We believe in helping those who help others and we believe this is best exemplified in the legal services we provide to healthcare professionals and providers. Our healthcare attorneys advocate for healthcare professionals, hospitals, long-term care facilities, skilled nursing facilities, psychiatric hospitals, group homes, dialysis clinics and private practices in a number of different settings. With experience in cases involving professional negligence, licensing board investigations and hearings, regulatory compliance issues and appeals, HIPAA matters, and contracts, including non-competition agreements, our healthcare team has successfully defended physicians and other health care providers in medical malpractice lawsuits and constitutional law claims, as well as in state licensing, grievance and disciplinary proceedings.
In addition to being advocates for our clients, our attorneys are also counselors. We understand the business challenges that medical and healthcare professionals face every day. We bring a deep commitment to helping our clients achieve success in their own practices by using our diverse legal experience to help them assess and avoid risk. We advise our clients regarding the development of policies and procedures, risk management programs, business transactions, and employment law matters. Our experience includes state licensing board investigations, employment counseling, employee termination and discipline, discrimination and harassment claims, wage and hour issues, development and review of employee handbooks, and business matters such as medical practice formation and dissolution.
As professionals, the ability to obtain and maintain licensure is critical. Our attorneys regularly appear before all the healthcare licensing boards with particular familiarity with the North Carolina Boards of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Veterinary Medicine, Social Work, Licensed Professional Counselors, Speech Language Pathology and Psychology. We help applicants to obtain new licensure, including licensure by credentials, and to seek reinstatement of suspended or revoked licenses. We also represent healthcare professionals who receive patient complaints to their respective Boards or are subject to other Board investigations, including those arising from fraudulent billing allegations. In addition, we have experience representing hospitals in cases of negligent credentialing and use that experience to assist clients seeking to obtain credentials.
Regardless of the clinical setting in which healthcare providers practice, they face a wide array of challenges in forming and running their practice. We leverage our knowledge of the complex laws and regulations governing healthcare professionals’ business operations to help our clients focus on their patients rather than their business. Our attorneys and our associated professionals help healthcare professionals to form practices, hire qualified staff, comply with state and federal law and regulations, all while striking the balance between advancing office technology and proper record keeping requirements. We also assist our clients in performing internal audits, developing administrative and clinical policies and procedures, and navigating the employment issues facing healthcare practices.
Being named as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging professional negligence is profoundly stressful and disruptive to any healthcare provider. The process can be long and sometimes confusing. Our attorneys bring the experience and wisdom of seasoned trial lawyers to each case. We have defended numerous medical specialties in cases involving serious injury and death, including birth injury and brain damage cases. We have the expertise and the connections to hire the best experts to provide early and accurate evaluations of each case and to help us formulate the most effective defense strategy. Moreover our experience with licensing boards and regulatory issues allows us to understand the interplay between professional negligence litigation and other areas of concern that affect our clients and their practices.
Walker v. North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners and Its Meaning for Professional Licensees in North Carolina North Carolina currently has fifty-five occupational licensing agencies. These agencies regulate professions including law, medicine, engineering, surveying, therapy, and real estate. Generally, the…
This interesting article attempts to rank states from least to most friendly to physicians based on several factors including malpractice premiums, medical malpractice settlements and verdicts, physician density, access to tertiary care facilities and overall health of the population. North…
On January 27, 2017, in King v. Bryant, the Supreme Court of North Carolina held that health care providers now owe prospective patients a fiduciary relationship that is independent of a physician-patient relationship and can even exist prior to formation of…
In the information economy, managing employee knowledge is critical. Recent labor trends of decreasing employee tenure only heightens the importance for businesses and employers to take pro-active steps in protecting sensitive information and relationships developed in the course of business…
In Universal Health Services Inc. v. United States ex rel Escobar, the U.S. Supreme Court considered a False Claims Act (“FCA”) prosecution under the “implied certification theory”. Under this theory, when a provider certifies a claim for submission he or…
