COVID-19 Viewpoints

In response to the spread of COVID-19, on March 23, 2020, President Trump signed Executive Order 13910 (Order) to prevent the hoarding of health and medical resources necessary to respond to the spread of COVID-19 within the United States. Through the Order, the President delegated his authority under the Defense Production Act of 1950, 50 U.S.C. § 4512 (Act) to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Order authorizes HHS to protect scarce and threatened health care and medical items by designating particular items as protected under the Act (Designated Items). Once an item is designated, the Act makes it a crime for any person to accumulate Designated Items: (i) in excess of the reasonable demands of business, personal, or home consumption; or (ii) for the purpose of resale at prices in excess of prevailing market prices. In this post, we discuss four things to know in connection with the Order.

On April 11, 2020, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury issued a set of FAQs intended to assist stakeholders grappling with the provisions of the FFCRA and the CARES Act governing group health plans, health insurance issuers, and others. This post reports on the FAQ highlights.

The Mintz Privacy team has been tracking privacy issues related to COVID-19. We have been featured in various publications talking about cybersecurity risks, GDPR regulations, the California Consumer Privacy Act, and more.

On the heels of codifying 940 CMR 35.00, the “Unfair and Deceptive Debt Collection Practices During the State of Emergency Caused by COVID-19” (the “Emergency Regulations”), Attorney General Maura Healey issued guidance on April 3, 2020 “to provide clarity with regard to frequently asked questions concerning the Emergency Regulations[.]”

This article discusses the Federal Reserve’s Main Street Lending Program, including eligibility; impacts on debt service, capital structure, and strategic planning; and potential obstacles under existing debt and other agreements.

Our April newsletter brings you COVID-19–related news, Part IV in our series on TCI, M&A activity, Washington updates, news from Greentech Capital, and industry webinars.

The cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Jose have each adopted paid sick leave measures to assist workers not covered by the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act during the COVID-19 crisis.

Energy & Sustainability Webinar Highlights – April 2020

The CARES Act is the third significant piece of federal legislation recently enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This post focuses on the provisions of the CARES Act that affect welfare benefit plans.

Last Tuesday, we blogged about the arrest of the owner of a Georgia-based marketing company who was charged with health care fraud and conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute. The government has alleged that laboratories paid the company kickbacks for Coronavirus (COVID-19) testing leads.

The very next day, the United States Attorney’s Office in San Antonio, Texas charged 39 year-old Christopher Perez with allegedly perpetuating a COVID-19-related hoax by posting a false threat on Facebook in which he claimed to have paid someone to spread COVID-19 at grocery stores in Texas. These prompt actions to implement Attorney General William Barr’s March 16 call to prioritize the detection, investigation, and detection of all criminal conduct related to the COVID-19 pandemic caused us to wonder what the federal government is doing about enforcement. The answer is: a lot.

The Federal Reserve (Fed) announced that it is modifying this year's stress test to reflect how banks have performed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read about the temporary suspension of NYSE's $15 million minimum market capitalization requirement and shareholder approval rules for certain capital raising transactions.

We recently provided some insights regarding how countries across the world are using data to fight COVID-19. The United States Senate, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, has recently conducted a hearing with witnesses from academia, industry, and interested organizations on “Enlisting Big Data in the Fight Against Coronavirus.”

On March 27, 2020, the Massachusetts Attorney General, Maura Healy, filed an emergency regulation, aimed at what the office described as “prevent[ing] debt collectors and creditors from harassing our residents.”

ML Strategies' analysis of federal and state legislative and regulatory responses to public health and economic issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On April 3, 2020, FinCEN issued its second notice related to the COVID-19 pandemic (Notice).

This advisory reviews strategies that sponsors and their portfolio companies can use to manage defaults, including proactive measures to avoid default, amendments and waivers to realign with a company’s revised outlook, sponsor support through equity cures, and lender forbearance.