Providing The Legal Aid And Representation Health Care Industry Stakeholders Need To Stay In Compliance With The Law
The Calhoun Law Firm, PLC, represents and counsels clients in the health care industry in all aspects of business transactions and dispute resolution.
Transactional legal issues in health care are concerned with creating agreements between parties, formalizing those agreements in contracts or agreements, and then carrying out the provisions specified therein. Commercial transactions, personnel hiring and management, intellectual property management, E-commerce, corporate structuring, and enterprise operations can all be the focus of arrangements.
The objective of health care dispute resolution is the resolution of problems between two or more parties. When a party violates the terms of a contract, or when a party’s wrongdoing causes damage to another party’s property or reputation, a conflict arises. Legal representation is offered during conflict resolution negotiations, mediation, arbitration, and litigation. In addition, we represent health care professionals and businesses in disputes with a multitude of state and federal agencies.
Our health care clients count on us for legal counsel and representation in matters involving:
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Our Arizona Health Care attorneys advise physicians groups, dentists, nursing homes, and veterinarians in Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Scottsdale, Peoria, and Tempe on contractual, intellectual property, litigation, e-commerce, employment, regulatory compliance, business structuring, and crisis management matters.
Health Care Enterprise Formation and Structuring Law
Organizing your practice as one or more separate legal entities can provide you with a variety of advantages, including reducing your overall tax burden and restricting your personal liability. While having a legal entity will not shield you from a malpractice claim, it can help lessen other potential liabilities. Moreover, your organizational structure may allow you to avoid or decrease certain types of taxation.
When developing a health care organization, a plethora of regulatory issues must be considered that do not affect non-health care businesses. For instance, STARK and STARK II considerations, scope of practice rules and regulations, and vicarious liability laws influence the organization structure that is most suitable for your practice.
Often medical practitioners form the legal entities of their organization as limited liability companies, professional limited liability companies, s-corps, or some combination of these types rather than forming their practices as sole proprietorships or partnerships. The scope and details of a particular practice dictate the organization and implementation that is optimal for the situation:
Health Care Contract Law
Our health care clients seek our counsel on a wide range of contract law topics, from general contract law to challenges that are unique to the health care industry.
Advice is given on several aspects of contracts that are relevant to a wide range of enterprises, such as negotiating contracts, writing contracts, reviewing contracts, and resolving contract disputes. The contracts practice area description includes supplementary information on the aforementioned issues.
In addition, specific contract advice pertaining to the health care industry is offered on the following topics:
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Health Care Commercial Transaction Law
We provide general commercial transaction law advice to health care industry clients and counsel them on health care industry unique commercial transaction matters.
Guidance is provided on commercial transaction considerations common to a variety of businesses including negotiating commercial agreements, formalizing commercial agreements, executing commercial transactions, and resolving commercial transaction disputes. Additional details on these topics are provided in the practice area description of commercial transactions.
Additionally, health care specific commercial transaction counseling is provided on matters that include:
- The purchase or sale of a practice is a significant event for health care providers. For many medical professionals, their practice is their most valuable asset and the most expensive thing they will ever buy. Poorly designed and documented transactions may first appear quick and convenient, but in the long run they can cost you a great deal of time and money and expose you to potential risk. We take a comprehensive approach to practice transitions by working to prevent conflict before it occurs, allowing both the buyer and seller to transition effectively to the next phase of their careers. We help clients with things like preliminary talks, letters of intent, due diligence, lease assumptions and assignments, asset purchase agreements that transfer the practice’s assets, restrictive covenants, and questions about how staff and patients will be affected by the change.
- Real estate leases are one of the most complicated legal transactions a health care professional has to deal with. When renting a commercial space, it may seem easier to just agree to the landlord’s terms and hope for the best. Unfortunately, the terms of your lease can have a big effect on your business. To put it simply, a bad lease could hurt or even destroy your practice. We use easy-to-understand language to explain to our clients what their leases require and what the legal consequences of those requirements are. We also negotiate with landlords to make sure client interests are protected.
- Health care providers must follow the rules against self-referral, anti-kickback laws, and other rules governing health care fraud and abuse when they lease equipment or sign contracts for professional services. Unless there is an exception, doctors can’t refer Medicare or Medicaid-payable “Designated Health Services” to any business with which they have a financial relationship. Also, doctors can’t offer, pay, ask for, or receive money to acquire or refer Medicare or Medicaid patients or services
Health Care Regulatory Compliance Law
Healthcare professionals are subject to a myriad of local, state, and federal regulations imposing inspection, review, and reporting requirements. Our firm remains abreast of government administrative agency and legislative regulatory activities in order to keep our clients informed of the most recent developments. We provide experienced counsel on the following healthcare regulatory issue:
- Electronic-Health Care and Confidentiality. As technology advances, our healthcare clients are confronted with new challenges in the expanding disciplines of telemedicine, e-health, and health information protection.. We advise clients on how to make the most of the newest technologies of health information distribution while minimizing their risk of running afoul of any applicable regulations. We also advise clients on the issues that arise under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), state laws that govern the privacy of personal medical information, and the European Union Data Protection Directive. This is because medical privacy is a major concern and is now subject to increased enforcement action and the risk of greater penalties.
