Manatt attorneys have in-depth experience with the complex and often confusing laws that govern healthcare provider billing practices and ownership and referral relationships. Because fraud and abuse and self-referral concerns involve intense regulatory scrutiny and enforcement, we offer comprehensive advice regarding the structure of transactions, design and implement corporate compliance programs, conduct internal investigations, and assist in voluntary disclosures. 

Manatt professionals represent healthcare entities and individuals in a variety of criminal, civil and regulatory proceedings, and in all phases of government investigations and prosecutions involving fraud and abuse allegations. We have comprehensive experience in this difficult law enforcement environment, and consistently obtain very favorable outcomes for our clients. Our lawyers help clients respond to search warrants, grand jury and administrative subpoenas, and civil investigative demands; represent individuals before grand juries; and handle pre- and post-indictment plea negotiations, proceedings, and sentencing.

Using our extensive knowledge of the competition and cost pressures facing healthcare providers, we help them to position themselves for survival by enhancing quality and expanding services. Our attorneys can analyze healthcare markets and formulate strategic plans that help clients grow by establishing new programs or business combinations. The comprehensive range of service-expanding transactions that we guide includes:

• Acquisition of and affiliation with (through ownership or by contract) other health systems
• Acquisition of ancillary and other service providers
• Development of tax-exempt medical clinics and other physician practice management organizations
• Reorganization of corporate structures to respond to the financial and operational needs of a multi-entity system

Because Manatt has wide-ranging financial institution contacts, we also facilitate our clients' access to the capital necessary for successful completion of service expansions.

How does the Supreme Court’s decision impact the future of healthcare in the U.S.?

The long-awaited Supreme Court decision brings clarity to the future of health care reform and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The following represents Manatt’s first take on the ruling and its implications. We will continue to develop a more detailed perspective in the days and weeks to come, and welcome the opportunity to work with you on how the ruling will impact your organization and those you serve.  Read more

Manatt’s full-service Healthcare Litigation practice is committed to protecting the interests of providers and payors.  We offer an unparalleled combination of deep understanding of the complex and dynamic healthcare field, strong relationships with, and high-level access to, the regulatory, legislative, and enforcement entities and officials critical to your business, and the ability and experience to take complex matters to trial.  

Our ability to provide outstanding service to our litigation clients is enhanced significantly by our extensive healthcare regulatory and corporate practices.  Our experience in the nation’s two most innovative and complex healthcare law environments - California and New York – when combined with our respected government advocacy capabilities in the District of Columbia and major state capitals, means we can provide healthcare clients with unsurpassed legal and business advice.  We have been at the forefront of virtually every major provider and health plan litigation issue in California in the past five years.  Read more

Manatt Health Solutions (MHS) is an interdisciplinary policy and business advisory division of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, one of the nation's premier law and consulting firms. MHS helps clients develop and implement strategies to address their greatest challenges, improve performance and position themselves for long-term sustainability and growth.

The healthcare landscape is rapidly evolving in both the public and private sectors. Clients can look to MHS professionals for leading expertise in healthcare coverage and access, healthcare information technology (health IT), healthcare financing and reimbursement, and healthcare restructuring. MHS also provides personalized services such as strategic and business advice, policy analysis and research, project implementation, alliance building/advocacy and government relations. 

MHS professionals' breadth of experience and interdisciplinary approach attract a wide range of for-profit and nonprofit clients in both the public and private sectors.

Manatt Health Solutions applies a core set of principles to every engagement:

• Works collaboratively with the client to establish a trusted relationship and reach workable solutions.
• Preserves the confidentiality of the client to serve its best interests.
• Engages the best team of people in the Firm with the right breadth and depth of expertise to meet the client's needs.
• Takes a senior management approach to integrate solutions across the different functions and processes of a business or organization.
• Applies fact-based analysis to provide robust and practical solutions for our clients.

Manatt attorneys provide a full range of legal services in the critical areas of medical staff peer review and governance. Our experts handle all phases of internal administrative actions and litigation involving credentialing of practitioners, as well as denial, suspension, reduction and termination of privileges and membership. We also advise clients on their reporting responsibilities to state medical boards and the National Practitioner Data Bank.

The range of staff relations issues that we handle is comprehensive. Our healthcare attorneys draft and revise medical staff bylaws, rules and regulations, and policies and procedures governing practitioner membership, privileges, obligations and rights, medical staff leadership and functions, and medical staff relations with hospital administration and the governing body. In special situations, we help clients deal with impaired or disruptive practitioners, implement closed staffing arrangements and hospital-based physician contracts, address emergency department coverage issues, and educate physicians on medico-legal issues.

Manatt's multidisciplinary national practice gives our healthcare clients access to focused legal counsel on any other concerns that arise in the course of daily operations. Examples of areas in which our healthcare attorneys work with colleagues throughout the firm include:

• Employment and benefits issues, such as compensation of physicians and executives, regulatory compliance (ADA, OSHA, ERISA)
• Environmental concerns, particularly regarding hazardous medical waste and needle safety
• FDA regulation of pharmaceuticals and medical devices
• Insurance matters involving coverage and subrogation, directors and officers liability, risk management and third party payor contracting
• Patient rights concerns focusing on bioethics, confidentiality of medical records, government access to books and records, AIDS treatment counseling, controlled substances, informed consent and rights to emergency medical treatment
• Rate review and rate setting

As traditional methods and structures of physician practice continue to evolve, we help physicians in all aspects of organizing, managing, and reorganizing medical practice groups. Our healthcare lawyers handle the most complex organizational matters, including developing alternative legal structures for multi-physician practices, and forming independent practice associations and other effective vehicles for contracting with managed care organizations and hospitals.

We also help physician groups with day-to-day operational issues and contract negotiations. Having worked extensively with physicians, hospitals, and hospital systems, our lawyers offer creative counsel on the complex relationships and issues physicians have with payors and other healthcare providers. We are fully experienced with joint hospital-physician relationships, and have worked with hospitals and hospital systems to develop integrated delivery of health services, including hospital-sponsored practice management services organizations and tax-exempt medical foundation clinics.