COVID-19 Viewpoints

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act has created a flurry of far reaching considerations for affected businesses, ranging from tax, employment, and even telehealth.

Energy & Sustainability Washington Updates — May 2020

Recently, newspapers and television news programs have been full of stories about laboratory testing and the important role it will play in containing the spread of COVID-19 and reopening U.S. economic activity. But these stories have told a mixed tale. The Washington Post and The New York Times both ran front page stories on April 19, 2020 about how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had bungled production of the first U.S. test kits for detecting the presence of the novel coronavirus by manufacturing them in a lab contaminated with the virus, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA, which regulates test kits, testing materials, and testing instruments, had investigated the causes of its sister agency’s failure, which delayed by weeks the nation’s fight against the virus.

Only days before those stories ran, news outlets reported that Great Britain had paid $20 million to purchase antibody tests from China but, upon their arrival in Great Britain, those tests were found not to work. On April 26, 2020, the front page story in The New York Times headlined that “Testing Remains Scarce as States Weigh Reopening.”

Day after day, we have read conflicting stories about lab testing: do we have sufficient capacity and capability or do we not? If we do not, why don’t we? We have seen an alphabet soup of federal agencies named as being involved with clinical labs and working towards a solution to the many issues that have been raised. Having worked with labs for decades, we thought we would explore these really important questions. Which agency is responsible for what, and what are they doing? Every day we receive questions like these, and we thought that we would share what we have learned.

Read about how price gouging statutes and enforcement, by NY state and city, Mass., and the federal government, may affect businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a previous post, we covered the impact of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) on employee welfare benefit plans, programs, and arrangements. This post explains how this new law affects tax-qualified 401(k) and other defined contribution plans.

On April 22, 2020, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced it is extending its suspension of operations at all Trusted Traveler enrollment centers until at least June 1, 2020 to protect CBP officers and the general public from exposure to COVID-19.

On Friday, the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (OIG) issued responses to a series of frequently asked questions (FAQs), in an effort to provide some level of regulatory flexibility for health care providers responding to COVID-19 concerns.  These FAQs relate to enforcement of the OIG’s administrative enforcement authorities under the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and Civil Monetary Penalties Law prohibiting beneficiary inducement (Beneficiary Inducement CMPL) only.

With the reopening of the economy on the horizon, employers are looking ahead to welcoming employees back to the traditional workplace. Business operations will look vastly different during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In Part 2 of our Roadmap Series, we outline important operational planning steps and actions employers can take now to successfully and safely bring employees back to the workplace. Future posts in this series will address many of these issues more in-depth, so be sure to stay tuned.

In accordance with the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act, the USPTO has extended some patent-related deadlines.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it is extending its current office closures, and is now preparing to reopen its offices on or after June 4, 2020.

This advisory reviews the SEC Division of Corporation Finance’s statement of April 23, 2020, including what forms it covers and how filers can submit typed signatures on documents submitted by email.

On April 12, 2020, Governor Cuomo issued Executive Order 202.16 mandating that essential businesses in New York require their employees to wear face coverings when in direct contact with customers or members of the public. The New York State Department of Health has now issued guidance regarding the order, which went into effect April 15th. We highlight the provisions of the order and the DOH guidance below.

This advisory covers the SEC’s April 21, 2020 approval to allow NYSE-listed companies to regain compliance with stockholders equity/market capitalization and minimum price continued listing standards by tolling applicable compliance periods through June 30, 2020 due to COVID-19.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has introduced uncertainty and unique challenges in nearly every aspect of life. During this unprecedented time, Mintz is working to keep our clients and community informed and empowered to navigate this new world. To that end, we’ve created a number of webinars on a variety of COVID-19-related topics of interest to health care industry stakeholders. In case you missed them, here’s a highlights reel of what we’ve covered so far – just click on the links below to access the webinar recordings.

On April 23, 2020, the CFTC announced a targeted no-action relief to certain market participants from compliance with net capital treatment of covered loans received under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) pursuant to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).

New York State issued guidance on March 20th detailing answers to many frequently asked questions about the newly implemented COVID-19 quarantine leave law. We summarized the key components of the emergency law, which was enacted on March 18, 2020 and became effective immediately, in a previous blog post. In short, employers are immediately obligated to provide certain paid/unpaid leave (with duration and pay status varying based on the employer’s size), job protection, and expanded paid family leave and disability benefits to employees who are subject to a government-issued order of mandatory or precautionary quarantine or isolation due to COVID-19.

This update discusses the new federal interim stimulus package, negotiations for the Phase 4 package, the Municipal Liquidity Facility, the SMART fund, plans to reopen the Massachusetts economy, and more.

Due to the economic impact of COVID-19, especially on smaller broker-dealers, FINRA will allow small firms more time to pay their Annual Assessment (comprised of the Gross Income Assessment and the Personal Assessment).

This alert from the Mintz Immigration Practice discusses President Trump’s Executive Order, signed April 22, 2020, suspending the entry of new immigrants into the US for 60 days.

With the rapid spread of COVID-19 throughout the United States, the federal and state governments have scrambled to adjust existing legislation, or create new legislation, to account for the “new normal.” It is no surprise that many employers, especially those that operate in multiple jurisdictions, are struggling to keep up. Here we have summarized recent COVID-19 related updates in the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia region.