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Latest from Akerman LLP

A bill recently introduced in the Florida legislature (HB 1243) requires Florida hospitals and group physician practices contemplating mergers or acquisitions to provide advance notice of such transactions to the Florida Attorney General’s Office. The bill has been reported favorably out of the Florida Health Market Reform Subcommittee.  Currently, while the Florida Attorney General’s Office is authorized to, and frequently does, investigate such transactions for potential antitrust concerns, no obligation exists under Florida law for…
Employers may need to begin collecting pay and hours data to report on EEO-1 forms, now that a federal district judge revived the controversial requirement put in place during the Obama administration. During that administration, the EEO-1 form was revised to require employers with 100 or more employees to report earnings and hours worked within 12 pay bands, in addition to reporting race, ethnicity, and sex. In August of 2017, the Office of Management and…
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in its ruling in Cochise Consultancy Inc. v. U.S. ex rel. Hunt, created a 3-way circuit split regarding the determination of the applicable statute of limitations period in a False Claims Act (FCA) case. On March 19, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral argument on the matter, hopefully ending the division among the circuit courts of appeal. Pursuant to 31 U.S.C. § 3731(b)(1)-(2), two potential statutes of…
Exempt employees would have to be paid a minimum annual salary of $35,308 in order to be exempt from the overtime and record keeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act, under the Department of Labor’s long-awaited proposed new rule. The proposed new salary threshold represents almost a 50% increase over the current threshold of $23,660 but is substantially less than the 2016 threshold of $47,476 adopted under the Obama administration. A Texas court blocked …
Atrium Health (formerly known as Carolinas Healthcare System) scored a big victory in its defense of an antitrust class action on March 4, when the Court ruled that the plaintiffs in Benitez v. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority, d/b/a Carolinas Health System, could not seek damages in the action. In granting the defendant’s motion for judgment on the pleadings on the issue, the Court held that Atrium was a governmental entity subject to the provisions…
The Supreme Court unanimously decided two Copyright Act cases on March 4, 2019. In Rimini Street, Inc. v. Oracle USA, Inc., the Court held that the provision in the Copyright Act that gives federal district courts discretion to award “full costs” to a party in copyright litigation, 17 U. S. C. §505, covers only the six categories specified in the general costs statute, 28 U. S. C. §§1821, 1920. In Fourth Estate Pub. Benefit Corp.…
The National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) recent decision significantly revising the independent contractor standard will allow more workers to be so classified and therefore unable to unionize. This decision continues the Board’s growing trend towards employer-friendly positions and scaling back Obama-era developments. In other action this winter, the Board has proposed rulemaking modifying the joint employer test and limited its definition of “protected concerted activity.” …
While certain sales employees are exempt from minimum wage and overtime requirements under federal and state laws, others are not. Getting it wrong can be a costly mistake, so employers are well advised to ensure their salespeople are properly classified. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) provides that employees engaged in “outside sales” are exempt from overtime, but those engaged in “inside sales” are not – except when they fall under a separate exemption.…
Employers must walk a tightrope when dealing with an employee or applicant seeking a religious accommodation as demonstrated by two recent court cases with opposite results. In one case, a federal appellate court decided that a job applicant whose offer was rescinded after she asked for a religious accommodation did not have a retaliation claim because her request did not amount to “opposition” of an unlawful employment practice under Title VII of the Civil Rights…
In December, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a report – “Reforming America’s Healthcare System Through Choice and Competition” – expressly calling upon the states to repeal their “Certificate of Need” (CON) laws. In the report, HHS indicated that the existence of such laws – which typically prevent healthcare providers from expanding their services/entering new markets absence their ability to demonstrate to state regulators that there is an unmet need…