Health Care

For nearly four decades, Hinshaw has provided broad legal representation to hospitals and health care systems, PHOs, IPAs, medical/professional corporations, hospital and medical associations, hospices, nursing homes/long term care facilities and home health companies.

Members of our Health Care Practice Group are highly experienced in dealing with the regulated health care environment, and actively assist clients in such areas as:

• Compliance and Regulatory Counseling
• Employee Benefits & ERISA Litigation
• General Corporate Health Care Matters
• Health Care Fraud, White Collar Crime and Internal Investigations
• Health Information, Privacy and Technology
• Health Planning
• Licensing and Credentialing
• Medical Staff Issues
• Health Care Litigation
• Physician Services
• Transactions and Joint Ventures
• Real Estate

In order to provide full-service representation to our clients, we regularly work with other Hinshaw attorneys concentrating in areas such as real estate law, labor and employment, tax and securities, among others. Our commercial litigators represent clients in contract, antitrust, securities and other disputes, as well as medical staff and personnel disputes that reach administrative agencies or the courts.

Hinshaw is a recognized leader in defending professional liability matters, and we are widely regarded across the country for this practice. Our extensive litigation practice provides our health care practice group a unique resource to draw upon, with first-hand knowledge of tort liability and litigation issues. This unique combination of business, corporate transactions, regulatory and litigation skills enables Hinshaw to provide effective representation for our health care clients in virtually every area of business and the law.

Compliance and Regulatory Counseling
Hinshaw's Health Care attorneys are well versed in regulatory compliance, addressing issues such as licensure, the Medicare and Medicaid Anti-Kickback Statute, the Ethics and Patient Referral Act (Stark), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), pharmacy, and maintenance of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

We have drafted compliance programs for various types of health care providers. In addition, we have worked with health care clients to develop policies, procedures, standards of conduct, internal monitoring, auditing and corrective action plans. Hinshaw attorneys counsel on whether self-disclosure is necessary in certain cases and on developing remedial action plans. We regularly sit on compliance committees for various health care providers, as well as direct internal and external investigations, mindful of both discoverability issues and self-disclosure concerns.

Our attorneys work with health care providers addressing a diverse set of regulatory issues, including issues involving loss of licensure for institutions and individual providers, Medicare and/or Medicaid decertification, and recoupment actions.

Employee Benefits
Hinshaw's attorneys provide comprehensive counsel and advice to clients in a wide range of complex employee benefits matters involving qualified retirement plans, ESOPs, health and welfare plans, and executive compensation and employment agreements, as well as other employee benefits. We have provided counseling and litigation representation throughout the United States.

Litigation and Governmental Investigations
We represent clients in all types of litigation involving employee benefit plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and other applicable laws. Such litigation has included cases involving contested benefit claims, breaches of fiduciary responsibility, insolvent group health plans, service provider errors and omissions, plan termination liability to the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, and COBRA continuation coverage liability. We also represent clients in investigations by the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor and in employee plan audit examinations by the Internal Revenue Service.

Pension and Profit Sharing Plans
Our experience with qualified pension and profit sharing plans runs the gamut. We assist clients in correcting serious operational and document failures of qualified retirement plans through the various IRS correction programs; terminating qualified retirement plans; securing the necessary administrative approvals from the IRS and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation for dealing with residual plan assets in over-funded defined benefit plans; advising with respect to plan fiduciary obligations, prohibited transactions, participant disclosure and communication, and IRS and Department of Labor reporting obligations; and designing, drafting, and amending various types of qualified retirement plans, including defined benefit plans, ESOPs, target benefit plans, profit sharing plans, 403(b) plans, and 401(k) plans.

Health and Welfare Plans
We assist clients in structuring, administering, and terminating both insured and self-funded health and welfare plans in compliance with the requirements of ERISA, COBRA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the Americans With Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions
In mergers and acquisitions, our Employee Benefits attorneys help ensure the proper handling of employee plans and other benefit programs, including advising buyers and sellers on due diligence issues, merging target company benefit plans into acquiring company benefit plans, and taking steps to terminate or spin off overlapping, conflicting or costly benefit programs.

Executive Compensation Plans and Agreements
Our Employee Benefits attorneys assist clients in implementing various compensation arrangements, such as stock option plans, phantom stock plans, restricted stock awards, and supplemental retirement and deferred compensation arrangements, as well as complex individualized employment and stock option agreements for top management.

