Our health care attorneys provide guidance on navigating federal and state regulations, including those related to HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), Medicare and Medicaid, the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) and other health care-specific regulations.

We have experience dealing with multiple regulatory agencies, including New York State Department of Health (DOH), Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH), Connecticut Office of Health Strategy (OHS), Department of Social Services (DSS) Department of Mental Hygiene, Office of Mental Health (OMH), Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS), Office of the Professions, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU), Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG), Office of the Attorney General (OAG), Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Health and Human Service Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

We provide legal support with fraud and abuse allegations and assist with appearances in front of review boards and administrative bodies, arbitrations and criminal and civil proceedings. Our attorneys are extremely knowledgeable about the various tenants of the False Claims Act and the Anti-Kickback Statute.

We provide regular statutory and compliance training so your staff is educated on the latest state and federal health care laws and guidelines.

Risk management is crucial in today’s health care industry. Our health care attorneys advise on risk-management strategies to help avoid or mitigate risks such as medical malpractice. We work with risk managers in the industry to develop educational presentations and materials to assist with this very important issue.

We also assist with protecting patient rights, handling complaints, ensuring adherence to patient privacy laws and informed consent requirements, and representing providers before regulators on matters related to patient care and licensure.

Harris Beach Murtha represents health care clients before state and federal courts, administrative agencies, professional boards and commissions and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) forums. As your advocates, we carefully evaluate cases and work closely with you to determine the best way to achieve your objectives, whether through settlement or vigorous defense, in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

We are experienced in defending claims of malpractice, negligence, fraud investigations, insurance denials, breach-of-contract matters and other health care-related legal issues. We represent health care systems and facilities, physician practice groups, individual physicians and other health care providers in disability discrimination and patient-access litigation; disputes with third-party payors (commercial and governmental) regarding reimbursement issues; commercial disputes and business divorces; civil commitment hearings; Rivers hearings; Article 81 guardianships; and disputes related to sales, construction and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations.

If needed, we also have experience representing clients through all stages of criminal prosecution, from the investigative and pretrial phases through trial and appeal.

Health care providers face a specific set of business challenges. We provide counsel on licensing and other credentials, patient care, ethics, conflicts of interest, facility surveys, fraud and abuse, internal investigations, patient access issues, privacy and security, end-of-life treatment, surrogate selection, discharge planning, patient rights and many other issues health care providers face on a regular basis.

We also have extensive experience with interpreting, drafting and negotiating contracts for services, partnerships and vendor agreements to help protect your interests. We also help negotiate reimbursement issues with Medicare and Medicaid, commercial payors and other third-party payors.

We advise public and private entities on best practices in corporate governance, codes of conduct, board and committee composition and practice, tax issues, pensions and benefits.

Our extensive experience in corporate structuring has benefited health care businesses throughout New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and the nation. That experience includes mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate reorganization, forming integrated delivery systems (PHOs, MSOs, IPAs), developing hospital networks, creating integrated physician groups and more. We provide comprehensive support in these complex transactions, including extensive due diligence investigations and compliance checks.

We regularly advise on multi-institutional affiliations; evaluate and negotiate multi-institutional transactions; present and defend transactions and collaborations to federal and state governmental agencies; prepare and file Hart-Scott-Rodino pre-merger notifications; advise on asset acquisitions related to provider practices; and support, develop and implement clinically integrated networks.

Our work with nonprofit hospitals includes assisting 501(c)(3) organizations to tackle diverse entrepreneurial health care activities, including for-profit unregulated activities, by establishing accommodating corporate structures.

We also help with Certificate of Need (CON) authorization so health care organizations can modernize and expand, including modernizing facilities, building new facilities, expanding existing facilities, and acquiring sophisticated medical equipment.

The health care industry has become a target market of tax-exempt bond underwriters, turn-key developers and conventional financing sources. Harris Beach Murtha’s health care attorneys have access to a wide range of attorneys in the firm’s practice areas, including those with comprehensive experience in public and private financing. They serve as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel and borrower’s counsel on tax-exempt and taxable new money financings (including equipment leasing) and refundings undertaken on behalf of government and 501(c)(3) hospitals, nursing homes, long-term care centers and other health care providers.

Harris Beach Murtha also advises investment bankers and bond issuers on the development of innovative financing structures, bond issuance authority, rating agency concerns, disclosure issues, and IRS and other regulatory compliance. We serve as counsel to FHA bankers and GNMA mortgage lenders on FHA-insured mortgage loan/GNMA guaranteed financings for hospitals.

