Healthcare law firms are indispensable to medical providers. They provide comprehensive, ongoing legal services to hospitals, physicians, billing companies, and licensed medical professionals as they navigate the complex and, often unclear, regulatory landscape. With a healthcare lawyer’s assistance, your practice or hospital will navigate the intricate legal frameworks of our system using sound knowledge and trustworthy advice, ensuring your continued focus on delivering exceptional patient care to the individuals you serve.
Healthcare attorney, Joseph Rivet, discusses how legal counsel solves many problems faced by today’s medical providers. Rivet Health Law, PLC wrote this post to help healthcare professionals learn more about how the power of a strategic legal partner can empower their mission.
Healthcare Law Firms Empower Medical Providers
Healthcare law firms are crucial in supporting medical providers with legal knowledge, resources, and experience. By staying aware of the latest developments and changes to healthcare laws, regulations, and policies, a healthcare lawyer can provide ongoing advice and counsel tailored to the needs of hospitals, medical practices, or clinics.
More specifically, here are a few ways that ongoing counsel and legal representation could help you:
Managing Reimbursement Issues
Issues of reimbursement and coverage under federal healthcare programs, such as Medicare/Medicaid, are of critical importance to healthcare providers because they constitute the country’s largest purchaser of healthcare services. Experienced lawyers with technical knowledge of the federal Medicare and Medicaid regulatory schemes are essential due to the complexity of these programs.
Compliance Oversight
Healthcare is one of the most regulated US industries. You must follow strict rules when conducting a healthcare business transaction, signing a contract, or creating a risk-mitigating structure for your practice. Regulation violations can result in audits, investigations, and severe penalties that harm your reputation and career.
Many regulations govern healthcare professional and facility business transactions. Rules like the Stark Law, False Claims Act, and anti-kickback laws affect transaction parties and structure. Good compliance is the best prevention. However, it is worth noting that only 68 percent of US providers have some form of compliance oversight. Ensure you are not left behind by getting legal advice for your practice or healthcare business.
Payors Audits & Appeals
Many providers struggle with commercial payor reimbursement. Payor-provider disputes involve large sums and significant issues. Healthcare law firms resolve complex disputes for providers through audits and appeals, strategic advocacy, and payment reimbursement legal knowledge. We also can defend patient care clients against payor challenges to payment and reimbursement obligations.
Due Diligence Performance
Healthcare law firms can help providers navigate a regulatory maze when performing due diligence across various activities and transactions. Any state, including Michigan, has a different corporate practice of medicine, provider self-referrals, fee-splitting prohibitions, facility licensure laws, insurance laws, and many administrative decisions.
Physician & Mid-level Provider Agreements
Transactions in the business world are not always as straightforward as one might hope, and unanticipated disagreements between business partners or allegations of illegal activity can surface unexpectedly.
A healthcare law firm can help reduce client risk by innovative thinking about transactions and utilizing the appropriate language to get things done in physician and mid-level provider agreements. These agreements include physician recruitment and employment agreements, non-compete agreements, and exclusive provider agreements.
The Health of Your Practice Thrives on Legal Compliance
Medical professionals heavily rely on the services of healthcare law firms as we offer practitioners invaluable guidance through the complex legal system at the state and federal levels. A healthcare law firm simplifies reimbursement-related issues, ensures regulatory compliance, mediates disputes between payors, and reduces the workload associated with due diligence.
By assisting with physician and mid-level provider agreements, healthcare law firms reduce the risk their clients are exposed to while ensuring that patients continue to receive excellent care. They remain abreast of recent trends and policies to provide their clients with the best possible results.
Schedule a Meeting with Rivet Health Law, PLC
At Rivet Health Law, PLC, we understand medical providers’ unique legal challenges. With our in-depth knowledge of healthcare laws and regulations, we provide hospitals, physicians, billing companies, and licensed healthcare professionals with experienced legal advice and counsel. If you want to discuss how a healthcare law firm could help you, schedule a meeting with our legal team today.
