Health Care and Fitness Law

This firm represents health care professionals, including nurses, doctors and hospital administrators in the increasing complex world of health care.  The firm also offers representation for fitness and nutrition professionals and small businesses in the fitness industry.  Representation is needed often times on compliance, regulatory, environmental and product design, and on employment and administrative matters. 

There are numerous federal and state statutes applicable to the field of health care law.   For employees who become sick or disabled, there is the Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA"), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ("HIPAA"), and the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act("COBRA").   Disability law has its own subset of applicable federal statutes, including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ("ADA") as amended by the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 ("ADAAA"), and all of the insurance laws applicable to disability claims and coverage, including the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA") and the Social Security Act.

There is a wide array of recent federal legislation which have changed the health care landscape, including:

• The Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010
• The Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act of 2010 
• The Physician Payment and Therapy Relief Act of 2010
• The Claims Resolution Act of 2010
• The Social Security Number Protection Act of 2010
• The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010
• The Improving Access to Clinical Trials Act of 2009 
• The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008
• The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("PPACA"), signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010, is the most comprehensive overhaul of health care law.  PPACA includes several provisions may apply to health care and fitness professionals.  PPACA's preventive care clause mandates insurance coverage for many preventive care services for individuals within certain age demographics, including mammograms, bone density exams, colonoscopies.  The law also includes personal training, nutrition and weight loss services if certain prerequisites are met.  PPACA has also introduced tax credit incentives for small businesses to provide health care insurance coverage, and enables the government to award grants for the adoption of corporate wellness programs by small businesses.
   
  What is Fitness Law?  Physical fitness embraces a wide variety of federal and state laws related to fitness, nutrition and preventive care.  This includes the certification and compliance issues of those who provide preventive care and fitness services, including fitness facilities and gyms.   Fitness environments, products and common areas must be adapted for the whole population, including the disabled.  For example, Title II and III of the ADA and the Architectural Barriers Act ("ABA") require that newly built and altered state and local government facilities, places of public accomodation, recreational facilities and commercial facilities be equally accessible and usable by the disabled.   
  
  Fitness law also embraces preventive care management of nutrition and weight loss, and all of the professionals involved in the nutrition and dietetics industry.   There have been new developments in nutrition law, such as the enactment of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, federally funding healthy school meal and child nutrition programs and increases low-income childrens' access to healthy food. 
  
  There are also many facets to disease prevention and preventive care that are governed by federal and state law.  
  
  Representation is also provided for small businesses with regard to interpretation of new health care reform law and policy, including the application for the new corporate wellness plan grants under the health care reform legislation.