don’t know they do this, But see, I’m IBM Health hypothetically, right? And I want access to the largest repository of DNA data I can find, you know, that’s not a health system like a Kaiser or someplace else, but actual DNA data. What better place than 23 and me in ancestry.com where I can go and, and, and they’ll sell it to me? You know, not, I don’t even know if they do that. I mean, I’m just using that as an example. Maybe they don’t do that. Right? But I mean, think about the ramifications. Nobody’s telling you that

Rory Bellina (23:57):
No, no. And it’s not mentioned that it’s all subject no to subpoenas warrants. it falls outside of freedom information. But I mean, you do hear the stories about someone was arrested for a murder or a sex crime that they committed because, you know, the police

Conrad Meyer (24:14):
Department, the DNA was found, right?

Rory Bellina (24:16):
Police depart department sent a warrant asking if 23 and me had any, any matches to this dna. And if they do, they have to respond. And it was somebody who sent in a cheek swab to see, you know, what, what nationality they were. And then now they get, they get pinged for a crime that they may or may not have committed. So, yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of implications to that. I think the, I think the tech companies, the big tech companies know that healthcare is the fastest growing and the most profitable industry in the United States, arguably in the world. And I think that they want that data because they all want to get into healthcare space. I agree with that. You know, you see Amazon trying it, you see Google trying it Apple to a smaller extent, but all the big tech companies want to get in the healthcare space, and the only way to do it is to have

Conrad Meyer (25:10):
The data. I agree. And I, so, so let, now let’s pivot on another section. So and I’m gonna throw this at you, right. Vaccine mandates.

Rory Bellina (25:19):
Okay. Okay.

Conrad Meyer (25:20):
Where are we going in the future? I, I saw that New Orleans, for example, we’re using our, our city here, so has dropped the mass mandates and they’ve also dropped the vaccine mandates for children. So I ha I mean, my understanding is that correct?

Rory Bellina (25:37):
It was dropped, It was dropped for proof of entry in a certain business, proof

Conrad Meyer (25:41):
Of entry. That, that’s what I’m talking about.

Rory Bellina (25:42):
About, Yeah. But it’s still, it, you mentioned children. So for the public school system, it’s still required unless you request a waiver.

Conrad Meyer (25:50):
I see, I see. Okay. Well, that’s a good question. Sure. Where are we going? Sure.

Rory Bellina (25:54):
And it’s not just New Orleans, it’s, it’s, you know, I’m, I’m a big sports guy, so I follow everything going on in the sports world, and it’s big in New York right now because their biggest player for their basketball team hasn’t been able to play at a home game this whole season. And there’s two weeks left in the season until last week, because the city of New York has a private business vaccine mandate, and he’s not vaccinated. So he was unable to play inside New York City the, the, this whole year. So, you know, where, where is it going?

Conrad Meyer (26:26):
Is it here to stay?

Rory Bellina (26:28):
You know, I, I think, I think it’s very, we’ve talked about this numerous, you know, for numerous hours. I think it’s just gonna be very politicized. And I think it’s all about the politics of who’s running your city or who’s running your state. I mean, you see Florida taking a very different approach Yes. Than New York and California. and there’s implications because their governor is presumably gonna run for president. So, but you see in New York, they’re taking a much different approach because they’re, or the, the city, you know, the, they don’t have that motivation at this time. So I think it, a lot of it is just gonna come into play on what is the agenda that’s trying to be accomplished for that government. I really don’t think there’s a national plan. Even the president said that there’s not gonna be a national mandate. He’s gonna leave it up to the states to decide and the local municipalities. And in Louisiana, that’s what our governor’s done as well. So I, I don’t know. I think it’s gonna be, I think it’s just gonna depend on the parish for us or the county, for anyone outside of Louisiana, if they’re listening where they are and what their government decides

Conrad Meyer (27:36):
To do. Well, I mean, hopefully we don’t have some sort of another variant that’s created in some secrets us biolab in some country that we don’t know about, Right. That we learn on the Senate floor or the un, you know, . Right.

Rory Bellina (27:51):
But no, it goes back to, I I think it still goes back to hipaa, and the question is gonna continue to come up. I think as cases have gone down, I know for me, I’m, I’m not sure for you, we haven’t talked about this in a while, but as cases have gone down, as Aron is chilled, I’ve been getting less calls about workplace compliance and covid compliance, especially since the private employer mandate went away.

Conrad Meyer (28:18):
I think, you know, what’s starting gonna say this fizz? I think they’re, I think they’re done. I think people are sick of it. I think they’re done. I think they realized, you know, UMN was sort of a, yeah, it was a lot people, people really got infected, but it was sort of a nothing burger. I mean, people got sick a few days and that was it. Now that’s, I mean, I’m not, I’m speaking in generalities, of course. Sure. But, but I mean you know, I don’t know.

