Poyner Spruill Welcomes Education Law Practice Group

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In This Issue

Work Hard, Play Hard and Love Big – A Tribute to Riley Clapp – When Riley Clapp drew his last breath on August 6, 2012, my phone lines lit up and the emails came pouring in. We all knew Riley had been sick, and most of us had heard that he’d gone on hospice. But, I suppose we all thought we’d see him one more time, that sly grin of his and that shock of white hair. Ah, the things we put off doing and then regret.

No Material Change – No Forbidden CON Application Amendment – The North Carolina Court of Appeals recently made crystal clear that a certificate-of-need (CON) applicant’s submission of additional information after its application has been filed does not constitute a forbidden amendment, unless it materially changes the proposal set forth in the application.

To Encrypt Email or Not to Encrypt Email? Practical Answers to a Question That Is Surprisingly Complex – Health care providers frequently ask us whether they have to encrypt emails, particularly those sent to patients who have asked for an emailed copy of their health records. Since patients have a right to receive electronic copies of their health records, emailing them a copy when they ask for it seems like the right thing to do.

Ken’s Quote of the Month

“Work hard, play hard and love big.” — Riley Clapp

From the Marketing Department – Our very own Ken Burgess has been named to The Best Lawyers in America® 2013 (copyright 2012 by Woodward/White, Inc., Aiken, S.C.), the fifth year he has received this prestigious designation. Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which more than 36,000 leading attorneys cast almost 4.4 million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their practice areas, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor.

Ken has also been named to the Hulda B. and Maurice L. Rothschild Foundation’s national task force on Negotiated Risk and Surplus Safety in Skilled Nursing Facilities. The Rothschild Foundation is a private foundation affiliated with the University of Minnesota that has been involved in long term care life safety code revisions, the Eden Alternative and culture change initiatives in long term care over the years. After being invited to attend the foundation’s two-day meeting in Baltimore in September because of his work in this area, Ken was asked to serve as the delegate to this same event by the American Health Care Association in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the task force is to explore ways to promote choice and independence for nursing facility residents while responding to provider concerns about civil and regulatory liability.

Ken wrote a book in 2000 for the Assisted Living Federation of America on this topic, in the context of U.S. assisted living facilities. “I am thrilled that the Rothschild Foundation is taking on this tough issue, specifically in the context of skilled nursing facilities,” Ken said. “Taking away the independence of seniors as part of risk management is the very worst thing we can do to them, and it’s time we found common ground among seniors and their advocates, providers, plaintiffs’ counsel and regulators to ensure that we give seniors as much independence and freedom as possible. My invitation to this event also proves that if you just hang around long enough in your career, someone will eventually think you are an expert in something.”

Congratulations to Ken on these well-deserved accomplishments! We have always known he’s great!

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