Balch Attorneys Presented at the 2021 Health Law Conference Hosted by the Mississippi Hospital Association

Balch’s Ashley Eley Cannady, Armin Moeller and Bea Tolsdorf  served as featured speakers at the Mississippi Hospital Association’s (MHA) 13th Annual Health Law Conference on August 27, 2021. 

Ashley and Armin presented ‘2020-2021 Healthcare Workforce Disruption: Employee Protection Standards, Vaccinations (OR NOT), Flexible Work Arrangements, HHS Office of Civil Rights, Potential OFCCP Coverage, Accommodations, Racial Equity and LGBTQ Inclusion’. They addressed OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard for healthcare workers, vaccination policies, changes in workplace policies since the pandemic including accommodations, flexible work arrangements, paid leave and the Federal government’s increased enforcement of equal employment opportunity policies.

Bea, also an attorney in the firm’s Jackson office, spoke on ‘Interoperability, Information Blocking – EHR Legal and Technical Challenges’. Her presentation highlighted how to efficiently respond to electronic health information requests without blocking necessary information.  

Ashley focuses her practice on labor, employment litigation, providing advice to employers on all areas of work-related legal exposure, including federal contractor compliance, and business litigation. With a proactive approach to each case, she helps her clients remain compliant with applicable laws. Ashley’s client roster crosses many sectors, including financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, construction companies, poultry plants, restaurants, hotels, and casinos. Ashley is consistently ranked by Chambers USA for her Labor & Employment work, and is recognized as a Best Lawyer in America and a Mid-South Super Lawyer Rising Star.

Armin creates solutions for client problems involving employment (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) race, sex, age, religion, disability discrimination, harassment, retaliation charges and whistleblower claims), labor (National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) unfair labor practice charges, collective bargaining, and arbitration), human resources management, federal contractor compliance (Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), Davis-Bacon and Service Contract Act) and compensation (Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) wage and hour claims/investigations) matters, as well as health law, business and employment contracts (professional services, non-competition and confidential information agreements) and litigation (labor, employment, health law and business).

Bea focuses on healthcare regulatory and compliance work. She provides advice to clients ranging from individual practitioners to large hospital systems on a wide variety of issues including Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement, issues related to certificate of need, federal and state licensure and certification, professional board licensure, audits, and compliance issues such as HIPAA, the False Claims Act, Stark and Anti-Kickback. Bea makes it a top priority to get to know her clients and the issues that they face in the ever-evolving world of healthcare.