Practice Areas & Industries: Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's Health Care Litigation Group advocates on behalf of the firms health care clients and works with them in avoiding, managing and resolving conflicts. The attorneys in the group represent large and small health care organizations that focus on both business and clinical aspects of the industry.

Our litigators work closely with our health care attorneys so that the entire team is well versed in the terminology of the industry, the unique business environment and the myriad laws and regulations that define the parameters in which the industry operates. When a client calls someone in our group, there is no need to "reinvent the wheel."

Buchanan's health care clients include health systems, hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, physician groups, religiously affiliated health care providers, preferred provider organizations and health maintenance organizations. Our litigators assist these clients in, among other things, commercial disputes, employment and labor disputes, and contractual disputes in federal and state courts, administrative agencies and alternative dispute resolution settings.

Services Available

Our health care litigation experience is characterized by experience in the following areas:

• Corporate governance issues arising from and created by the entry of a hospital into a system or the creation of a system
• Corporate control issues at the board and/or member level arising from disputes over governance; whether a not-for-profit entity is a community asset and the interplay of government in the sunshine and public records restriction
• Representation of clients in employment disputes
• Contract litigation arising from mergers, acquisitions and sales of hospitals, nursing homes and professional practices relating to contract provisions concerning the underlying transaction
• Antitrust and trade regulation issues
• Defense of qui tam and other fraud and abuse claims and false claim actions brought against hospitals and other health care providers
• Defense of and prosecution of contractual claims and warranty claims and successor liability claims when our health care provider clients have been both seller and purchaser
• Representation of clients, particularly hospitals and nursing homes, before administrative bodies and courts regarding licensure, certifications, tax assessments and tax exemption issues
• Representation of clients before internal review forums on matters of peer review as well as professional licensing issues before state bodies
• Defense of health care and medical equipment suppliers in connection with product liability and warranty claims
• Representation of unionized clients in litigation, arbitration and contract negotiations
• Representation of clients in litigation regarding matters of false imprisonment, libel and slander and other common law tort claims
• Representation of clients in connection with land use planning, zoning and environmental issues pertaining to existing facilities and/or expansion of facilities
• Representation of clients in connection with construction and renovation of facilities, including review of construction and design documents to litigating in court or in an arbitration forum
• Representation of clients in litigation arising from professional employment contracts with physicians and other practice acquisition-related matters

Current High-Profile Practice Areas

Buchanan is involved currently in the following high-profile issues and matters of major concern to the health care industry:

• Fraud and abuse issues brought by former employees subsequent to severance of employment relationship
• Qui tam litigation regarding Medicare fraud
• Medicare and Medicaid compliance issues, including internal investigations and dealing with government investigations
• Corporate governance and control issues relating to and arising from system mergers, hospital, nursing home and practice group acquisitions
• Governmental and media participation and involvement in the governance and management arena of a healthcare provider
• Tax assessment and tax exemption issues
• Enforcement of a previously employed physician's covenant not to compete

Antitrust and Trade Regulation Advice and Litigation

Antitrust issues arise in every health care merger and acquisition transaction, many contracts and in all dealings among competitors. We have represented a large number and wide variety of health care providers, including in combinations involving Catholic and secularly affiliated providers.

We have a deep understanding of the dynamics of the marketplace, and strength in matters involving the federal enforcement agencies and state attorneys general. In just the past two years, our lawyers have been involved in at least 12 litigation matters involving significant antitrust issues and handled the antitrust issues of more than 25 health care mergers and acquisitions.

Additionally, we have provided antitrust advice across all health care combinations, including the following:

• Network development
• Managed care contracting
• Joint ventures
• Unionization
• Mergers, acquisitions and joint operating agreements, in total and in market segments (employed physicians/specialists, helicopter transport, durable medical equipment, laboratory services and particular clinical services)
• Alliances and affiliations
• Physician-hospital organizations
• Integrated delivery networks
• Activities among competing providers (joint purchasing, planning, recruitment of physicians, bids, etc.)
• Specific contractual terms, such as exclusivity, non-competes, sole source and most favored nations clauses and the like
• Medical staff decisions
• Sales of products (within and outside systems or networks)

We also have significant experience in recognized defenses such as State Action and Noerr-Pennington.

Labor and Employment

Our lawyers represent management in many aspects of labor and employment law, including discrimination advice and representation in discrimination litigation; wage and hour counseling and representation; internal investigations; union and union avoidance counseling and representation in the event of litigation; Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) advice and representation if litigation is unavoidable; workers' compensation; defamation actions; and policy/procedure development, implementation and enforcement.

Recent experience includes jury trials of discrimination claims; internal sexual harassment investigations; sexual harassment training for physicians and house staff; wage and hour audits of health care clients by the United States Department of Labor.

We are committed to understanding our clients' businesses and working with them to achieve operational and strategic goals. Among our attorneys is a former in-house labor and employment counsel to the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

A representative sample of our services includes both recurring and specific scenarios.

Recurring Issues

• Hiring and firing
• Wage and hour issues
• Criminal background checks
• JCAHO requirements that also inform HR policies and procedures
• Accommodating disabilities in the workplace

Specific Issues

• Complaints and investigations of discrimination and advice on avoiding retaliation claims
• Advice on the handling of a former employee's internal grievance of a termination or discipline
• Advice on joint employer issues when a health system comprises more than one employer
• Impaired professionals advice
• Professional licensing and medical staff bylaws issues
• Sexual harassment prevention training
• FMLA/ADA/mental disabilities
• Alternative dispute resolution