What Does a Healthcare Lawyer Do?

Is It Time to Hire a Healthcare Lawyer? Learn How Our Lawyers Help Our Healthcare Clients

As a healthcare professional or business executive, you know the value of good advice. You know just how important it is to make informed decisions, and you know that you need to address short-term problems with a long-term perspective.

But, do you apply this to your business or practice? For a surprising number of healthcare professionals and business executives, the answer is “No.” They muddle through regulatory hurdles on their own, turn a blind eye to a variety of potential risks, and make guesses about what it takes to maintain compliance.

This approach is not the best, nor is it necessary.

Hiring an experienced healthcare attorney ensures that providers and businesses have the insights they need to make the right decisions. Just as patients must rely on their doctors’ treatment advice to get better, healthcare professionals and business owners must rely on their attorneys’ legal advice to help them avoid unnecessary risks. There are several ways a healthcare lawyer can help; and, while many practitioners and business owners have concerns about cost, the reality is that it can be far more costly not to have an experienced lawyer on your side.

Put our highly experienced team on your side

Dr. Nick Oberheiden

Founder

Attorney-at-Law

Lynette S. Byrd

Former DOJ Trial Attorney

Partner

Brian J. Kuester

Former U.S. Attorney

Hon. Kevin McCarthy

55th Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives (ret.)

Government Consultant

Mike Pompeo

Of Counsel

Former U.S. Secretary of State

John W. Sellers

Former Senior DOJ Trial Attorney

Linda Julin McNamara

Federal Appeals Attorney

Nicholas B. Johnson

Former Prosecutor

Roger Bach

Former Special Agent (DOJ)

Chris J. Quick

Former Special Agent (FBI & IRS-CI)

Michael S. Koslow

Former Supervisory Special Agent (DOD-OIG)

Ray Yuen

Former Supervisory Special Agent (FBI)

7 Ways Our Healthcare Attorneys Help Our Clients

At Oberheiden P.C., a significant portion of our practice is devoted to representing healthcare providers, medical facilities, and other businesses in the healthcare industry. We advise practitioners, owners, and executives daily. Within our healthcare law practice, we provide advisory, compliance, and defense representation, and we work with clients in specialties ranging from genetic pathology and oncology to pharmacy and medical device manufacturing.

So, what does a healthcare attorney do? Here are seven ways our healthcare attorneys help our clients:

1. Healthcare Law Compliance

Healthcare compliance is – or should be – a top priority for all providers and businesses in the healthcare industry. Entities in healthcare are subject to numerous compliance obligations, and failure to meet these obligations can lead to steep penalties. Here is just a small sampling of areas in which compliance is mandatory:

• Ambulance and ambulatory surgery services
• Financial relationships with physicians and other providers
• Healthcare marketing
• Inpatient and outpatient treatment
• Laboratory and DNA testing
• Licensing
• Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare billing
• Private payor billing
• Protection of patients’ health and financial information
• Telehealth and telemedicine

Again, this list is far from exclusive. Maintaining comprehensive compliance is not easy, and it requires an ongoing commitment to addressing your practice’s or business’s legal obligations on a daily basis. With that said, compliance is extremely important, and those that prioritize compliance will reduce their risk of liability significantly.

2. Prescription Drug Compliance

Prescription drug compliance is a key concern for healthcare providers as well. While drug manufacturers are subject to extensive laws and regulations enforced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), healthcare providers are subject to laws and regulations enforced by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (DHHS OIG), and other state and federal authorities. Non-compliance with these laws and regulations can lead to steep penalties—including criminal penalties in some cases.

Some examples of key areas of prescription drug compliance with which our healthcare lawyers can assist include:

• DEA registration and compliance
• Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) compliance
• Electronic prescription compliance
• Pharmacy compliance
• Prescription disposal compliance
• Prescription ordering, storage, and inventory compliance
• Prescription practices compliance

3. Compliance Training

The first step toward maintaining compliance is to develop a comprehensive and custom-tailored compliance program. The second step is to conduct comprehensive compliance training. Our healthcare attorneys routinely conduct training programs for healthcare providers and other clients.

Why is it important to have a healthcare lawyer conduct your practice’s or business’s compliance training? There are several reasons. First and foremost, providing training requires an in-depth understanding of all pertinent laws and regulations. It also requires familiarity with how compliance works in practice—as well as the mistakes and oversights that most often lead to compliance failures. When conducting compliance training programs, it is important to document these efforts as well, as demonstrating good-faith efforts to train a practice’s or business’s employees can go a long way toward fending off civil or criminal allegations during a healthcare audit, inspection, or investigation.

4. Compliance Audits and Enforcement

To ensure that their compliance programs remain effective, healthcare providers, facilities, and businesses need to conduct compliance audits at least annually. This, too, requires the advice and oversight of an experienced healthcare attorney. Our healthcare attorneys routinely conduct compliance audits for our clients as well.

Once again, there are several reasons to work with an experienced healthcare lawyer during the process. When we assist our clients with internal healthcare compliance audits, we provide services including:

• Identifying the appropriate scope of the audit
• Identifying all relevant data sources
• Assigning roles and responsibilities within the audit team
• Evaluating the current state of our client’s compliance program
• Identifying billing errors and other compliance deficiencies
• Conducting an unbiased overall assessment of compliance
• Identifying and executing next steps to remedy compliance failures

When compliance audits uncover deficiencies, appropriate enforcement is critical as well. State and federal authorities expect employers to hold their employees accountable, and failing to take appropriate responsive action can increase a provider’s or business’s liability exposure.

5. Audit, Inspection, and Investigation Defense

Healthcare providers, facilities, and businesses can expect to face scrutiny from several outside sources. This includes the DEA, DHHS OIG, Medicare auditors, and private insurers, among others. When facing a healthcare audit, inspection, or investigation, being able to rely on the advice and representation of an experienced healthcare attorney is paramount. Our attorneys deal with the authorities on behalf of our clients, and we work alongside our clients to help them resolve these external inquiries as quickly, cost-effectively, and favorably as possible.

6. Enforcement Defense

While the goal of maintaining compliance and defending against healthcare audits, inspections, and investigations is to avoid enforcement action, in some cases this simply won’t be possible. If mistakes have been made in the past, a healthcare provider, facility, or business may have no choice but to address these mistakes head-on.

In most cases, this involves defending against civil allegations or administrative penalties. The False Claims Act, Stark Law, Anti-Kickback Statute, and other pertinent laws and regulations provide for civil or administrative enforcement in most cases. But, some healthcare law violations can trigger criminal prosecution as well; and, in these cases, presenting a strong healthcare defense is essential for avoiding substantial fines and possible imprisonment.

7. Civil Litigation Defense

Along with enforcement litigation, healthcare providers and other businesses in the healthcare industry can face private civil litigation as well. From patient complaints to allegations of insurance fraud, various issues can lead to lawsuits in state or federal court. At Oberheiden P.C., our healthcare lawyers defend practices, companies, professionals, owners, and executives against all types of civil litigation nationwide.

FAQs: Engaging a Healthcare Lawyer for Your Practice, Facility, or Business

Speak with a Healthcare Lawyer at Oberheiden P.C. for Free

If you have questions about hiring a healthcare lawyer, we encourage you to contact us for more information. To speak with a senior lawyer at Oberheiden P.C. in confidence, please call 888-680-1745 or tell us how we can help online today.