Rory Bellina (28:40):
I think the big realization is that if you’re, and, and it was like this before, so it really wasn’t a surprise to me. If you’re in healthcare or the healthcare industry, you should be expected that you’re gonna need to be vaccinated and there, unless you’ve got a sincerely held religious belief or medical exemption behind that. I don’t, I just don’t know. It’s gonna be, it’s gonna be harder for you to get out of a vaccination. But I think anywhere else, I think there’s been a big chill as far as mandating vaccinations for anything besides healthcare settings. Schools is gonna be a popular one in Louisiana. It’s being added to the list of required vaccinations. However, there’s a simple waiver that you could sign saying that, and you don’t even have to give a reason. You could just say that I essentially, my child’s not getting this vaccination and the parent signs off on it, and it’s up to the school to accept it or not.

(29:32):
So, you know, I, I, that’s where I see things going. I think that there’s gonna be, you know, there might be more and more questions coming up on, is your vaccination status phi, Is that considered a medical record? Is that, you know, subject to your employer asking. There’s a lot of uncertainty regarding that because we, it was allowed in the private employer vaccine mandate, but then that, that went away. But I, I think employers are still gonna want to know is even if it’s a non-healthcare setting, is my staff vaccinated? So I think that we’re still gonna continue to see.

Conrad Meyer (30:09):
Interesting. Well, we have a lot to look forward to. I mean, we have a lot going on in 2022. I you know, all those things are all a really good things. So,

Rory Bellina (30:18):
Yeah. And, and the big one that, that we already talked about that I just wanted to hit on again briefly before we, before we wrap up, was, and we, we’ve had numerous guests on the topic is, like you said, the mental health and the behavioral health. I think that’s going to continue to be an area of growth. I think that’s gonna be an area that really benefits from telehealth and from a lot of these changes. we had those guests on that were excited about it, and we’re excited about the changes that were allowed. So I think the government is gonna continue. My hope is that they focus on the areas of need, rural areas, the mental health, behavior, health where there’s less providers, different sectors where, okay, we’ve got a low provider base, and these patients could really benefit. You know, they don’t need to go in to get a blood draw or to get an x-ray. They really just need to talk to someone, whether it be face to face in a room or on a computer screen. So let’s continue to allow telehealth for these certain things. I hope the government looks at it and just doesn’t kind of yank away this stuff wholeheartedly.

Conrad Meyer (31:24):
I hope so. I mean, we have a, again, we’ll see the forecast in terms of, you know, we got, what, nine more months left. So we’ll see. I think it’s gonna be an interesting year, how they walk back. I think we’re coming on the, on the end of this. So

Rory Bellina (31:36):
We’ve got midterms that are getting ready, you know, elections are gonna start, that’s gonna be,

Conrad Meyer (31:40):
That’s gonna be

Rory Bellina (31:41):
Interesting. That’s gonna be coming up. So I think there’s a, there’s a lull period right now, right? But I think as in the summer drags on, but then when we start hitting July, August and people, the campaigns really increase, I think we’re gonna start to see this come back up from a policy standpoint on when those elections

Conrad Meyer (31:58):
Hit. And everyone knows, all of our listeners know that R and Conrad will be on top of all of the top healthcare litigation, not litigation regulation. See, I just gotta have a court case, right. regulation coming up for 2022. So we really appreciate you staying with us and look forward to some more episodes coming back. Rory, any final thoughts?

Rory Bellina (32:18):
That’s it. I, I think we this was a good episode and, and we’ve got some good topics coming up in the few weeks.

Conrad Meyer (32:24):
Yeah. One thing we want everybody to know is that we have enhanced our website here at Chehardy Sherman. So you can find our landing page on our podcast at www.chehardy.com/podcast, and you’ll be able to find us through a podcast link at the bottom of the front page. And on that link, you have the op option or the opportunity to input your email address to communicate with us directly. So we I think the email was podcasts@chehardy.com, so if anyone wants to send us an email have any suggestions, any comments regarding the podcast, please send us an email. Again, podcasts@chehardy.com that will come directly to Rory and I, and we look forward to seeing everyone. Next episode. Have a great day.

Intro (33:07):
Thanks for listening to this episode of Health Law Talk, presented by Chehardy Sherman Williams. Please be sure to subscribe to our channel. Make sure to give us that five star rating and share with your friends, Chehardy Sherman Williams is providing this podcast as a public service. This podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast does not constitute legal advice, nor does this podcast establish an attorney client relationship. Reference to any specific product or entity does not count as an endorsement or recommendation by Chehardy Sherman Williams. The views expressed by guests on the show are their own, and their appearance does not imply an endorsement of them or their entity that they represent. Remember, please consult an attorney for your specific legal issues.