Healthcare

Arnall Golden Gregory LLP has a nationally-recognized healthcare practice, serving a wide range of healthcare providers, including hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, outpatient clinics, home health agencies, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, clinical laboratories, magnetic imaging centers, sleep centers, physicians, psychologists and other mental health professionals, and alternative delivery systems.

Our attorneys are skilled in various substantive areas of healthcare law, including the following:

Acquisition, Financing and Reorganization of Healthcare Facilities

AGG has extensive experience representing healthcare companies in the purchase, sale, and financing of hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, home health agencies, physician practices, ambulatory surgery centers, and other healthcare facilities. This experience extends to both taxable and tax-exempt organizations, and to taxable and tax-exempt financing. Our lawyers also know how to navigate the complex array of tax, fraud and abuse, licensure, Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement, ERISA/employee benefits, hospital authority law, and antitrust issues that arise in healthcare corporate reorganizations. One of our recent transactions was described by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as "one of the largest purchases of a single hospital in Georgia." Indeed, AGG lawyers have handled healthcare transactions valued in excess of $260 million.

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Medicare/Medicaid Reimbursement Advice and Litigation

AGG attorneys regularly counsel clients regarding Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement issues, including cost reporting and billing issues and the reimbursement effects of proposed transactions. AGG's lawyers are also skilled in advocating provider interests in administrative appeals and through litigation, as in the following representative cases:

AGG represents a large number of medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers, and our healthcare lawyers are knowledgeable concerning Medicare/Medicaid coverage of new technologies, including advocating and negotiating changes to local medical review policies (LMRPs). We have also handled Medicaid rebate issues for pharmaceutical manufacturers.

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Fraud and Abuse Compliance, Investigations, and Defense

AGG has an excellent track record of successfully defending providers against federal and state allegations of fraud and abuse. We have represented numerous clients, including public companies, in negotiations with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of Inspector General that resulted in no action being brought against the client, and no payment of any funds. Where no such resolution is possible, AGG mounts a proactive defense. For instance, we forestalled one action under the False Claims Act (FCA) by bringing a lawsuit to invalidate the rule that the provider was alleged to have violated; we secured the dismissal of another FCA action on the basis of correspondence from a Medicare intermediary that conflicted with the DOJ's position; and, in an exclusion action against a psychiatrist, we persuaded the administrative law judge that the government's interpretation of the applicable CPT code was flawed.

AGG has extensive experience in representing healthcare clients in structuring transactions to comply with the Anti-Kickback Statute, the Stark law, and comparable state statutes. AGG is also experienced in conducting internal compliance investigations for public companies.

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Certificate of Need

AGG has one of the premiere Certificate of Need practices in the state of Georgia. Our attorneys regularly counsel healthcare clients on CON issues, including how to structure transactions in order to minimize the restrictive effect of the CON regime. We have litigated and won CON cases in several southeastern states. Among the many clients whom we have represented in CON matters are Georgia Baptist Health System, Piedmont Hospital, Newnan Hospital, Southern Regional Hospital, South Georgia Medical Center, Kindred Healthcare, North Atlanta Scan Associates, and HealthSouth.

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Long-Term Care Surveys and Enforcement Actions

AGG has long-standing experience in survey and enforcement actions involving long-term care facilities, including both assisted living facilities and nursing homes. Each year, AGG handles dozens of cases on behalf of nursing facilities in Departmental Appeals Board proceedings. AGG has brought successful actions to enjoin nursing facility termination actions, and has also taken survey enforcement actions to hearing, with favorable outcomes for our clients.

