Holland & Hart LLP

Holland & Hart provides a comprehensive health law practice to assist clients in navigating the dynamic healthcare industry. In recent years, healthcare has experienced dramatic change, extraordinary competition, and increasingly complex regulation. Our experienced attorneys and staff skillfully respond to these challenges. By remaining on the forefront of healthcare law, we are able to provide coordinated services to meet the business, transactional, litigation, and regulatory needs of our clients.

Our healthcare clients include hospitals, individual medical providers, medical groups, managed care organizations (MCOs), third-party administrators (TPAs), health information exchanges (HIEs), practice managers and administrators, independent practice associations (IPAs), owners of healthcare assets, imaging centers, ambulatory surgery centers, medical device and life science companies, rehabilitation centers, and extended and eldercare facilities. We have also assisted clients with the significant changes enacted by the Affordable Care Act, including advice regarding employer and health plan compliance, health insurance exchanges, accountable care organizations, and nonprofit cooperative health plans.

Stark Law, the Anti-kickback Act, and State Referral Laws
Our attorneys provide legal counsel on the significant array of laws and regulations needed to comply with Stark law, the Anti-kickback Act, and state referral laws. This includes advising clients regarding ownership of hospitals and other medical facilities, rural hospital ownership and contracting, ancillary services being furnished by a physician, joint ventures between medical professionals, physician compensation arrangements, sale of medical practices, and application of referral laws to managed care.

HIPAA and Privacy Laws
We help our clients address the many privacy and security concerns that arise under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, and state information security statutes. Lawyers in our healthcare group have developed policies, procedures, and training materials for numerous clients, and we routinely advise our healthcare clients on day-to-day operational issues involving information security matters. Our experience includes:

• Preparing privacy and security protocol for covered entities and business associates;
• Review of privacy and security protocol;
• Drafting and negotiating business associate agreements;
• Creating HIPAA compliant releases; and
• Providing opinions on required disclosures under HIPAA and HITECH.

Managed Care Formation, Licensing and Regulation
We have assisted clients in forming and licensing Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs), Health Discount Plans, limited health plans (including dental plans), and others throughout the Mountain West. This includes formation of Community Operated and Oriented Plans (CO-OPs) under the Affordable Care Act. Our healthcare attorneys also regularly represent managed care organizations before state and federal regulators.

Medicare/Medicaid Fraud and Abuse
We represent professional providers, healthcare facilities, healthcare service agencies, and managed care organizations in state and federal fraud and abuse actions and criminal investigations and proceedings. We have in-depth experience utilizing self-disclosure when appropriate to manage exposure in these areas.

Peer Review
We have represented health insurers and hospitals regarding the Health Care Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA) and state peer review statutes. Our litigators have successfully used HCQIA and similar state statutes to limit the information produced in discovery.

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Joint Ventures
Changes in the healthcare industry have led to considerable growth in the merger, acquisition, consolidation, joint ventures, and restructuring of healthcare providers, entities, and assets. Holland & Hart attorneys have been involved in many major acquisition and consolidation transactions, both nonprofit and for-profit, including private equity. We also regularly advise clients regarding applying corporate practice-of-medicine principles to health care transactions and investments in various jurisdictions. Our health law attorneys are deeply versed in the laws, regulations, and business aspects of healthcare transactions, making them informed counselors when assets or equity change hands or are reorganized.

Real Property Transactions in the Healthcare Industry
Medical facilities are being developed in an increasingly intricate legal environment. The complex relationships among the various aspects of medical and office campuses present a particularly unique set of challenges. Holland & Hart's healthcare practice group includes attorneys with significant experience in real estate transactions to assist operators and investors in health care assets to properly structure their deals.

Medical Staff Issues
We have represented hospitals on issues concerning peer review and disruptive physicians. In one recent matter, we successfully assisted a local hospital and its medical director concerning a physician's challenge to hospital quality review procedures. We have also represented physicians in the "fair hearing process" conducted under medical staff bylaws. We are familiar with medical staff issues, including duties of a medical executive committee, and have advised both medical providers and facilities regarding medical staff issues.

Healthcare Licensing
Our health and insurance lawyers work with medical providers and facilities to obtain and defend their licenses. We understand that without a license a medical provider cannot do what he or she does best–care for patients. We work with our clients to ensure that their licenses are protected.