Health Care Fraud, White Collar Crime and Internal Investigations
Hinshaw’s White Collar Criminal attorneys have significant experience representing corporations, officers, directors and key executives in all stages of Grand Jury investigations, civil investigative demands, criminal trials, related civil fraud litigation and administrative/regulatory enforcement actions. Our partners who practice in this area include former federal and state prosecutors.

Violation of many health care statutes is a crime. Pursuing criminal charges against health care providers has become a top prosecution priority of both federal and state authorities. We have conducted numerous internal investigations for for-profit and not-for-profit health care providers. We assist clients in addressing not only the potential criminal sanctions they face, but also the related civil and administrative penalties, potential exclusion, civil fraud and related false claims qui tam litigation.

We regularly advise health care clients on both the civil and criminal implications of noncompliance with the Medicare and Medicaid Anti-Kickback Statute and The Ethics in Patient Referral Act (Stark), as well as state self-referral laws. In virtually every health care transaction that we participate, Hinshaw attorneys work with health care providers to ensure that the transaction is structured to be compliant with the Anti-Kickback Statute, Stark and relevant state self-referral requirements. Our attorneys have worked with hospitals and physician groups to develop physician recruitment programs that are compliant with the Anti-Kickback Statute, Stark legislation and tax exemption principles. In addition, we have worked to ensure that health care providers entering into agreements with physicians, including medical director agreements, comply with the applicable regulatory requirements both in the documentation and implementation of the transaction. In the development of joint ventures, whether surgery centers, imaging centers, sleep centers or specialty hospitals, we also work with health care providers to avoid both Anti-Kickback and Stark prohibitions.

Health Information, Privacy and Technology
Hinshaw attorneys are familiar with the unique requirements clients face regarding the sensitivity of health information. Common law, state and federal law through HIPAA all enforce the general requirement that a patient's relationship with health care providers is a private one. Our attorneys assist clients in preparation of compliance policies, rules, regulations and procedures. We also regularly advise clients on whether a particular disclosure is allowable under both relevant state and federal law.

We frequently represent clients in court to protect sensitive health information involving mental health, substance abuse and HIV treatment records. Attorneys within our firm also focus their practice in hardware/software security issues, and counsel clients concerning their relation to electronic medical records and the HIPAA security provisions.

Health Planning
Hinshaw attorneys represent clients in Illinois in the process of obtaining required Certificate of Need (CON) permits or exemptions from the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board. This representation includes analyzing when a permit or exemption is required and, if so, assisting in drafting an application that complies with the Board's rules and, thus, maximizing the opportunity for approval in a reasonable time frame.

We also assist clients in holding and preparing for public hearings that are part of the CON process. In addition, when necessary, we represent clients through the administrative review process. Our Health Care attorneys are familiar with health planning regulations in states other than Illinois as well. In addition, we assist clients in the general health planning process to maximize access to care while minimizing duplication of services and enhancing cost efficiency.

Immigration
We offer advice and representation in the full range of immigration matters that employers and workers respectively face. Specifically, our immigration attorneys represent employers and workers in obtaining temporary employment authorization through nonimmigrant visa petitions, followed by permanent residency and citizenship proceedings throughout the United States. We also provide employers with day-to-day counseling on immigration compliance matters, including:

• internal audits,
• I-9 employment verification procedures,
• responses to audits and raids conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor and Department of Homeland Security and many other activities.

Licensing and Credentialing
Hinshaw's Health Care attorneys offer a myriad of services with regard to licensing, accreditation and credentialing. We have assisted providers of all types in obtaining required licenses, and in assuring compliance with licensure standards, Medicare Conditions of Participation, accreditation standards and other regulatory requirements pertinent to license issues.

Facilities that are subject to CMS/DPH surveys frequently must respond to Department of Public Health findings with Plans of Correction and other relevant material. Our attorneys assist health care clients in negotiating with regulators and preparing a corrective action plan that addresses cited deficiencies. We also analyze how various contemplated business arrangements are impacted by license issues and vice versa, and how reimbursement can be maximized with appropriate licensing, accreditation and credentialing standards in mind. Our firm also represents a variety of individuals and institutional providers in maintaining certification within the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Finally, we assist licensed individuals in defending against allegations that their behavior has violated any applicable licensure standards.

Medical Research
Our attorneys counsel Independent Review Boards (IRBs) with respect to their policies and procedures. We address issues involving clinical trials, including those involving recruitment of subjects and investigators; obtainment of properly documented informed consent from human research subjects; and adverse event reporting, ethics and conflict of interest analysis. We also assist clients with Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) issues; HIPAA and state privacy compliance and Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act (CLIA) issues; and other federal and state laws and regulations relating to medical research.