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Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Compliance

AGG's HIPAA Task Force offers comprehensive legal audit and consultation services to help healthcare providers address the emerging federal regulation of the disclosure and use of health information. Our broad-based understanding of the operations of healthcare facilities and affiliated entities enables us to develop customized solutions for HIPAA compliance, while minimizing the disruption of the client's daily operations. We were tapped by the Medical Association of Georgia, the Georgia Nursing Home Association, and the South Carolina Nursing Home Association, among others, as their lead law firm for HIPAA training purposes. One of our partners is a member of the Advisory Committee for SHARP (Southeastern HIPAA Administrative Regional Process), a CMS-sanctioned HIPAA implementation task force. For more information on our HIPAA Task Force, please visit http://www.agg.com/Practice/HIPAA_main.html.

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Medical Device and Pharmaceutical Industry Representation

Working in conjunction with our Food & Drug practice team (which comprises the largest group of Food & Drug lawyers located in the southeast), AGG healthcare regulatory lawyers assist our medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturer clients with Medicare reimbursement coverage issues, anti-kickback and Stark law compliance, marketing practices, the Medicaid pharmaceutical rebate program, clinical research trials, and Institutional Review Board requirements.

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Litigation (including Medical Malpractice)

Our Healthcare Team includes litigators who focus on handling disputes specific to the healthcare industry. AGG attorneys have successfully litigated Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement disputes, False Claims Act actions, license revocations, nursing facility decertifications, CON appeals, healthcare facility lease disputes, and other actions.

AGG has extensive experience in defending both acute and long-term care facilities against malpractice, personal injury and wrongful death claims, and a proven record of successfully resolving those claims through mediation, summary judgment, or trial. The firm has been designated as general malpractice defense counsel by many of our self-insured healthcare clients, including the Georgia Baptist Health System, Kindred Healthcare, and Coliseum Health System.

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Healthcare Facility Operations and Medical Staff Relations

Our attorneys routinely advise healthcare providers on the legal issues that arise in the day-to-day operations of healthcare facilities, including, for instance, medical staff credentialing and peer review; physician and ancillary supplier contracts; patient rights, including consent to treatment and end-of-life issues; licensure and long-term care survey and certification matters; patient admission and involuntary transfer/discharge issues; scope of practice for non-physician practitioners; employee benefits; tax questions, including advice to tax-exempt organizations; and general corporate and real estate matters

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Legislation and Healthcare Policy

The firm's attorneys routinely draft legislation and regulations for submission before various state and federal legislative bodies and agencies, and are frequently called upon to comment and provide testimony on proposed legislation and regulations affecting the healthcare industry.

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Antitrust

Several of our attorneys are experienced in antitrust issues, and have assisted providers in structuring transactions and arrangements in compliance with the antitrust laws. We have obtained favorable advisory opinions from the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of our healthcare clients, including an advisory opinion which set the standard for promulgating statistics on pricing of healthcare services, and another that approved a statewide independent practice organization of podiatrists.

News & Events > Hedy Rubinger was quoted in an Atlanta Business Chronicle article titled "Overwhelmed Nurses Leaving Medicine To Help Lawyers" on October 28.  > Tom Duvall has been named, as the only person from the southeast, to a 10 member national editorial board for the AstraZeneca and Emron's Pathways Program. > Hedy Rubinger and Richard Gardner were published in a Continuing Care article titled "Pain and Suffering" in the September issue. > Tom Duvall represented Baptist Medical Center in one of the largest sales of a single hospital in Georgia. (more)

Publications > Preventing Medication Misuse in Older Adults - April 2003 > The Road to Compliance: Where are you? Long-Term Care and the HIPAA Privacy Rule - March/April 2003

Representative Clients > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > CareVita Centennial Healthcare, Inc Coliseum Health System/Coliseum Medical Centers CryoLife, Inc. Elekta, Inc. Edencare Georgia Baptist Healthcare System Georgia Nursing Home Association Golden Age Properties HealthSouth Kindred Healthcare, Inc. Mariner Healthcare, Inc. NeoPharm, Inc. Newnan Hospital North Atlanta Scan Associates Piedmont Hospital Pruitt Corporation Shire US/Shire Pharmaceuticals, Ltd.

Related Practice Areas > > > Food and Drug Healthcare Life Sciences