We collaborate with our healthcare provider clients to safeguard their compensation for the care they provide. Our defense extends to audits by government and commercial payors, and we litigate federally and at state levels to prevent reductions in Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE payments. 

We lead clients through healthcare policy compliance and regulatory challenges. We provide counsel on corporate compliance programs and defend clients facing criminal or civil investigations and prosecutions. 

Our team comprises healthcare regulatory professionals, including a former U.S. attorney and several former state and federal prosecutors, each with a wealth of experience in healthcare-related matters. We are well versed in issues pertaining to the laws and regulations governing the industry, including Medicare/Medicaid fraud, government investigations, False Claims Act claims, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, antitrust, and corporate compliance. 

Our team advises on corporate structuring and transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and affiliations among tax-exempt entities, private equity and venture capital financings, and public securities offerings. We provide comprehensive advice in such areas as corporate transactions, tax matters (including 501(r) requirements and community health needs assessments), antitrust considerations, technology licensing and transfer, payer certification, trade secret protection, due diligence, and employment matters. 

We assist clients in the development of robust confidentiality, privilege, and data security policies and programs essential for compliance with extensive federal and state regulations. These include the stringent data security and privacy mandates within the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), as well as peer review laws and facility accreditation standards. We also help innovative companies understand and comply with the laws governing biometric data and biometric technologies. We have advised clients regarding data security and breach response and prepared them for network attacks and intrusions, lawsuits, and regulatory inquiries.  

We represent hospitals and healthcare facilities as borrowers, leveraging the various tax regulations in tax-exempt bond transactions, which offer opportunities for improved debt management. Our experience includes representing tax-exempt borrowers across more than 25 states, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, or in IRS regulations. 

By meticulously structuring transactions to isolate bond proceeds, we create an avenue for future flexibility in facility use. This, in turn, reduces the compliance monitoring burden. We remain vigilant on matters of charitable trust, examining financial support, cross-jurisdictional transfers, and the ramifications of asset transactions, mergers, and consolidations. 

We advise financial institutions that provide liquidity and/or credit enhancement for tax-exempt bonds and have taken on roles as bond counsel and underwriters' counsel for tax-exempt healthcare bond offerings across the United States. 

Our lawyers have counseled healthcare industry clients on the opportunities and challenges arising from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act since their enactment in March of 2010.  

Our intellectual property (IP) services for the healthcare, life sciences, and technology markets address the unique challenges faced by companies, innovators, and providers in these industries. We concentrate on the development and protection of patent rights, equipping clients with the necessary opinion letters on matters such as patent validity, infringement, and freedom to operate. Additionally, we represent hospitals and healthcare providers in such areas as technology transfer, protection of trade secrets, and branding and rebranding of properties and businesses. 

Clients from the healthcare industry seek our guidance on all manner of labor and employment challenges, including employee discipline and discharge, privacy rights, wage-and-hour concerns, medical accommodations, and hiring protocols. We actively represent clients in litigation and administrative proceedings, defending against discrimination litigation and charges before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and state antidiscrimination agencies and managing disputes involving noncompetition agreements. 

Perkins Coie assists clients with software systems and service agreements, such as electronic medical record systems, accounting systems, and billing systems. We manage complex procurement and distribution arrangements, which we have approached from both vendor and customer standpoints, including group-purchasing organizations. We draft and negotiate data-sharing agreements and have a wealth of experience in negotiating equipment-purchase agreements with leading providers of medical equipment. 

We assist with real estate and development permitting for healthcare industry clients in such projects as facility development, acquisition and disposition transactions, and land use and environmental permitting. We provide counsel to a range of facilities, including hospitals, medical campuses and research centers, and assisted living facilities, and guide clients through various land use and governmental entitlements. 

We help enforce rights and remedies related to defaults in financing instruments and assist with the acquisition of healthcare assets through forced sales, foreclosures, and bankruptcy proceedings. Our experience includes working with governmental entities to set up receiverships for facilities that are either in default or operating below standard.