Hospitals, Health Systems, & Academic Medical Centers

In light of the dynamic and uncertain times in the healthcare space today, healthcare providers need counsel with the experience and perspective to find innovative solutions to the challenges they face.

Ranked consistently as the largest US health law firm by Modern Healthcare, Morgan Lewis takes a collaborative and integrated approach to the representation of health industry clients, including our hospital and health system clients. We represent all types of hospital providers—including academic medical centers, hospital systems, rural hospitals, critical access hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, and long-term care hospitals.

We bring a solution-focused mindset to all of our projects, and our capabilities cover a broad array of matters, including the following:

• Structuring compliant business relationships with healthcare professionals—including recruitment, employment, medical directorship, and professional services arrangements—as well as working with hospital clients to develop compensation arrangements with physicians that reward the provision of efficient, high-quality care
• Counseling on a wide variety of Medicare reimbursement issues—such as Graduate Medical Education/Indirect Medical Education (GME/IME), Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) and provider-based arrangements—as well as appealing reimbursement disputes to administrative tribunals and federal courts
• Responding to government investigations and conducting internal reviews related to financial relationships with physicians, coding and billing questions, cost-reporting issues, and quality-of-care issues
• Assisting clients to understand the constantly changing regulatory landscape and how newly implemented regulations may affect business operations
• Advising on Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance and defending against the imposition of penalties by the Office of Civil Rights for non-compliance
• Responding to Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC), Uniform Program Integrity Contractor (UPIC), and Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) audits and handling administrative appeals before various agencies and at different levels
• Developing and implementing compliance programs that address areas such as physician self-referral (Stark Law) and anti-kickback prohibitions, privacy and information security, tax-exempt status, and regulatory compliance
• Supporting clinical research activities—including institutional review board (IRB) clinical trial agreements, research grants, billing issues, and US Food and Drug Administration matters
• Establishing effective business combinations such as mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, divestitures, and joint ventures as well as advising in service line arrangements and collaboration initiatives among academic medical centers
• Serving as general outside counsel to address the myriad issues that confront hospital lawyers, executives, and compliance officers on a day-to-day basis as well as in the context of government investigations