General Counsel
Many Hinshaw attorneys act as general counsel for our health care clients. These attorneys regularly communicate with our clients to address the myriad of legal issues that arise for any business, in particular those affecting the highly regulated health care industry. In many cases, we participate on client committees, as well as attend board of director’s meetings, client retreats and similar activities. As general counsel, we are proactive in assisting health care clients avoid the need for legal services in more complex circumstances, such as when compliance, litigation or regulatory challenges arise.

Medical Staff
Hinshaw’s Health Care attorneys recognize the unique relationship between medical staff and the institution they serve. We have written and revised medical staff bylaws; and have counseled both hospitals and physicians with respect to medical staff disputes, the credentialing process, peer reviews and quality improvements. We regularly attend Medical Staff Bylaw Committee meetings and work with the medical staffs to assist them in understanding the role of the hospital in developing and maintaining medical staff bylaws. We are also involved in fair hearings, and represent institutions and physicians in fair hearings pursuant to medical staff bylaws and in related litigation when necessary.

In fact, we have represented hospitals in cases setting the leading precedents with respect to medical staff related disputes. Our Health Care attorneys counsel clients regularly pertaining to Medical Staff related issues, such as mandated reporting, liability insurance and impaired practitioners. We help clients resolve these issues while recognizing the complex relationships that exist.

Health Care Litigation
Our firm has more than 300 trial lawyers nationwide who our Health Care attorneys can call upon to assist in resolving our clients' disputes. Among our litigators are attorneys who have significant experience in representing health care clients in sophisticated white collar criminal and related health care fraud cases. We also have significant depth and breadth in representing clients in the areas of business disputes, contracts, real estate, tax, regulatory, medical malpractice defense, employment and administrative litigation.

Physician Services
We represent individual physicians and physician group practices in all of their business and personal concerns, including real estate, estate and financial planning, employment, risk-management, licensure and regulatory areas. We also represent physicians in decertification proceedings brought by both Medicare and Medicaid before the Department of Professional Regulation in various states where physicians may practice; in white collar criminal matters and medical staff disputes; credentialing disputes; and in corporate transactions and contracting.

Our Health Care attorneys' knowledge of the health care industry, including our representation of institutions, works to benefit physicians in many ways. We have worked with physicians in developing joint ventures with hospitals; addressing managed care contracting concerns; establishing physician hospital organizations and ambulatory surgery treatment centers; and developing compliance protocols, policies and procedures.

Transactions and Joint Ventures
Hinshaw’s Health Care and Business attorneys work collaboratively to offer a broad depth of experience in health care related transactions, including structuring and negotiating mergers and acquisitions involving hospitals and hospital systems, and structuring and negotiating sales and purchases of companies, from dialysis providers and nursing homes to durable medical equipment companies. Our team of attorneys who represent health care clients in these transactions or joint ventures offer a wealth of experience in the areas of tax, real estate, employee benefits, commercial litigation, regulatory practice and finance. We often assist in arranging appropriate financing or strategic partnerships, and in private placement and public offerings.

Our multidisciplinary team of attorneys is also involved in acquisitions and divestitures of managed care organizations, joint ventures between institutions and practice groups, and corporate restructuring. We assist our clients with due diligence, and troubleshoot compliance issues that occasionally arise during the course of a health care transaction so that the issues do not become problematic with respect to the overall transaction itself.

Our regulatory practitioners assist with respect to the transfer of licenses and other regulatory issues, including transferring Medicare and Medicaid provider numbers, when necessary, and handling other related reimbursement issues.

Real Estate
Hinshaw's Real Estate attorneys frequently collaborate with our Health Care attorneys to assist clients in real estate transactions. This includes in the negotiation for lease, sale and/or purchase of either improved or unimproved real estate; mortgage and loan structuring; environmental and zoning matters; and resolution of general real estate disputes. We have assisted health care clients in developing medical office buildings; and have provided counsel in the health planning process that occasionally goes hand in hand with real estate transactions for our clients.

We also have attorneys who are experienced in negotiating construction, architectural, engineering and site development contracts and in handling any related litigation. Additionally, we are well versed in assisting our not-for-profit health care clients with respect to real estate tax exemption issues and in public relations with the communities that our clients serve as it relates to real estate acquisition and divestiture and tax exempt status.