Partners in growth.
Integrated legal + strategy services for healthcare leaders.
More than lawyers, we’re strategists, advisors + collaborative partners. Beyond essential healthcare law services, our comprehensive approach delivers creative solutions and greater opportunities for healthcare companies looking to grow.
Health Regulatory + Compliance
Healthcare entities navigate complex state and federal laws and regulations on a daily basis. We represent national and regional multi-hospital health systems, sole community providers, integrated payor/provider systems, hospital-physician joint ventures, urgent care centers, physician practices, ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers, nursing homes, home health providers, hospice, and other specialty providers with their regulatory and transactional needs. Our integrated regulatory services include mergers and acquisitions, investor-physician and hospital-physician strategic alignments and joint ventures, co-development arrangements, management services arrangements, physician contracting and affiliations, corporate compliance, as well as compliance programs, audits, investigations.
We have decades of experience in all key regulatory areas of healthcare, including federal and state anti-kickback and self-referral laws, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, the 340B drug-pricing program, patient data privacy and security (including HIPAA, HITECH, and state privacy considerations), state corporate practice of medicine and fee-splitting, state facility licensure, Certificates of Need (CON), and state and federal self-disclosure protocols. These and other laws, regulations, agency guidelines, advisory opinions, manuals, and court decisions impact ongoing operations as well as the timing, structure, and risk of strategic transactions and business opportunities and we can help you navigate them.
Hospitals + Health Systems
While our clients come from a broad range of healthcare organizations, we have a full appreciation for the host of complex legal and regulatory issues facing hospitals and health systems of all shapes and sizes. We’ve counseled various nonprofit hospital clients for decades as they grew into larger health systems and navigated ever-changing laws and regulations, transforming market forces, reimbursement challenges, and increased public and governmental scrutiny. We work with general acute-care hospitals, academic medical centers, integrated payor-provider systems, long-term acute-care hospitals, comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, and psychiatric and substance-abuse inpatient facilities. We help hospitals thrive under and achieve their strategic goals and objectives in compliance with federal and state regulations.
Labs, Pharmacy + Specialty
Specialty providers such as labs, pharmacies, and durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) companies, have unique business, regulatory, and transactional needs. We routinely counsel specialty providers and suppliers, helping them identify and mitigate risks, navigate unique statutory schemes (such as the 340B drug-pricing program), implement needed compliance safeguards, and negotiate commercial contracts.
Mergers, Acquisitions + Alliances
We help our clients determine the optimal structure of strategic transactions, joint venture arrangements, and other affiliations. Beforehand, we provide legal and regulatory advice to help our clients evaluate all their options to achieve desired goals and understand the legal and regulatory issues involved. We work with the business team to negotiate and prepare straightforward, strong, definitive agreements that minimize risk. We help clients that pursue consolidation as well as those seeking other means of collaboration, alignment, innovation, and improving quality of care, efficiencies, and cost savings. Unlike many M&A attorneys, we also assist our clients with pre-closing matters such as healthcare regulatory and other detailed due diligence (whether the buyer or seller) and post-closing operations, including transitional services agreements, management agreements, and required notices. Our integrated transactional and regulatory approach is designed to find a way to YES, in which our team helps move the transaction forward and succeed beyond the closing.
Outside General Counsel
We serve as outside general counsel for established and emerging healthcare companies. For established companies, we structure our services to optimally support ongoing operations and strategic plans. For emerging companies, we tailor our services and fees to support our clients’ changing needs as they build, grow, and scale. We provide counsel on applicable legal requirements and help build connections with fellow entrepreneurs, investors, specialty business advisors, and others. We have experience on the inside and understand the needs and demands of early-stage companies. For clients with in-house capabilities, we provide focused, seamless guidance to supplement available expertise.
Strategy + Planning
We help healthcare providers and suppliers operate strategically from both legal and policy perspectives within the ever-evolving healthcare landscape. State authorizations, including Certificate of Need (CON) laws and regulations, may impact or influence strategic planning initiatives for existing healthcare facilities, investors in proposed facilities, physicians, and other healthcare professionals. State law considerations may pose challenges to market entry, impact alignment strategies, and lead to changes in the terms of proposed transactions. Such authorizations often have value and may come with restrictions, conditions, or financial or service obligations. We have decades of experience counseling existing and proposed facilities and services of all types in their efforts to obtain approvals or denials of state authorizations. We also evaluate the impact of proposed amendments to CON laws and regulations and provide insight to industry associations, legislators, regulators, lobbyists, providers, suppliers, and other lawyers.
Digital Health
As healthcare evolves and care shifts into homes, we help digital health and technology–enabled services companies, including telehealth platforms, health IT applications, mobile health providers, and related service companies, set up and conduct operations in accordance with state and federal laws and regulations—including privacy and security requirements. We also help our clients navigate reimbursement hurdles and structure and negotiate strategic partnerships with health systems and other healthcare entities.