Practice Area

Health Care

Consider Us The 911 For Health Care Providers.

Today, health care providers assemble experts from a variety of medical specialties to give their patients the best possible care. At Underberg & Kessler, we do the same thing in providing legal representation to our health care clients. Whether they’re doctors, insurers, hospitals or nursing homes, our clients turn to us for everything from day-to-day legal matters, to assistance with large projects, to malpractice litigation.

Managed care. Malpractice. Professional ethics. Electronic medical records and other emerging medical technologies. Building new medical facilities. These are just a few of the issues facing the health care profession today. Encompassing social, medical, financial and ethical considerations, health care issues require diverse legal expertise and the ability to solve complicated problems, often with many stakeholders.

For more information about Health Care, contact David M. Tang

Chair of Practice Group

Underberg & Kessler’s Health Care Group offers the broad range of legal services required by nursing homes, physicians and other health care providers, including:

FOR PHYSICIAN AND DENTIST CLIENTS:

Employment agreements/disputes
Corporate compliance programs
Entity organizational matters
Assistance in audit reviews
Credentialing/privileges
Risk management/patient issues
Buy-sell arrangements and succession planning
Mergers and acquisitions
Malpractice defense
OPMC defense
OPD defense
Real estate leases and new building developments
Employment law advice
Medical record confidentiality matters
Contract drafting and review

FOR LONG-TERM-CARE CLIENTS:

Regulatory compliance
Corporate compliance programs
Entity organizational matters and corporate governance
Risk management/patient issues
Real estate development and financing (commercial and tax exempt)
Malpractice and negligence defense
Employment law advice
– Medical record confidentiality matters

Relevant Experience

Help health care providers prepare for, respond to and comply with New York State surveys. Our services include representation in matters related to enforcement proceedings.
Represent nursing homes in all aspects of the collection process to improve the financial health of the facilities.
Successfully appealed a New York State survey report to the Federal Health Care Financing Administration. The appeal resulted in a special federal survey that overturned the conclusions of the original New York State survey.
Helped a nursing home complete bond issues to finance a new facility. Our services included representation on real estate matters related to the development of the facility.
Risk management counseling following reportable/non-reportable incidents.

We provide general representation on all aspects of health care law to individual practitioners and groups of physicians and dentists, including:

Establishment and operation of professional corporations, limited liability companies and limited liability partnerships
Establishment and administration of employee benefit plans
Tax planning
Assistance with the acquisition of medical technology and equipment
Representation on reimbursement, licensing and credentialing issues
Negotiation of capitated contracts with HMOs and other providers
Representation of physicians with the Office of Professional Medical Conduct
Development of corporate compliance plans
Representation with insurer audits
HIPAA compliance
Medical records compliance
Contract reviews including technology, electronic medical records, employment and leases
Represented a group of employed physicians in purchasing a specialty practice from its founder/longtime owner.
Successfully reversed a denial of coverage by a third-party payer to secure coverage for life-altering medical treatments for a young man whose insurance company had deemed the treatments experimental.
Successfully defended a nursing home against multiple claims of neglect and abuse by the son of a resident whose records showed four years of exemplarily treatment by the facility and staff members.
Successfully defended an alleged medical malpractice claim against a well-established internist by a patient who suffered a remote but serious side effect of a medication prescribed by him to treat a chronic and serious medical condition.
Successfully defended a medical specialty group in a medical malpractice action alleging the late diagnosis of breast cancer.
Successfully defended a hospital system in a medical malpractice action alleging medical negligence in the management of the delivery of an infant with fetal distress.