Health Care

Barrett & McNagny LLP began providing legal services to health care providers before health care became formally recognized as a practice area of law. Today, health care represents a major industry of our country and attorneys in our Health Care Group concentrate on the legal needs of health care institutions and providers. We provide services to physicians, physician groups, physician networks, hospital medical staffs, hospital/physician networks, ambulatory surgery centers, preferred provider organizations, community mental health centers, and liability insurance carriers.

Practice Highlights

Health Care Regulatory and Administrative Matters

The health care industry is heavily regulated, both at the Federal and State levels. Our experienced attorneys routinely cousel clients on various regulatory and statutory issues, a sampling of which is set forth below:

• Concepts of private inurement and private benefit
• Compensation structures
• Fraud and abuse laws that generally fall into one of three broad categories which prohibit:
  • the submission of false, fraudulent or misleading claims to any government entity or third party payor;
  • the use of kickbacks or other payments in exchange for referrals; and
  • referrals of Medicare/Medicaid patients by a physician to an entity with which the physician or the physician's immediate family member(s) have a financial relationship.
• Anti-kickback law and safe harbor regulations
• Third-Party Billing Companies
• Health Care Fraud and Abuse Compliance Programs
• Ambulatory Surgery Centers
• Quality Assurance and Utilization Review
• Peer Review
• National Practitioner Data Bank
• Health Care Quality Improvement Act
• Advance Directives; appointment of health care representative
• Medical licensing
• Medical record requirements, including confidentiality, retention, and computerization issues
• Privacy of Health Information Programs
• Assignment and re-assignment of Medicare reimbursement
• Billing for physician-extender services
• Medical Staff and credentialing matters
• Physician Recruitment Agreements
• Issues relating to professional courtesy

Health Care Corporate and Transactional Matters

Attorneys in our Health Care Group provide clients with a full range of corporate and transactional representation. We counsel all types of business entities, including corporations (such as c-corporations, s-corporations and professional corporations), limited liability companies, partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships and sole proprietorships. We prepare and review various corporate documents including bylaws, operating agreements, stock purchase and sale agreements, and employment agreements for physician and non-physician employees, such as physician assistants, registered nurses, clinical nurse specialists, and physical therapists. In addition we have assisted in the negotiation of many managed care agreements between provider groups and payors.

We have particular experience and advise health care clients on various issues such as managed care,Medicare/Medicaid and third-party reimbursement, mergers and acquisitions,corporate restructuring,and joint ventures. Our antitrust and corporate securities law experience provides guidance to our clients in these complex areas of law. We have worked closely with single specialty entities and have advised them on the advantages and disadvantages of various approaches including multi-specialty groups, independent practice associations, as well as for- profit and not-for-profit hospital/physician joint ventures.

Our experience also includes advising employers and plans on issues of employee and retiree health benefits; advising quality assurance/utilization review companies on increasing state regulation and contracting; assessing potential liability exposure of managed care organizations and employers with respect to provider credentialing and selection.

Medical Malpractice Litigation

The defense of medical malpractice has been a large part of our litigation practice for many years. Our attorneys have extensive experience in representing health care clients in every facet of malpractice and general health law litigation.

Employment Law and Litigation

In addition to attorneys who are very experienced in the defense of medical liability cases, Barrett & McNagny has experienced and highly respected trial lawyers who represent health care employers in a variety of contexts, such as premises liability; workers compensation; non-competition litigation; defending and providing advice concerning wrongful discharge claims, employment discrimination claims, equal employment and affirmative action obligations; and general personnel and human resource issues. Our attorneys also prepare and review personnel policies and programs, such as employee handbooks, drug testing programs, and other procedures, and have the ability to handle both simple and complex commercial and regulatory litigation.