Health Care Law

Legal issues and risks continue to challenge the health care industry. The value of seasoned counsel with an appreciation of underlying exposure and a knowledge of realistic solutions is paramount. Our health care attorneys can provide such counsel. Our attorneys have been serving health care organizations for over 25 years, resulting in the depth of experience necessary to provide insightful counsel.

Our firm provides a full range of services in a personal and attentive manner and our attorneys are adept at working with our clients' other consultants and staff in multi-disciplinary efforts to achieve their goals.

We provide counsel for a wide variety of health care entities, both for-profit and not-for-profit, including PBMs, pharmacies, hospitals, home health agencies, bio-tech companies, health maintenance organizations, preferred provider organizations, nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, physician groups and professional associations, clinical research and site management organizations and durable medical equipment suppliers.

Services Provided

Our attorneys assist health care clients in the full range of regulatory, contractual, transactional and licensing matters. The firm has extensive experience in:
 

• Providing counsel in regard to Medicare/Medicaid fraud and abuse, including Stark and anti-kickback implications, assistance to clients in compliance training for employees and staff, internal audits, assessing proposed transactions and assisting in the creation of alternative structures when necessary, contract review, and the creation of forms manuals where appropriate.
• Providing counsel on a variety of areas relating to the pharmaceutical industry, including regulatory concerns, purchasing agreements, distribution and resale agreements, structuring of rebate and discount arrangements, clinical trials, reimbursement and claims issues and payor contracting.
• Representing health care providers with health planning matters, including certificate of need proceedings, licensure and regulatory requirements and certifications and plans of correction.
• Providing counsel to facility committees on issues of residents' rights, COBRA and legal issues affecting medical treatment, PPS compliance and resident transfer.
• Working with health care providers to create and draft resident admission contracts, handbooks and internal policies.
• Representing physicians in their relations with hospitals, physician hospital organizations and payors.
• Representing managed care organizations on issues of contracting, licensure, regulatory requirements and compliance with new and proposed state and federal managed care laws.
• Representing hospitals in such areas as medical staff issues, payor contracting, reimbursement, regulatory issues and facilities development.
• Structuring joint ventures and other business arrangements with emphasis on tax exemption and reimbursement issues, avoidance of fraud and abuse or fee splitting violations, tax guidance, relevant securities, ERISA and employment issues and drafting the necessary documents to implement the venture.
• Assisting a variety of clients on such diverse issues as capitation and insurance regulation, corporate practice of medicine concerns, network configuration, guidance on payor/provider contracting and reimbursement questions, including compensation structures and Medicare/Medicaid restrictions and requirements, patient confidentiality issues, including HIPAA, and designing specialty provider networks.

We believe valuable asset we can offer our clients is the benefit of our daily interface with our firm's attorneys from other practice areas, including corporate, tax, mergers and acquisitions, securities, banking, employee benefits, labor, real estate and litigation. We interact with attorneys who have a special sensitivity to the needs of health care clients. This interaction expands our in-house capabilities and enhances our ability to view the broad ramifications of any venture.

The attorneys at Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella, P.C. are committed to providing your health care organization with effective counsel and efficient solutions to your legal challenges in a thorough, personal and responsive manner.