Areas of Practice

Transactional And Regulatory

Disputes And Litigation

Transactional And Regulatory

Fraud and Abuse. Preventing violations of anti-kickback and self-referral statutes constitutes a large part of our practice. Whether the matter is a contract between a physician and a hospital, joint ventures between hospitals and physicians, or purchase or sale of a small or large group of health care facilities, our lawyers are capable of assisting our clients in achieving their business goals within the confines of these laws. Other law firms throughout the Southeast regularly consult us on matters of Federal and Alabama health care law.

Fraud Investigations and Qui Tam Actions. In conjunction with the firm's White Collar Criminal Defense practice group, we regularly defend clients involved in governmental fraud investigations and qui tam actions.

Acquisitions and Joint Ventures. We have extensive experience in representing national companies, local hospitals and health care authorities in many acquisitions or sales of health care facilities, including asset and stock purchase transactions for individual facilities or for large chains of facilities. We have also represented numerous physician practices and hospitals in the purchase and sale of the practices. We represent physicians and hospitals in creating joint ventures for such services as outpatient or ambulatory surgery facilities, radiology facilities, imaging facilities, rehabilitation hospitals and the like. We represent HMOs and we have organized several provider-sponsored managed care entities.

Physician Practices. From the solo practitioner to the complex multispecialty physician practice, we have extensive experience in advising physicians about their business needs. We regularly advise physicians about relationships among shareholders, structure of their business practices, employment agreements, mergers of practices, and compliance plans.

Tax Exempt Facilities. Many of our clients are 501(c)(3) organizations, and we regularly advise clients about obtaining exempt status, intermediate sanctions, inurement and private benefit issues. Working with the firm's tax group, we have obtained IRS private letter rulings for joint operating companies and have extensive expertise in whole hospital joint ventures, other joint ventures between for-profit and not-for-profit entities, and sales or acquisitions of tax exempt facilities.

Integrated Delivery Systems. We represent several large integrated delivery systems, and we have experience in the diverse problems associated with integration, including the antitrust, fraud and abuse, physician self-referral, and tax issues that attend virtually all such efforts.

Regulatory Matters. Our representation regularly includes advising physicians and hospitals with respect to contracting relationships, including the constraints imposed by anti-kickback and Stark laws. We also provide guidance regarding Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, facility licensure, certificates of need, regulation of medical waste, HIPAA requirements, compliance with federal rules against "patient dumping," and EMTALA investigations.

Compliance. We work with our clients in all stages of the compliance process, from drafting plan documents, to advising them on particular compliance issues, to investigating problems and issues related to voluntary disclosure.

Long Term Care Survey and Certification. We provide advice and counsel to health care providers in attaining and maintaining compliance with the numerous Medicare and Medicaid conditions of participation and state licensing requirements. Our attorneys have broad experience in practicing before state and federal agencies and resolving survey and certification issues. By employing a proactive approach and early intervention in situations that could be the subject of state or federal surveys, our attorneys assist health care providers in complying with regulatory requirements and managing the risk of litigation. In the event of an inappropriate survey determination, we assist clients in contesting the results of the survey. Simultaneously, we assist in evaluating existing systems and, where needed, in designing new or modified systems to address the alleged non-compliance.

Reimbursement. With the pressure to reduce health care costs, providers face the prospect of shrinking reimbursement for providing services that must withstand increasing regulatory scrutiny. Through informal negotiations and administrative appeals, our lawyers help our clients receive fair reimbursement for services provided.

Licensure and Medical Staff Credentialing. Disputes concerning medical staff privileges and licensure are common problems handled by our group.

Patient Treatment. We serve as general counsel to The Children's Hospital of Alabama and as special counsel for many hospitals throughout Alabama on patient care matters. For instance, we develop policies and advise on specific problems related to disclosure of psychiatric records, termination of life support, and noncompliant patients. We frequently represent local hospitals in court to obtain emergency treatment orders for children. Public Finance. We have teamed with the firm's Public Finance Group on numerous issuances by hospitals of tax exempt financing in which our firm serves as counsel for the issuer or the underwriter.

Managed Care. We have represented many of the HMO’s that have done business in Alabama over the years, both with respect to initial organization, sale of the business, operational issues, drafting group contracts and coverage documents, and ERISA litigation.

Medical Malpractice. We regularly represent hospitals, physicians, nursing homes, HMOs and other providers in medical malpractice litigation.

Disputes And Litigation

Bradley Arant represents hospitals, physicians and other healthcare providers in peer review proceedings, administrative proceedings and in state and federal courts. We understand the issues involved in emotionally charged disputes and lawsuits.

Medical Malpractice. We have the depth and experience to defend our clients in a wide variety of medical malpractice cases. Our experience includes claims involving failure to diagnose, misdiagnosis, medication errors, surgical procedures, post-operative complications, labor and delivery, interpretation of diagnostic studies, pathological interpretation, and management of antibiotic therapy. Our successes include favorable jury verdicts and bench verdicts, as well as mediation or settlement when appropriate.

Long Term Care Litigation. We regularly represent long term care facilities in litigation involving allegations of malpractice. These cases often involve allegations that are linked to previous survey determinations. Because our attorneys have in depth experience in handling events that can lead to litigation, we understand the factors that create a successful defense. Further, our multi location footprint allows us to effectively represent providers with geographically dispersed operations.

Other Litigation. We regularly represent providers in state and federal courts, arbitration, and appeals, including cases involving reimbursement disputes, contract disputes, employment, products liability, business torts, antitrust, and ERISA issues. Many of these representations have been complex litigation such as class actions and multi-district litigation.

Peer Review Proceedings. We have extensive experience advising quality assurance and peer review panels and working with providers’ being reviewed. Our advice has involved issues related to credentialing and re-credentialing, the National Practitioner Data Bank, investigation of incidents, assessments of risks, and responding to requests for information in light of the confidentiality, privacy and privileges.

Administrative Proceedings. We regularly represent providers in licensure and certification proceedings, before regulatory boards such as the Alabama State Board of Medical Examiners, before the Departments of Public Health and Insurance, and in CON proceedings.