Jimerson Birr offers corporate, operational, regulatory, transactional, and litigation capabilities for all types of healthcare industry clients. Jimerson Birr’s Healthcare Industry Team becomes partners with our clients in developing and effectuating multifaceted corporate transactions, litigation tactics, government reimbursement solutions, regulatory compliance methods, managed care contracting programs, and efficiency/cost reduction systems. Through interdisciplinary collaboration and specialized experience, the firm offers pioneering and competent solutions that align with the business objectives of our healthcare industry clientele.
When operating a healthcare business or configuring healthcare business transactions, executive management must account for the laws, rules, regulations, and other legal contemplations that are unique to the healthcare industry. The firm serves healthcare industry clients setting up, operating, integrating, restructuring, acquiring or selling companies in a manner that is compliant with state and federal rules and regulations, including federal Stark laws, federal Anti-Kickback laws and state self-referral, fee-splitting, and other relevant laws. Our lawyers have decades of “in the trenches” experience presiding over board rooms and providing counsel to entrepreneurs, executive management teams, boards of directors, shareholders and investors through all aspects of the business life cycle – from formation, to operation, to exit.
Subordinate only to hands-on patient care, protecting a patient’s personal information from a breach of privacy, charging honestly for the care provided, and auditing the compliance of a practice or facility are the most important operational aspects of any medical organization. Every healthcare related company is vulnerable to compliance worries. Our attorneys assure compliance with all facets of applicable laws, rules and regulations, develop and maintain compliance plans, assist in training staff and providers, and correct any irregularities. Data security remains critically important in most industries, but even more so with the healthcare professions. A data breach can cause untold amounts of damage to both patients and facilities. Jimerson Birr performs or works with its network of specialists to conduct HIPAA and HITECH assessments which incorporate and build upon regulatory standards, while also providing a prescriptive framework to address breaches and violations. The firm endeavors to provide healthcare companies with high security assurances and a clearer path to compliance.
Jimerson Birr helps clients stay within the boundaries of federal and state fraud and abuse laws, including the Stark Law, Anti-Kickback Statute, False Claims Act, Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act, and state laws relating to self-referrals, kickbacks, fee splitting, and other types of prohibited business conduct. We take a proactive approach to risk management, by conducting internal investigations geared toward identifying and preventing potentially unlawful or impermissible conduct. If wrongdoing is found, we help in mitigating damages, preventing future misconduct, assisting in determining whether the actions are proper or required to be self-disclosed to government regulators and, when needed, support clients with voluntary disclosures. Jimerson Birr works with healthcare companies to respond to government investigations or audits, and defends clients in legal or administrative proceedings if the matter rises to that point.
Our senior living and care clients count on us for comprehensive counsel on all parts of the development, financing, operation, regulation, and reimbursement of long-term care across the continuum, including home care providers, adult day care centers, continuing care retirement communities, respite care providers, skilled, intermittent and custodial nursing providers, sub-acute care providers, hospice, assisted living, independent living communities, senior housing, nursing homes, pharmacy and durable medical equipment providers.
Jimerson Birr’s healthcare litigation team serves clients facing high-stakes government and business disputes. Our clientele appreciates our understanding of the intersection of healthcare business with the laws governing the industry, and believe that our sturdy, effective advocacy and commitment to efficient and timely resolution is essential to their operational success. We offer a spectrum of litigation services, including False Claims Act litigation, defending hospitals and other providers sued by employees, vendors, government agencies and others, shareholder disputes, administrative proceedings and appeals, including facility and individual licensure disputes, bid protests, reimbursement and payor litigation, Telecommunication Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation, appeals of civil monetary penalties imposed by government agencies, medical staff credentialing, peer review proceedings and judicial reviews, and responses to medical record subpoenas and disclosure requests. In the end, many clients hire our firm for our proven track record of winning results in contested litigation.
We understand the business models of our healthcare clients, and tether our advice to milestones that align with their strategic objectives. Our team has an enduring commitment to efficiently delivering uncompromising quality, as well as shouldering the burdens of our clients so that they can focus on patient care.
Jimerson Birr recognizes that companies in the risky, complex, and heavily regulated healthcare sector depend on sound counsel for mission-critical operational, legal and regulatory issues. We are committed to the goal of helping healthcare executives mitigate risk and prevent problems before they arise or escalate.