- Abuse and Fraud. We provide clients with assistance in the creation of compliance processes as well as the design of financial transactions and various kinds of business partnerships. We offer assistance in the process of organizing business operations so that they are compliant with health information privacy laws, anti-kickback regulations, self-referral regulations, false claims acts, fee-splitting regulations, and corporate practice of medicine rules. In addition, we establish and advise on policies regarding pricing, billing, and reimbursement.
- The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandates that a patient’s diagnosis and treatment records be kept confidential at all times, with the exception of situations in which the patient has expressly granted written permission for the information to be shared with third parties like insurance providers.
- Licensing and Certification. On behalf of our clients, we work on licensing and certification issues with a wide variety of state and federal agencies, accreditation bodies, and professional associations. We address concerns regarding certificates of need, certification from CLIA. and accreditation from JCAHO. From filing license applications to investigating license denials we act as process guides. We represent clients during revocation and license discipline administrative hearings and appeals. We facilitate client discipline modification requests, and professional license reinstatement petitions.
Health Care Intellectual Property Law
Securing and enforcing intellectual property rights protects your ideas. We provide intellectual property legal counsel to physician groups, doctors, dental practices, dentists, health clinics, nursing homes, psychiatric centers, ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers, dialysis facilities, and veterinarians covering a wide range of health care intangible assets including:
- Trademarks identifying and distinguishing the company’s goods or services from those of a competitor. Trademarks are usually words, phrases, symbols, designs, or a combination of these that identify the health care business’s goods, and services.
- Copyrights protecting the enterprise’s original drawings, design details, specifications of materials, plans, and reports prepared on behalf of the enterprise.
- Non-disclosure and non-compete agreements protecting the enterprise’s trade secret information detaining customer lists, health care processes, marketing strategies, statistical analyses, price lists, product design information, and strategic business plans.
Health Care Employment Law
Patients, members of the medical community, and suppliers will typically have extensive interactions with the members of your team. It is absolutely necessary for the individuals who make up your team to be committed, conscientious, self-driven, and professional if you wish to cultivate goodwill within these groups. The unfortunate reality is that staff members will occasionally engage in conduct that is not only unprofessional but also unlawful. This behavior has the potential to seriously harm your practice and should be avoided at all costs.
We collaborate with medical professionals to define expectations for the conduct of their personnel and the repercussions that may result if those expectations are not met through the development, updating, and distribution of employee handbooks. We work with medical professionals to address issues with problematic employees and provide appropriate solutions, all while limiting the possibility of liability for wrongful termination or other employee-filed lawsuits. Furthermore, we collaborate closely with clients to investigate potentially problematic situations, such as theft through insurance fraud or embezzlement, and assist them in developing procedures to reduce the likelihood that they will be held liable by third parties, such as insurance companies, for the actions of their employees.
Additionally, guidance is provided on employment considerations common to a variety of businesses including employee / independent contractor classification, non-compete agreements, non-solicitation agreements, non-disclosure agreements, employee handbooks, company policy training, and employment dispute resolution. Additional details on these topics are provided in the practice area description of employment.
Health Care E-commerce Law
We provide general E-commerce law advice to health care industry clients and counsel them on health care industry unique E-commerce matters.
Guidance is provided on E-commerce considerations common to a variety of businesses including online advertising compliance, online consumer privacy protection, domain name management, and website creation. Additional details on these topics are provided in the practice area description of internet, E-commerce.
Additionally, health care specific E-commerce counseling is provided on matters that include:
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Health Care Dispute Resolution and Litigation Law
We provide general dispute resolution advice to health care industry clients and counsel them on health care industry unique dispute resolution matters.
Guidance is provided on dispute resolution considerations common to a variety of businesses including negotiations, mediation, arbitration, litigation, and appeals. Additional details on these topics are provided in the practice area description of dispute resolution and litigation.
Additionally, health care specific dispute resolution counseling is provided on matters that include:
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Health Care Crisis Management
We provide general crisis management advice to health care industry clients and counsel them on health care industry unique crisis management matters.
Guidance is provided on crisis management considerations common to a variety of businesses including crisis recognition and characterization, crisis response system activation, and incident management. Additional details on these topics are provided in the practice area description of crisis management.
Additionally, health care specific crisis management counseling is provided on matters that include:
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Contacting The Calhoun Law Firm, PLC
If our capabilities match your needs, we invite you to contact us today by one of these means:
- Call us at 877-455-6344 to evaluate our capabilities to address your situation.
- Submit an inquiry via our Contact Us Form to brief your situation and needs.
- Schedule a 45-minute legal Consultation via our client portal to review your situation and approaches by which your objectives can be met.
Our Arizona Health Care Attorneys are experts in handling the legal matters that Phoenix and Tucson area physicians, dentists, nursing homes, and veterinarians address during the course of their daily business activities. Moreover, our Arizona Health Care Lawyers assist health care small businesses in the Phoenix and Tucson areas with contractual, intellectual property, litigation, e-commerce, employment, regulatory compliance, business structuring, and crisis management matters. Clients from Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Scottsdale, Peoria, and Tempe are regularly advised and represented by our firm.