Practice Areas & Industries: Baker & Daniels LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Through its Health Care Team, Baker & Daniels has wide experience in all aspects of the practice of health care law throughout Indiana and across the United States. The Firm's health care clients include general and specialized hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, national and multi-state health care systems, nursing homes, retirement homes, community mental health centers and group homes, ambulatory surgery centers, health maintenance organizations, preferred provider organizations, physicians and other health professionals, trade associations in the health care industry, and numerous others. Because the Firm's health care clients are located or headquartered throughout the state, the Health Care Team serves its clients from the Firm's Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend, and Elkhart offices, as well as from the Washington, D.C., office.

Services Available

Corporate and Transactional Matters

The Firm represents health care clients in all types of corporate and transactional matters. In these areas, Baker & Daniels provides services relating to corporate and bylaw matters, corporate restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, changes in ownership, participation in joint ventures, tax matters, physician and provider contracts, antitrust counseling, and financing matters including service as bond counsel and hospital counsel in hospital bond issues.

The Firm and its Health Care Team have been actively involved in advising and assisting clients in the structuring of integrated delivery systems, including the establishment of physician-hospital organizations. These projects involve a wide range of substantive areas of the law, including tax exemption concerns, corporate law, securities, insurance, anti-referral rules, employee benefits, and finance.

Employment Law Matters

Baker & Daniels provides a full range of employment law services to its health care clients. Services include counseling concerning employment decisions, development of employee handbooks and personnel policies, management sensitivity training, equal employment opportunity matters, labor management matters of all kinds, employee benefits and services, occupational safety concerns, individual employment agreements, and counseling and representation on all aspects of federal and state law bearing on employment.

Litigation

The Health Care Team regularly represents clients in all types of administrative and judicial litigation. On the administrative side, Baker & Daniels represents clients in litigation in such matters as licensure and certification, Medicare and Medicaid certification, and reimbursement matters. Baker & Daniels also represents its health care clients in state and federal courts in all types of judicial litigation, including, among others, matters relating to medical staff disputes, antitrust claims, and contractual matters.

Regulatory and Operational Matters

Because the health care industry is heavily regulated, the Health Care Team routinely advises its health care clients with respect to all types of regulatory matters, including licensing, Medicare and Medicaid certification and reimbursement, compliance with Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse and anti-dumping laws, and compliance with antitrust laws. These issues often involve dealing with such state and federal agencies as the Indiana State Department of Health, the Family and Social Services Administration, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the Internal Revenue Service, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Federal Trade Commission.

The Health Care Team regularly advises clients on issues relating to the Medicare and Medicaid Fraud and Abuse laws and other anti-referral rules.

In addition, the Health Care Team also advises its clients regarding compliance with the accreditation standards of nongovernmental accreditation bodies such as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations.

The Firm also counsels its health care clients on operational issues relating to such matters as medical staff relations and physician recruiting and retention, third-party reimbursement matters, retention and release of medical records, informed consent, and matters relating to advance directives, substituted consent, and withdrawal of life support.

Substantive Health Issues

Increasingly, the Health Care Team provides counseling and representation to Firm clients in matters arising directly from substantive health considerations. The AIDS crisis is a dramatic example. Clients rely on the Health Care Team's advice on such matters as the OSHA Bloodborne Pathogen Requirements and other legal authorities arising from the AIDS crisis. Other matters include right-to-die and withdrawal-of-life-support issues.

Tax Considerations

The Health Care Team provides advice, representation, and advocacy for firm clients in all aspects of tax law. Clients find this service increasingly important because of increased Internal Revenue Service scrutiny of the health care industry.