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      The full handbook in alphabetical order, across every subject.

      85
      Agricultural & Food Law

      Preventive Controls and the Written Food Safety Plan

      A facility required to register as a food facility must prepare and implement a written food safety plan containing a hazard analysis, preventive controls, a supply-chain program where required, a recall plan, and procedures for monitoring, corrective action and verification. The plan is prepared by or under the oversight of a preventive controls qualified individual, reanalyzed at least every three years, and supported by records retained for two years.

      6 min readFederal law

      86
      Water Rights

      Prior Appropriation: First in Time, First in Right

      Under prior appropriation a water right is created by diverting water and applying it to a beneficial use, with a priority ranked by the date the effort began. Nearly every western state now administers the doctrine through a permit issued by a state engineer or equivalent officer. In shortage there is no proration: a senior may place a call and junior users are curtailed in reverse order of priority until the senior right is satisfied. Water law is state law, and the details differ.

      5 min readState law

      87
      Agricultural & Food Law

      Produce Safety: Covered Farms, Exemptions and Water Testing

      A farm is covered by the produce safety rule if its average annual produce sales exceed the monetary threshold. A farm below a higher food sales threshold that sells the majority of its food directly to qualified end-users has a qualified exemption with modified requirements. Produce rarely consumed raw, produce for personal consumption, and produce receiving commercial processing that adequately reduces pathogens are excluded. Agricultural water requirements differ before and after harvest.

      6 min readFederal law

      88
      Healthcare Regulation

      Provider Enrollment, Revalidation and Revocation

      Enrollment establishes the effective date from which claims may be paid, and certain practitioner types may bill retrospectively for up to thirty days before it. Enrollment must be revalidated every five years, or every three for equipment suppliers, and a revalidation request must be answered within sixty calendar days. Revocation carries a reenrollment bar of one to ten years, extended to twenty for a second revocation, and it takes effect thirty days after the notice is mailed.

      5 min readFederal and state

      89
      Healthcare Regulation

      Reassignment of Benefits and Who May Bill

      The program does not pay amounts due a supplier to anyone else under reassignment, power of attorney or any other direct arrangement, except in defined cases. The two that matter are payment to an employer where the clinician must turn over fees as a condition of employment, and payment to an enrolled entity under a contractual arrangement. Billing entity and clinician are jointly and severally liable for any overpayment, and the clinician keeps access to the claims.

      5 min readFederal and state

      90
      Advertising Law

      Reference Prices, Sales and Was-Now Claims

      Under 16 CFR Part 233 a former price comparison is truthful only where the higher price was the price at which the article was openly and actively offered for a reasonably substantial period, in good faith and not to establish a fictitious comparison. Comparisons to competitors' prices must reflect prices actually charged in the trade area for comparable goods. A list price comparison requires that substantial sales occur at the list figure.

      6 min readFederal law

      91
      Healthcare Regulation

      Remuneration Prohibitions and the Safe Harbors

      It is a felony to knowingly and willfully offer, pay, solicit or receive remuneration to induce or reward referrals of items or services payable by a federal health care program. Liability turns on purpose, and an arrangement offends the statute where even one purpose of the payment is to induce referrals. Regulatory safe harbors describe arrangements that are protected absolutely, but an arrangement outside a safe harbor is not unlawful for that reason; it is judged on its facts.

      5 min readFederal and state

      92
      Labor Relations

      Representation Petitions and the Showing of Interest

      Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act lets employees, a labor organization or an employer file a representation petition with a regional office. A petition seeking or ending representation must be accompanied by a showing of interest from at least thirty percent of the employees in the unit sought. The showing is administrative, confidential and not litigable. No election may be directed in a unit where a valid election was held in the preceding twelve months.

      6 min readFederal law

      93
      Government Contracts

      Responsiveness and Responsibility: Two Different Failures

      Responsiveness asks whether the bid complies in all material respects with the invitation, judged from the face of the bid as of the opening. A nonresponsive bid cannot be made responsive afterward. Responsibility asks whether the bidder has the resources, record, integrity and capability to perform, judged as of award and provable with information submitted after opening. A small business found nonresponsible must be referred to the small business agency for a certificate of competency.

      5 min readFederal law

      94
      Immigration Sponsorship

      Reverification and the Documents That May Not Be Demanded

      Reverification is required when the document recorded as evidence of employment authorization expires, and it is completed on or before that date using the reverification supplement. It is not permitted for citizens and noncitizen nationals, for permanent residents who presented a permanent resident card, or on the expiration of an identity-only document. At reverification the employee presents an unexpired document evidencing authorization, and the employer may not name one.

      6 min readFederal law

      95
      Motor Carrier Law

      Safety Measurement, Ratings and Interventions

      Roadside inspection and crash data are weighted by severity and recency and grouped into behavior categories, producing a percentile rank against carriers with a similar volume of safety events. That measurement selects carriers for intervention. A safety rating under 49 CFR Part 385 is separate: it follows an investigation and may be satisfactory, conditional or unsatisfactory. A proposed unsatisfactory rating removes the carrier's authority to operate after the period stated in 49 CFR 385.13.

      5 min readFederal law

      96
      Immigration Sponsorship

      School Certification and the Recertification Cycle

      A school that enrolls nonimmigrant students files Form I-17 and is certified for named campuses and named programs of study. The petition must be updated within twenty-one days when the underlying facts change. Certification runs on a two-year cycle, with the recertification petition filed inside a window before expiration. Student records must be produced within three work days of a request, and failure on any of these supports withdrawal of approval.

      6 min readFederal law