A. Physician Group Formation. Our firm specializes in assisting physicians in forming new practices whether the group consists of one owner or one hundred. We are experts in advising in the correct choice of entity and in providing all of the documents necessary to launch a new business enterprise, including,
- Advice regarding choice of entity
- Assistance in preparation of the basic corporate documents; articles, bylaws, buy/sell agreements and employment agreements
- Assistance in obtaining all necessary permits including fictitious name, provider number, employee ID number and business licenses
B. Mergers, Sales and Dissolutions. Our firm specializes in assisting physicians who are considering or involved in a merger, sale, dissolution or other form of business reorganization. We have provided advice in many diverse situations, including mergers involving independent specialty practices, sales of physicians entering practice and retiring from practice. We also assist physicians in dissolving their practices whether such is the result of a business reorganization or insolvency planning. Such transactions often involve the interplay of a complex spectrum of special regulatory laws, some of which may conflict, including antitrust, Stark II and fraud and abuse laws.
C. Joint Ventures. Joint venturing is often a key to sustaining a viable economic base. We specialize in joint ventures involving different physician groups, physicians and hospitals and physician groups and other business entities including vendors of all types. Such transactions generally require not only a solid knowledge of traditional business and tax laws but also a sophisticated knowledge of the regulatory laws and statutes in the areas of Stark II and fraud and abuse. We have that knowledge base.
A. Physician Advocacy. Our attorneys regularly advise physicians and medical groups in disputes with third parties, including vendors, governmental agencies, insurance companies, health care service plans, and hospitals. We are experienced in assuring that appropriate due process guarantees are extended to our clients. In all such disputes, we will take a hard look at the merits of the dispute before accepting such representation.
B. Physician Organizations. We are general legal counsel for the California Society of Plastic Surgeons and the California Radiological Society. We are also general and special counsel for a number of IPAs, including being outside counsel for Brown and Toland, a fifteen hundred member IPA in San Francisco. In that regard, we regularly advise such organization on membership problems and disputes, due process, bylaws, corporate, securities, and antitrust issues.
C. Educational Accreditation. We are general counsel for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the regional accrediting association for schools, colleges and universities for California, Hawaii and a number of U.S. territories. In that regard we regularly provide advise in the areas of due process, hearing code formation, antitrust, and federal and state educational regulation as it applies to accreditation associations, including the federal Department of Education’s requirements as they apply to accreditation associations. .
A. Federal/State anti-kick back, Stark, Speier laws. We regularly advise our clients in negotiating the thicket of often confusing and sometimes conflicting laws and regulations which govern the formation and operation of many types of health care ventures, including imaging centers, ambulatory surgery centers, medical office buildings and similar business structures.
B. Corporate Practice of Medicine. California is one of only a few states that still enforces prohibitions against lay corporations employing physicians. We are thoroughly conversant with this law, its many applications and exceptions. Appreciation of the law is critical in structuring sales and mergers and management agreements between physician groups and lay entities such as hospitals and MSOs.
We regularly advise our health care clients on a wide variety of insurance and risk management issues. Our work includes providing advice on insurance policy coverage issues and acting as advocates for our clients in disputes with insurance companies over disputed areas of coverage.
The firm represents its clients in the full range of civil litigation in state and federal court throughout California. This includes breach of contract and related business issues, professional liability and other tort claims, peer review issues, insurance coverage, bad faith and other commercial claims.
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