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Overview

As the health care industry continues to experience dramatic change, we continue to provide cutting-edge representation in today’s highly regulated and ever-shifting competitive environment. Hinckley Allen is one of the most respected and experienced health care practices in the Northeast. Our health care attorneys use their industry knowledge, experience, and legal skills to provide sophisticated and strategic guidance on the most difficult issues facing health care providers, including evolving models for delivery of care and reimbursement, the need for various strategic alliances, technological advances, regulatory compliance, risk management, False Claims Act, and complex disputes.

Effective counsel wherever law and health care intersect.

Our clients cover the spectrum of health care providers and facilities. We advise academic medical centers, community and critical access hospitals, nursing facilities, continuing care retirement communities and other senior housing and care organizations, as well as hospital systems, physician-hospital organizations, and clinically-integrated networks. We represent community-based providers, including home health agencies, visiting nurse associations, hospices, clinics, ambulatory surgery centers, provider networks (including faculty practice plans), clinical laboratories, mental health centers, and physician groups. We advise trade associations serving hospitals, nursing facilities, and other health care entities on both general and specialized regulatory matters.

Services

The broad array of services we offer to our health care clients on both routine and urgent matters include:

Business Transactions

  • Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and other clinically-integrated networks
  • Nonprofit, for-profit, and hybrid nonprofit/for-profit joint ventures
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Affiliations and partnerships among providers, and between providers and payers
  • Physician-hospital organizations
  • Tax-exempt bond and other financing arrangements
  • Professional service agreements

Health Care Operations

  • Tax-exempt and charitable organization matters
  • Corporate governance
  • Physician integration and staffing issues
  • Health care reform initiatives
  • Health care delivery issues, including telemedicine, genomics, and clinical research matters
  • Payer contracts

Regulatory Compliance

  • HIPAA/HITECH, Stark law, Anti-Kickback Statute, False Claims Act, EMTALA, and Affordable Care Act compliance and state law issues
  • Regulatory investigations, repayment determinations, self-reporting, and settlement
  • Licensing and certificate-of-need matters
  • Professional licensing board disciplinary matters
  • Reimbursement program participation and payment issues
  • Policy review and revision for federal and state law compliance

Experience

Strategic Alliance of Community Hospitals and FQHCs
Hinckley Allen represented four community hospitals and three federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) in the creation of a clinically integrated network that negotiates and performs risk-sharing reimbursement contracts with commercial health insurers. Working collaboratively with a health care consultant, we guided the parties through the establishment of governance, financial, and clinical structure for their network which aligned their interests and established trust and a working relationship among them. A creative block-voting arrangement and deadlock provision enabled the parties to achieve parity in key decisions despite their disparate economic contributions to the endeavor. Our attorneys also helped these hospitals and FQHCs participate in an Accountable Care Organization in the Medicare AIM shared-savings program.

Establishment of Multi-Hospital Health System
We assisted a nationally recognized academic medical center in the establishment of a multi-hospital health system. We helped to create the parent company, and then assisted the General Counsel’s Office in bringing four nonprofit hospitals into the system through member-substitution transactions. Our lawyers drafted the template-affiliation agreement, conducted due diligence, and resolved identified concerns. We reviewed governance document amendments, assisted with state change of control processes, and advised the system and its new affiliates about necessary filings with state and federal reimbursement programs and tax authorities. We are now assisting the system with integration issues, including the centralization of legal services and risk management.

Development of “Baskets of Care” Program
We represented a major tertiary-care hospital in the development of a “baskets of care” program with a group of orthopedic surgeons and anesthesiologists. This innovative program, one of the first in the country, involves the development of clinically integrated total joint-replacement surgery packages, including orthopedic surgery, anesthesiology services, post-operative inpatient care, inpatient facilities, related inpatient care, and administrative services – all for a fixed fee. This arrangement creates opportunities for such health care providers to cooperate and innovate in connection with the development of improvements in health care quality and reduction of costs, such as the development and implementation of consistent clinical protocols, obtaining quality improvements and good clinical outcomes, enhancement of operational efficiencies and cost savings, sharing of financial risks relating to provision of care, increased patient satisfaction, and performance review and improvement.

Interrelated Hospital Affiliations with Bankruptcy Component
We represented a major Connecticut hospital system in two simultaneous affiliation transactions, one in which the client acquired a community hospital through a bankruptcy proceeding, and one in which the client joined a national hospital system. Our lawyers guided the client through the complexities of the community hospital’s bankruptcy proceeding, supported two concurrent certificates of need applications – and played a central role in drafting and negotiating affiliation agreements, conducting due diligence, advising the system regarding necessary filings with governmental authorities, and bringing the transactions to completion.

Acquisition of Dental Practice
We represented a dental practitioner associated with a major academic medical center acquiring a prominent dental practice. Our work included advice on and negotiation of the asset purchase, provider, and consulting agreements as well as the associated restrictive covenant. We also provided advice on the business structure of the practice and its pension as well as financing arrangements.

Represented Physician Before Licensing Board
We defended a physician accused of misconduct before a state licensing board.

Case Studies

Trinity Health Hospital Acquisition Transactions

Over the course of three years, Hinckley Allen successfully completed three major hospital acquisitions involving Trinity Health, a not-for-profit Catholic health system. The Firm represented Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center in connection with its…

Ensuring Needed Access to Behavioral Health

Hinckley Allen represented Providence Behavioral Health Hospital in Holyoke, Massachusetts in the sale of its hospital operations and related outpatient business, helping to ensure the continued availability of behavioral health services in Western Massach…

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Newsroom

Publication

The 2023 Cyber Year in Review

December 19, 2023

As we reflect upon 2023, it will unfortunately be remembered as a record-breaking year for ransomware and cybercrime. Data breaches have affected companies of all sizes and in every sector costing the United States billions of dollars in damages. Hackers a…

Publication

The New Health Privacy Enforcer: FTC Issues Stern Warning to Companies That Collect and Use Consumer Health Information

July 31, 2023

On July 25, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued a strong admonishment putting companies that collect or use health information on notice that it intends to prioritize health information privacy in its enforcement actions. This follows unp…

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Firm News

Hinckley Allen Named a Best Law Firm by Best Lawyers Since 2010

November 2, 2023

Best Lawyers has recognized Hinckley Allen as a Best Law Firm for the 14th year in a row. Firms included in the 2024 Best Law Firms list are recognized for professional excellence with persistently impressive ratings from clients and peers. Achieving a tie…

Firm News

57 Hinckley Allen Lawyers Included in 2023 Super Lawyers and Rising Stars Lists

October 12, 2023

A total of 57 Hinckley Allen attorneys were named to the Super Lawyers® and Rising Stars lists in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Upstate New York for 2023, including those newly recognized as well as featured in Top Lists.Ger…

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