Venable has been advising healthcare clients for more than 60 years. Our mission is to provide legal solutions that accomplish your business objectives.
To enable that mission, we draw on many disciplines within Venable—business formation and transactions, regulatory, government affairs and public policy, mergers and acquisitions, creditors' rights, real estate, litigation, tax, employee benefits, technology/intellectual property, labor and employment and antitrust—for the experience and knowledge clients require in making sound business decisions.
EXPERIENCE ON ALL SIDES OF HEALTHCARE
QUESTIONS WE HEAR OFTEN
How do we get what we need from federal and state government?
Healthcare is the most heavily regulated industry in America. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) represents a complete sea change (including potential opportunities) for clients and the agencies and industries that affect them. We have decades of experience dealing with agencies such as FDA, CMS, OIG and IRS. Venable lawyers have helped write and shape the laws. We know the legislators and regulators, as well as where and how to promote action.
How do we join or form a multi-hospital affiliation or joint venture?
Whatever the structure you believe will promote your business objectives, especially in the evolving context of the ACA, such ventures present significant business and legal risks. Hospitals considering any form of affiliation or joint venture should thoroughly assess the governance options and clinical acceptability, regulatory permissibility and financial viability of the venture.
Venable has performed healthcare mergers, acquisitions and affiliations of many types and understands how to address the unique business and regulatory issues that confront the institution and physicians involved.
Are we complying with Stark, Fraud and Abuse, False Claims Act and HIPAA?
Compliance is becoming even more of a challenge. The rules governing Stark and other laws continue to evolve as the agencies issue new regulations, new cases are tested in the courts, and the government reaches new settlements. The Stark rules alone cover thousands of pages, and new IRS disclosure rules may trigger significant audits. The ACA introduces further requirements for compliance plans and practices.
Ensuring that you are in compliance requires ongoing reviews of the financial relationships within and between your organization and outside parties.
Venable helps clients comply with Stark, Fraud and Abuse, False Claims Act, HIPAA and other parallel state laws by:
- preparing legal analyses of new financial relationships and implications;
- performing legal audits of existing contracts and financial relationships;
- developing compliance programs and performing in-depth training on related policies and specific vulnerabilities or areas of noncompliance; and
- representing clients in investigations and litigation related to allegations of violation of laws.
How do we obtain, use or restructure tax-exempt financing?
Venable has represented many hospital, healthcare and educational systems in tax-exempt financings, including advising hospitals on the currently difficult credit markets. Venable’s public finance attorneys provide workable solutions to meeting the requirements—“safe harbor” guidelines, the private business test, TEFRA hearings and other rules—that are required for tax-exempt bond financing.
How do we address patient care and ethical issues—such as clinical trials, privacy issues, reproductive rights, informed consent, AIDS, advance directives and guardianship?
In every area of healthcare, from neonatal clinics to hospice facilities, ethical issues in patient care have gained heightened public awareness and increased potential for costly legal actions by patients and their families. Venable attorneys bring legal and practical approaches to these ethical challenges.
How do we handle compliance with medical staff bylaws, hearings and reporting requirements in physician peer reviews?
Since the 1950's, Venable has represented hospitals and other providers in a broad variety of disputes and disciplinary actions. We apply that experience daily as we counsel and represent clients confronted with threats to the integrity and reputation of the institution.
What Venable provides:
(1) Attorneys who understand healthcare economics and its intimate connections with regulatory rules and enforcement policies;
(2) Advice that is practical—based on our experience working with providers, payors and regulators every day; and
(3) Solutions that work within the realities of healthcare—enhanced by knowledge of national, regional and local government, public policy and the business environment.