Hospitals & Health Systems

Overview
Hospital and Health Systems Legal Experience
Hospital and Health Systems Recent Focus Areas
Outside Resources
Speeches
Articles

Overview

The attorneys of Wachler & Associates understand the vast and ever-changing legal and regulatory issues that confront hospitals and health systems. With years of experience representing hospitals and health systems in a wide-range of issues, our attorneys possess the expertise and knowledge needed to navigate hospitals and health systems through this challenging and complex regulatory landscape. Wachler & Associates has provided representation in all areas of health-care law including:

  • Fraud and Abuse counseling including compliance with the Stark law and federal Anti-Kickback Statute
  • HIPAA and HITECH compliance
  • Breach Notification
  • RAC, MAC, ZPIC, other Medicare, Medicaid, and private payor audits and appeals
  • Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs)
  • Medicare and Medicaid certification
  • Compliance with Medicare Conditions of Participation
  • Assistance with accreditation surveys, corrective action plans and termination appeals
  • Compliance with Medicare and Medicaid documentation, coding and payment regulations
  • EMTALA compliance
  • Contractual and transactional arrangements
  • Supply chain and purchasing operations, structure, and transactions
  • Operations, corporate governance and policies
  • Drafting of compliance programs and policies
  • Compliance training
  • Licensure and certificate of need (CON) issues
  • Medical staff issues
  • Real estate transactions including leases, sales and purchases
  • Physician practice acquisitions and sales, and other health care asset purchase arrangements
  • Joint-ventures with physicians and physician groups, and entities including (but not limited to) IDTFs, hospices and home health agencies
  • Relationships with physician owned distributorships
  • Quality incentive programs with physicians
  • Physician Hospital Organization relationships
  • Other regulatory and health care law matters

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Hospital and Health System Legal Experience

  • Audits — Hospitals and health systems continue to face close scrutiny by RACs, Medicare contractors and third party payors, including review of short-stay inpatient/outpatient cases. Our firm is a nationwide leader in RAC, ZPIC, Medicare, Medicaid, and third party payer defense, and in particular has taken a leadership role in proactively defending our hospital and health system clients in RAC audits. We counsel and represent our clients throughout every step of the audit process. Please see our healthcare audit defense website for more information on how we can help you present the best defense possible.

  • Compliance Plans — Wachler & Associates attorneys have counseled many hospital and health system providers on compliance with HIPAA and HITECH regulations as well as FDA compliance, Medicare reimbursement compliance, Anti-Markup Rule compliance, and compliance with the Stark law and federal anti-kick-back statute.

  • Stark Law Issues – Our attorneys have assisted clients in Stark law and federal Anti-Kickback issues for over 35 years. Hospital and health system arrangements with other healthcare entities, physicians, and physician practices may implicate the Stark law. Our experienced attorneys can help providers carefully analyze any existing or proposed arrangements under the Stark law.

  • Accountable Care Organizations – Our firm has stayed on the cutting edge in understanding the regulatory and policy issues surrounding Accountable Care Organizations, and can help our hospital and health system clients in navigating the complex issues surrounding ACOs.

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Hospital and Health System Recent Focus Areas

  • RAC Audits – Two-Midnight Rule
  • HIPAA Privacy and Security Rule Compliance
  • Electronic Health Records and Meaningful Use
  • Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute Compliance

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Outside Resources

For the CMS Hospital center, please see here.

For Office of Inspector General compliance guidance, please see here.

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Articles

Our attorneys have written many articles relevant to hospitals and health systems. For a list of Wachler & Associates articles, please click here.

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Speeches

The attorneys of Wachler & Associates often speak on issues relevant to hospitals and health systems. For a list of Wachler & Associates speaking engagements, please click here.

Contact Us

Call us at (248) 544-0888 or send us an e-mail to schedule a meeting to discuss your concerns with hospital or health system legal issues or to address your other healthcare law-related needs.

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Contact Us

Fill out the contact form or call us at 248-544-0888 to schedule your consultation.

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