Are you searching for a proven, skilled San Diego healthcare attorney with more than four decades of experience and a proven track record across a broad range of medical and healthcare entities and legal issues?  Physicians, medical practices and the healthcare industry have seen extraordinary change over the past several years.  Healthcare providers, urgent care facilities, physicians and medical practices are searching for strategies to reduce costs and remain compliant with changing federal, state and local laws and regulations. Our San Diego medical business and healthcare attorneys at the Watkins Firm bring more than four decades of experience serving medical practices and businesses as well as the healthcare industry to your side of the equation.  What healthcare-related advice and legal services do you need?

Key Takeaways When Looking for a Skilled San Diego or California Healthcare Attorney:

• Healthcare and medical practices in California are governed by the most complex federal, state and local laws, regulatory requirements, ordinances, and employer-related issues in the United States.
• Healthcare business entities and practices need an experienced, proven legal partner to handle every aspect of legal services and advice, as well as dispute resolution.
• Healthcare contracts in California are quite complex, requiring unique, specific verbiage and context.  You can’t just use contracts or strategies (such as non-compete agreements) you’ve used elsewhere in the United States

Medical Business Formation, Acquisitions and Sale

The Watkins Firm is uniquely positioned and experienced to assist any entity or individual in the medical industry with their legal needs. If you are forming a new healthcare entity or physicians practice, a California Professional Corporation or PC is often a strong consideration. Those who are licensed professionals will enjoy additional protections from liability while obtaining a more flexible structure for deductions of many insurance and industry related expenses. The California PC provides additional advantages to those who wish to increase retirement account contributions as well.

The healthcare industry is constantly changing, evolving and integrating new processes as well as increasing regulation and legal challenges. A proven, skilled San Diego healthcare attorney at the Watkins Firm can help you with the purchase of specific equipment in an asset purchase or a merger or acquisition in a stock purchase transaction.  The Management Service Organization or MSO is a solid strategy to increase revenue streams while increasing the quality of care and patient experience of your practice or facility.  Finally, when it comes time to retire or to sell your practice or concept the Watkins Firm provides sound legal counsel and supporting services to help you with the Sale of a company or practice.

Healthcare Contracts are Quite Complex

California healthcare contracts must be quite different from the vendor and employment contracts utilized in other states, and other industries. The Watkins Firm has more than 40 years of experience crafting contracts for California medical practices and healthcare businesses that manage the day-to-day activities of medical practices and other medical providers, including employment agreements for doctors, nurses and medical professionals, as well as contracts that control vendor relationships.  These employment and contractor agreements are governed by special legal standards and restrictions. Employment contracts for physicians, healthcare professionals and care providers must also address unique issues related to California laws and local ordinances and regulatory issues.

While exclusions may apply for some MCO’s, HMOs and non-profit community clinics under certain specific corporate structures your goal is to clearly establish the terms of employment while protecting against unfair competition in the future.  Non-compete agreements are illegal in the State of California.  Ask your Watkins Firm attorney how to structure relationships while protecting your business.

California is the hardest state in the union in which to be an employer.  This is even more complex in the context of a healthcare business or medical practice.  Your Watkins Firm attorney will help to ensure your employee handbook, policies and procedures, and employer processes and files are properly structured and in full compliance with California law.  If an employment defense related issue arises, the Watkins Firm has 40+ years of experience in managing disputes and lawsuits, and working to protect your interests while resolving exposures as an employer quickly, and an in a cost-efficient manner.

Managing Disputes and Lawsuits

In addition to employer defense, your proven, skilled San Diego healthcare attorney from the Watkins Firm can help to manage any dispute, legal issue, or lawsuit that might arise.  It is important to note the Watkins Firm is able to resolve the vast majority of our healthcare-related disputes and lawsuits through effective, leveraged negotiation.  This is the fastest, least expensive strategy to resolve any such matter.  We represent our healthcare and medical practice clients in settlement conferences, mediation, arbitration, and when necessary, at trial.

Pro-Tip: “Broadly speaking, healthcare providers are supposed to provide efficient, honest, non fraudulent care for people’s health and all of the processes that go into making them able to do so. And bill for it. Bill, the federal government, bill private insurance is included. And there are several departments that oversee things like that. There’s your Department of Health and Human Services. There’s Department of Managed Healthcare that does private and public health, that has their guidelines and regulations. There’s compliance with HIPAA. There’s compliance with anti-kickback statutes, Stark Law.

The Department of Health and Human Services lists five areas of fraud and regulations that they claim are and they know are very important to them, and they enforce them. And those five areas are false claims, making false claims for healthcare. I saw one that actually went into criminal prosecution where in Orange County there was a healthcare provider that was providing services and charging it to Medicare and for years, and this guy never saw the patients, and that wasn’t enough. He had nurses and non nurses who just wore white coats seeing the patients, and then that wasn’t enough. So he had those same people bill for seeing the patients when even they didn’t see the patients by the time they put him in jail and he had amassed over $60 million in fraudulent charges that he collected. He was living the life and they got them, put them away. All those patients got terrible healthcare. And now bigger budgets are out there to go enforce these against honest doctors to make sure they cross every T and dot every I.

M S O is the hot topic every year by the legislature. They would like to stop that relationship, even though it’s what runs a lot of healthcare organizations. Everyone has got a specialty. Consider it this way. You’ve got a specialty. You are great at billing. You are great at admin management. You are great at equipment leases. You are great at dealing with landlords. You’re great at a lot of business-related management. And you can go to a healthcare organization and say, ‘you’re not doing a good job with the healthcare side of the equation, I could help you to do better on the business side of things. The profit I would make you just for my doing my job would pay for the fees. You wouldn’t have the headache of the business management, and you can focus on consistent, exceptional healthcare, and you can expand. Now, that would be a wonderful M S O partner.

You are able focus on the patients and taking care of the practice. Your MSO partner has the expertise to focus on the business side of the equation. And there are all kinds of ways you can slice that because it’s not usually a situation where the managing partner in a healthcare organization isn’t good at their job. They’re actually very good at it. But another organization could come in and they could participate in certain ways, contribute economies of scale and business advantages, and not participate in other ways and still be in compliance with M S O laws. That’s the best of both worlds. You are not kicking back, you’re not violating any laws. At the same time, you’re benefiting from their years of business and experience, and your abilities and skills in healthcare.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

A San Diego Healthcare Attorney You Can Trust

Here in California, the medical businesses and practices of the healthcare industry are forced to endure substantial government scrutiny as well as OSHA and HIPAA compliance issues. Healthcare related governance and compliance and the resolution of medical business and healthcare mediation, arbitration and litigation are crucial legal services your attorney should provide.

The Watkins Firm has served San Diego and Southern California healthcare entities, medical practices, equipment and instrument developers and manufacturers and other entities for more than four decades.  We invite you to review our podcast Episode 37 – medical Practice and Healthcare Governance and compliance as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.