Healthcare Collections, Receivables, and Finance
Our healthcare attorneys work with medical providers and payors on healthcare payment and finance issues. We have:

• Represented hospitals in payment and claim disputes with payors;
• Assisting in the collection of healthcare receivables;
• Advised medical providers regarding healthcare payment issues, including Medicare and Medicaid payments;
• Represent managed care organizations regarding payment issues with providers;
• Represent clients in matters concerning Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments; and
• Advised clients regarding the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003.

Physician Contracting
We represent physicians, hospitals, and medical groups with regard to physician employment contracts. We also negotiate provider contracts between managed care organizations and medical providers.

Healthcare Captive Insurance
Holland & Hart provides legal assistance to captive insurers throughout the various phases of their existence. Our attorneys have assisted in the formation of approximately 100 captives, including pure captives formed by hospitals and medical malpractice insurance captives formed by physicians.

Antitrust
We advise our healthcare clients in virtually all aspects of compliance with antitrust laws. These include questions about novel physician practice arrangements and organizations, medical group practice mergers, hospital mergers, managed care system ventures, medical staff restrictions and exclusions, relationships with allied healthcare providers, exclusive contracts, provider networks, and group purchasing programs. We have successfully represented healthcare institutions and physicians around the country in private and government antitrust actions.

Health Insurer Transactions
We regularly represent health insurers and managed care organizations in mergers and acquisitions, bulk reinusurance, and reorganization of insurers. Our experience includes:

• Merger and acquisition of managed care organizations in accordance with state insurance laws and model regulations of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC);
• Conversion of insurers from nonprofit to for-profit entities;
• Bulk reinusrance of insurers;
• Sale of provider networks; and
• Demutualization of insurers.

Healthcare Nonprofits
Our healthcare and business attorneys work together to form and assist nonprofit entities in the healthcare industry.

Holland & Hart's Statement of Commitment to Diversity
We are proud of our tradition of fostering and maintaining a work environment in which the diversity of each individual is valued and celebrated. We believe that the contributions of each individual are essential to our continued growth and to our ultimate goal of providing excellent quality legal services to our clients, with greater creativity and innovation. We are committed to taking full advantage of the rich backgrounds and abilities of our people and to promoting a greater diversity whenever and wherever possible.

Diversity Pledge
Holland & Hart is committed to promoting diversity by:

• Making every possible effort to recruit, hire, retain, and promote diverse persons at all levels of employment.
• Promoting greater sensitivity to the value of racial, ethnic and other forms of diversity, through diversity and sensitivity coaching or training for law firm members.
• Inviting to partnership diverse attorneys who meet the requisite criteria.

Diversity Initiatives
The following are additional examples of our commitment and efforts toward supporting and achieving diversity:

• We make a conscious effort to ensure that women and diverse attorneys are included as voting members of our committees of importance within the firm.
• We work closely with law school deans and placement directors in an effort to identify women and diverse law students who are interested in working at Holland & Hart.
• Holland & Hart offers medical and other benefits to partners of gay and lesbian employees on the same terms as it does to spouses of employees.
• We created an Indian Law Practice Group and actively recruited Native American law students and lateral hires.
• Each year we contribute to such scholarship funds as the Colorado Native American Indian Scholarship Fund, the Sam Cary Scholarship Endowment Fund, the Colorado Asian American Bar Scholarship Fund, the Colorado Hispanic Bar Scholarship Fund, and the Colorado Women's Bar Association Scholarship Fund.
• In partnership with the University of Idaho School of Law, we sponsor a "Law by Day, Jazz by Night" each year for undergraduate minority students who have an interest in law.
• We took a leadership role in organizing and supporting the Colorado Pledge Group's Minority First Year Law Student Summer Clerk Program. Through this program, law firms agreed to add at least one diverse first year law student to their summer clerk program.
• We were involved in the creation of the Cross-Professional Business Networking Group, where diverse attorneys in our community can meet and network with non-attorney professionals of color. We view this as a way to help diverse attorneys increase their business development possibilities.

For more information regarding Holland & Hart's commitment to diversity, please contact Peter Houtsma at (303) 295-8259.