Our work with a wide range of health care organizations includes tax-exempt obligations and structures using various forms of credit enhancement, such as letters of credit, bond insurance, bond guarantees and the FHA Section 232 coinsurance program, all of which assist clients in minimizing their net interest rate cost.

Our health care attorneys work closely with our commercial real estate attorneys to meet the needs of a variety of health care clients. We support property acquisition, financing, architectural and construction contracting, leasing, property sales or acquisitions, environmental assessments and approvals, asbestos removal, negotiations with local governments to secure approvals, and complying with zoning and construction regulations.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) are crucial laws for health care providers to know and follow. Harris Beach Murtha attorneys possess extensive knowledge of both and counsel clients on remaining in compliance. We’ve also developed extensive resources to assist clients in complying with HIPAA, including “The Privacy Officer's Manual” and a “Manual of Forms and Policies.”

We counsel on all issues of data privacy and compliance; help assess legal risks; defend in litigation and investigations; conduct analyses and provide advice in case of a data breach; assist with licensing health information technology; and advise on best practices for telemedicine and telehealth platforms.

Our experienced health care attorneys regularly consult with our Labor and Employment Practice Group to provide comprehensive counsel on a variety of issues specific to Harris Beach Murtha’s health care clients, such as physician contracts, employment disputes and workplace compliance.

We represent health care businesses with workplace issues, workplace policies and procedures, employee contracts, employee benefits, collective bargaining agreements, labor agreements, union organizing, workforce reductions, physician recruiting and contracting, non-compete agreements, wage and hour claims, cases before state and federal labor boards, worker’s compensation, employment discrimination and more.

Today’s health care industry requires a variety of options to meet ever-increasing labor needs. Harris Beach Murtha has an extensive immigration legal practice and has represented some of the largest health care businesses in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and the nation.

We monitor changing immigration policies impacting international medical personnel; advise and represent clients with obtaining temporary work-authorized status (including H-1B, TN, J-1 and O-1) and permanent resident status for health care professionals; counsel employers on I-9 and Department of Labor wage and hour compliance issues; and assist and defend employers in connection with government audits and investigations.

Hospitals, physicians and managed care plans are frequently joining forces to contain health care costs. Harris Beach Murtha has experience with the formation of integrated delivery systems, such as management services organizations (MSO) and physician-hospital organizations (PHO), to coordinate the delivery of primary care and specialty physicians’ services with a hospital’s outpatient and inpatient services.

Collaboration by physician-controlled entities with hospitals enables an integrated approach to managed care contracting and preserves volume and market share for the integrated network’s participants. Our experience includes providing legal services and strategic counsel along the full spectrum of physician-hospital collaboration. Our great familiarity and experience with the regulatory and business challenges you’ll face will result in valuable guidance as we team up to benefit your patients and business.

Physicians don’t have to go it alone. Harris Beach Murtha’s health care attorneys serve as business partners to help you successfully operate in a highly regulated industry with many business challenges.

We assist with regulatory compliance, corporate matters, insurance issues, employment and labor demands, real estate needs and general litigation concerns. We know your industry and are prepared to work side-by-side with you as you navigate your business challenges.

We’ve assisted numerous health care providers in establishing valid rules and procedures to limit medical staff access, as well as handling medical staff privilege disputes and dealing with trade regulation and antitrust questions. With the immunity afforded to participants by the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 and the availability of information on medical staff applicants and members from the National Practitioner Data Bank under increased scrutiny, Harris Beach Murtha can help you navigate this sensitive subject matter.

Harris Beach Murtha attorneys frequently represent health care clients on issues relating to tax exemption, as well as clients faced with 501(c)(3) audits. Our attorneys lecture and present extensively on matters relating to tax exemption law as applied to health care organizations.

Harris Beach Murtha’s health care attorneys routinely help hospitals, assisted living facilities and skilled nursing facilities initiate or defend guardianship when a patient lacks capacity to make decisions for themselves due to cognitive impairment, illness or other incapacity. We counsel our clients on a wide spectrum of guardianship and conservatorship matters, including Medicaid payment, and help them navigate sensitive medical, personal care, living and financial decisions in a dignified and compassionate way that meets all legal requirements.

We recognize situations surrounding guardianships can be complex. Ensuring a patient resides in the most suitable medical facility, receives appropriate medical care, follows prescribed medication schedules, attends necessary medical appointments and deploys assets properly so their needs continue to be met is an immense responsibility. We provide discrete, experienced and informed counsel, empowering our clients to assume a crucial role in the life of a patient and respectfully act on their behalf. We have attorneys experienced serving as court-appointed guardians.

While you’re looking out for your patient’s and facility’s best interest, we’re looking out for yours.