Winstead PC Shareholder Taylor White published his column in Texas Lawyer about labor and employment issues and trending topics. The article is titled ‘Employers Get Clarity on Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination Policies in the Workplace.’ The article is below:

For months, employers and employment attorneys have navigated a number of considerations and governmental guidance documents regarding COVID-19 vaccinations in the workplace. A key question has been whether employers can implement policies requiring employees entering the workplace to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Notwithstanding the business consideration of whether such policies should be implemented, the consensus among practitioners has been that mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations in the workplace are legally permissible. Two recent developments have generally confirmed that consensus: the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s May 28, 2021, updates to its technical assistance guidance, and a recent federal court order dismissing claims brought by employees against their employer based on the employer’s mandatory vaccination policy.Continue Reading Taylor White in Texas Lawyer: Employers Get Clarity on Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination Policies in the Workplace

Winstead PC Shareholder Taylor White published the second article for his column in Texas Lawyer about labor and employment issues and trending topics. The article is titled “OSHA Emphasizes Enforcement Effort for COVID-19 Hazards in Certain Industries.” The article is below:

Throughout the pandemic, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has faced criticism that it was not doing enough to protect America’s workers from COVID-19 hazards. Then, on Feb. 25, the U.S. Office of the Inspector General, the watchdog for the U.S. Department of Labor, issued a report, observing that “there is an increased risk that OSHA is not providing the level of protection that workers need at various job sites.” OSHA is focused on changing that perception in the coming months.Continue Reading Taylor White in Texas Lawyer: OSHA Emphasizes Enforcement Effort for COVID-19 Hazards in Certain Industries

Winstead PC Shareholder Taylor White published the first article for his column in Texas Lawyer about labor and employment issues and trending topics. The article is titled “Best Practices and Considerations for Employers Regarding the COVID-19 Vaccine in the Workplace.” The article is below:

“With states individually rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine to residents, employers are, and should be, beginning to consider their options with respect to employee vaccinations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has previously recommended giving the COVID-19 vaccine in phases initially, as it relates to employees: (1) health care employees; then, (2) frontline essential employees, such as education workers, manufacturing workers, first responders, and food and agricultural workers; and then, (3) other essential workers, such as construction workers, finance workers, and transportation and logistics workers. Of course, ‘the goal is for everyone to be able to easily get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as large quantities are available.’
Continue Reading Taylor White in Texas Lawyer: Best Practices and Considerations for Employers Regarding the COVID-19 Vaccine in the Workplace

With COVID-19 surging as the United States enters the winter months and holiday season, employers in all industries can expect to grapple with significant COVID-19 hazards for the foreseeable future. Employers in the healthcare industry though are doubly burdened not only by increased workloads stemming from higher numbers of ill patients, but also by increased health and safety risks for their workers. Accordingly, healthcare employers should pay close attention to guidance and updates from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and implement appropriate plans and protocols—if not already in place—to address COVID-19 hazards to their workers.

OSHA recently announced that, through November 5, 2020, it had issued 204 citations based on alleged violations related to COVID-19. These citations resulted in $2,856,533 worth of proposed penalties and generally stemmed from complaints, referrals, or fatalities in a number of essential industries, such as “hospitals and healthcare, nursing homes and long term care settings, and meat/poultry processing facilities.”Continue Reading Healthcare Industry Employers, Take Heed: OSHA Issues Most Cited Standards Related to COVID-19 Hazards

Winstead PC Shareholder Sarah Churchill Llamas recently spoke with Medpage today about the federal emergency orders in response to the Covid-19 pandemic that currently allow physicians to prescribe opioid medications to patients via telemedicine. An excerpt is below:

“In the COVID-19 era, under relaxed federal emergency orders, licensed clinicians have been able to prescribe opioid analgesics for their patients even if they’ve only ever seen the patient via telehealth, rather than in person.

For providers like Stephen Bekanich, MD, a palliative care physician for Ascension Texas in Austin, this provision allows him to help seriously ill patients without requiring in-person visits that may be difficult for them or could expose them or their caregivers to the virus.Continue Reading Sarah Churchill Llamas in Medpage Today: Docs Can Prescribe Opioids Via Telemedicine, for Now

In order to clarify the required procedures for changes of ownership of entities that have received Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) funds, the Small Business Administration (“SBA”), on October 2, 2020, released a Procedural Notice. Specifically, the Procedural Notice addresses the procedures companies with outstanding PPP loans must follow when undergoing a change of ownership, including mergers, equity or asset acquisitions, or ownership restructurings.[1]

Prior to the October 2, 2020 Procedural Notice, SBA loans typically required prior SBA approval for any transaction involving a change of ownership, regardless of the percentage change. Without further guidance from the SBA, PPP lenders have been cautious in granting their consent to their PPP borrowers’ change of ownership transactions without prior SBA approval in order to avoid potential defaults and forego forgiveness rights of the PPP loan.Continue Reading SBA Procedural Notice Summary – Changes of Ownership

It’s no secret that the Department of Justice has made the False Claims Act (“FCA”) a priority for years.  Last month, we discussed why regulatory changes in response to Covid-19 (e.g., STARK waivers) could provide additional bases for the government to bring FCA cases.  This post addresses the basics of cooperation credit for defendants who cooperate with the Department of Justice during an FCA investigation.
Continue Reading Understanding the Basics of Cooperation Credit in False Claims Act Matters

As landlords and tenants continue to navigate the uncertainties of traditional office and retail properties in the era of COVID, one asset type that has emerged as more resilient in this new environment is life science real estate.[1] The spaces utilized by biotech and pharmaceutical companies, as well as medical research facilities, are highly technical, with site-specific functionality that cannot be replicated by remote work environments.  As a result, life science real estate continues to attract tenants and property owners continue to invest in this sector.  However, utilization of space for life science uses—wet and dry laboratories, warm rooms and cold rooms, and other activities—presents a number of specific issues for both tenants and landlords that should be considered in any lease transaction. Below is a summary of some of those issues from both a tenant’s and a landlord’s perspective.
Continue Reading Issues in Life Science Leases

How do you take a negative and turn it into a positive? COVID-19 has made answering this question very difficult, as the pandemic continues to have a negative and in some cases long lasting and devastating impact on people’s daily lives and the many businesses that help sustain daily living.  One area of business that has been hit particularly hard, as a result of the pandemic, has been the hospitality industry. According to a new national report completed by Trepp [1], the hotel industry is facing an unprecedented number of foreclosures as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to devastate small business hotel owners and its workforce. More specifically, American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) conducted a survey of more than 600 hotel owner respondents and more than half of them stated that they are in danger of losing their property to foreclosure by commercial real estate lenders due to COVID-19.[2] As a result of these market conditions, some senior living developers and operators see a growing opportunity to capitalize on the hotel foreclosures by converting them to assisted living facilities.[3]  However, turning this negative into a positive won’t go without its challenges, and developers and owners should be mindful of some pitfalls when attempting to make this conversion a reality in Texas.
Continue Reading Hotel Conversions to Assisted Living in the Wake of COVID-19