Healthcare Transactions

The art of medicine is the heart of a medical or healthcare practice, but every organization rests on a financial foundation. These can take many forms and include a variety of payment, reimbursement, and practice procedures. Setting up and managing any complex healthcare organization can be difficult and includes risks of overlooking obscure legal rules and practice requirements. The creation of multifaceted organizations faces a myriad of hurdles and complications. Transactional issues can involve joint ventures, physician referral criteria, acquisition and sale of healthcare entities, tax-exempt issues, charity care, and restrictive covenants. Our attorneys are experienced in every aspect of healthcare transactional law, both as practicing healthcare managers and as attorneys. To ensure your organization’s formation is smooth, meets all legal requirements, and proceeds without difficulty, talk with us about how we can guide you through the development process.    

Financial considerations extend beyond an organization’s creation. Processing monetary transactions, patient charges, insurance reimbursements, and network billing must all flow efficiently and comply with federal and state regulations. Establishing a financial structure that allows for effective and compliant processing of charges and claims is essential for any healthcare organization. At Haque Law, we take the job of setting up managed care contracting networks, corporate medical practice, and physician practice structures seriously.  We have extensive experience organizing physician contracting and billing processes, creating systems for Medicare & Medicaid eligibility and reimbursements, and protecting against IPA anti-trust issues.

Laboratory Law

Every medical practice, hospital, and clinic depends on laboratory services to support patient diagnosis and treatment.  Generally, agreements between laboratories and healthcare organizations develop ongoing working relationships. Creating reference laboratory agreements and lab-to-lab contracts is a critical part of a complete healthcare business structure. To ensure these arrangements are correctly designed, contact Haque Law for legal guidance. The time to guarantee your business practices are correctly established is before processing begins.

We are specialists in creating managed-care contracting networks between rendering labs and billing labs, and ensuring your processes comply with CLIA and COLA rules and regulations. Also, in today’s fast-changing world, it is essential to establish any Covid-19 testing locations correctly. Issues concerning drive-by testing rules and requirements, phlebotomy, ambulatory draw sites, and other lab-related procedures are integral parts of creating a legal laboratory organization.

 Even with careful attention to details, insurance or other providers may demand managed care audits seeking refunds or changes in contractional provisions. These can be both time consuming and costly. At Haque Law, we are familiar with defending against these intrusive reviews and will stand by you and your practice to minimize practice exposure

Medical Malpractice

Suppose a patient sustains an injury during or after receiving substantial care from a healthcare practitioner. In that case, conditions may have been created upon which a medical malpractice lawsuit might be based.  Haque Law has the medical management and legal background to aggressively defend healthcare professionals against all types of malpractice lawsuits. It should be noted that poor medical treatment outcomes are generally not a basis for a malpractice action. Whatever your situation, visit with one of our attorneys to discuss your circumstances.  You can be certain that Haque Law has the experience to defend your position and will be your trusted ally should a suit be brought against your practice.  

Healthcare Investigations

Even when policies and procedures are carefully developed, implemented, and followed, misunderstandings, misinterpretation of contract provisions, or simple human errors can occur. In some cases, these oversights or missteps may trigger medical investigations. At Haque Law, we are ready to stand with you against investigations of any kind, including health insurance fraud, medical staff issues, peer review processes, compliance programs, and operations and patient safety issues.

Investigations into medical practice policies and procedures can take many forms, including violation of Stark and kickback statutes, misuse of physician-owned entities, improper referral fees, erroneous management contracts, and inappropriate agreements tied directly or indirectly to dollar value or volume. Care must be taken by all healthcare providers to ensure employees are adequately trained, and the medical facility or practice is properly structured. Should any type of investigation be brought against your operations, please contact Haque Law for assistance. We will assess your situation and advise you of your rights and available defenses.

The False Claim or ‘whistleblowers’ Act allows citizens with knowledge of contractual violations to bring suits against a person or entity in the name of the Federal government. The law was designed to protect the whistleblower and originated in 1863 under President Abraham Lincoln. The statute has been strengthened and amended numerous times since its inception. Under the law, individuals may bring a lawsuit against a medical practice should the individual believe a violation of federal contract provisions has occurred.  Examples might include accusations of false Medicare or Medicaid claims, violation of HIPAA provisions, or improper reimbursement claims to collect excess charges.  Lawsuits against a medical practice under the False Claims Act must be defended aggressively, and Haque Law is ready and able to assist you. These lawsuits are complex, so you should retain an attorney as early in the process as possible.  Our mission is to serve the healthcare community with solid legal counseling. 

In some cases, federal agencies initiate healthcare investigations seeking information regarding white-collar crimes such as embezzlement, fraud, bribery, or internet crimes. These investigations may be launched by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), the US Department of Health and Human Services, or the Department of Labor. In these cases, we strongly advise retaining legal counsel to represent you in all proceedings and meetings as the investigation proceeds.  Haque Law is ready and able to help ensure any such investigation will be conducted properly and concluded as quickly as possible.  As disconcerting as these investigations may be, by engaging Haque Law, you can be confident we will seek the best possible outcome for you and your organization.