Attorneys for Hospitals and Health Systems

The slate of ever-changing regulations and laws frequently impact hospitals and health care systems significantly, and staying current with them is imperative. The New York healthcare legal team at Norman Spencer & Associates can help.

With extensive experience serving the legal needs of hospitals and health care systems, our attorneys have the expertise and knowledge required to guide you through the tedious and complicated network of laws and regulations. The healthcare lawyers at Norman Spencer & Associates have represented hospitals and health care systems in every aspect of healthcare law.

Compliance is a major aspect that needs to be addressed, such as compliance issues related to Medicare, Medicaid, Stark, HIPAA, HITECH and EMTALA. We also offer services related to documentation compliance for Medicare, Medicaid, coding laws and payment, along with assistance drafting programs and policies to ensure compliance throughout the organization.

Our legal team offers counseling for fraud and abuse, including help related to compliance requirements for federal Stark law and anti-kickback regulations. Additional services include assisting with appeals and audits associated with Medicaid, Medicare, private payors, recovery audit contractors (RAC), Medicare administrative contractors (MAC), and XPIC.

Purchases, sales, leases and other real estate dealings often require legal assistance, as do healthcare asset buying arrangements. These can include sales or acquisitions of physicians’ private practices. Joint ventures with medical entities are another area covered. They can include joint ventures with physician groups, physicians, home health care agencies, hospices and independent diagnostic testing facilities (IDTFs).

Additional areas of healthcare law the attorneys at Norman Spencer & Associates cover include:

• Accountable care organizations (ACO), designed to provide coordinated high-quality care to Medicare patients
• Corporate operations, policies and governance
• Issues with medical staff, including support with termination appeals, corrective action plans and accreditation surveys
• Contract and transaction arrangements
• Purchasing and supply chain operations, structure and transactions
• Issues related to licensing and Certificate of Need (CON)
• Quality incentive programs for physicians
• Partnerships with physician-owned distribution businesses

In addition to our legal team’s deep knowledge, the attorneys at Norman Spencer & Associates have extensive experience dealing with legal issues in the healthcare field. Some of the most common issues for which we’ve provided assistance include audits, compliance plans, anti-kickback and Stark law, and accountable care organizations.

Our considerable experience in longstanding healthcare legal issues is enhanced by our knowledge and ability to also deal with emerging legal issues in the industry. The digital age has created new rules, regulations and potential legal problems related to electronic health records and their privacy and security. Additional details outlining our experience and recent areas of focus can be found below.

Audits: Medicare contractors, RACs and third party payors continue to subject hospitals and health care systems to intensive surveillance. Surveillance practices frequently include persistent reviews of brief-stay inpatient and outpatient cases. With knowledge and experience that covers legal issues related to audits, Norman Spencer & Associates is a national leader in Medicaid, Medicare, third party payer and RAC defense.

Our reputation is particularly strong for proactively protecting our hospital and health care system clients in cases involving RAC audits. Our clients are dutifully represented and advised during each phase of the entire audit procedure. Our audit defense page provides additional information on how our legal team can help your organization present the most powerful defense. Visit the page for more details.

Compliance Plans: When it comes to compliance issues in the health care industry, Norman Spencer & Associates have provided counsel for a number of hospitals and health care systems. Counsel has been related to compliance with:

• The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA)
• Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH)
• FDA regulations
• Medicare reimbursements
• Anti-markup rules
• Federal Stark law and anti-kickback statutes

Stark Law: Federal Stark law and anti-kickback issues have been in place for years, and our attorneys have helped clients navigate through their complex landscape for more than a quarter of a century. Arrangements made between hospitals or health care systems and other medical entities can implicate Stark law. This can include arrangements between your organization and physicians and their practices. Our knowledgeable attorneys help health care providers carefully evaluate proposed or existing arrangements under this law.

Accountable Care Organizations (ACO): Numerous regulation and policy hurdles ACOs, and we here at Norman Spencer & Associates have maintained our position on the leading edge of understanding them. ACOs often face complex, tedious and even confusing issues, all of which we can help our hospital and health care system clients navigate.

• Issues surrounding electronic health records (EHR), such as meaningful use
• Two-Midnight rule and RAC audits
• HIPAA and security rule compliance
• Stark law and anti-kickback statute compliance