Levett Rockwood is one of the major health law firms in Connecticut, and is a recognized leader in representing health care providers statewide. Our clients include acute care and specialty hospitals, long-term care facilities, home health agencies, independent physician groups and provider networks. Our experience enables us to provide our services in a very cost-effective manner.

We assist hospitals in handling both general legal matters and specific health law issues, including contracts, institutional review board proceedings, development of hospital policies and procedures, bioethics, physician recruitment, medical staff relations, peer review and disciplinary hearings, patients' rights, corporate compliance programs, general operations, and malpractice defense.

Our attorneys have considerable experience with hospital reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions, strategic affiliations, joint ventures, hospital financing, Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement, audits and investigations, general compliance plans, teaching hospital issues, structuring of networks for integrated delivery of health care services, ambulatory surgery centers, and related tax issues affecting health care providers.

We regularly represent our clients in proceedings before federal agencies, as well as state bodies such as the Office of Health Care Access, the Attorney General's Office and the Departments of Public Health and Social Services. Such proceedings involve a wide range of matters, including Certificate of Need approvals and modifications, regulatory appeals, compliance audits and investigative proceedings.

We have extensive experience in all areas of hospital law, including assisting in-house counsel and serving as outside general counsel. Clients include acute care hospitals, psychiatric care facilities, long-term care facilities and large teaching institutions. We regularly advise institutional review boards on contracts with sponsors of experimental studies, privacy issues and informed consent requirements. Our attorneys also assist in developing corporate compliance programs and updating hospital policies to comply with various statutory and regulatory changes. We are familiar with the legal issues that affect medical ethics, living wills, refusal of treatment, obligations to provide emergency and free care, confidentiality of patient information, and compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA"). We also have extensive experience in drafting and negotiating contracts with a wide variety of hospital vendors.

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We handle a comprehensive range of corporate transactions for our health care clients, including mergers, acquisitions, affiliations, joint ventures, financings and reorganizations, all with an eye toward reconciling business interests with the complex array of regulatory issues that surround health care activities. We have assisted our clients in the development of ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers and other ancillary services, in the structuring and financing of a wide variety of joint ventures and business affiliations, and in analyzing all related legal issues that affect such transactions. See Business Law for more details.

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Advising clients on compliance with the anti-kickback statute and available safe harbor protections has become a significant part of our health law practice in recent years. Our experience includes structuring transactions and investment opportunities to comply with the Stark law and its constraints on physician self-referral. We also handle matters involving antitrust law, state licensing requirements, internal investigations and other regulatory compliance issues.

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Our attorneys regularly represent Connecticut health care providers at the Office of Health Care Access in Certificate of Need proceedings. We assist in the process from preparing the letter of intent to participating in administrative hearings and appeals. We also advise on the applicability of Certificate of Need requirements to our clients' new ventures. Our experience in other agency proceedings includes representing health care providers in dealings with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Connecticut Department of Public Health, the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General and other state and federal agencies. In addition, we help clients achieve and maintain compliance with the requirements of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

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Peer review, credentialing, and disciplinary hearings are all areas where we have deep experience assisting providers in dealings with their medical staffs. Our attorneys have reviewed application procedures for medical staff privileges for compliance with Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations standards and federal and state discrimination laws, drafted medical staff bylaws, and represented hospitals, physicians and other health care providers in various hearings before hospital and state hearing boards.

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Medicare, Medicaid and private payor reimbursement issues frequently arise for all health care providers. We regularly assist in interpreting complex reimbursement regulations and drafting and negotiating managed care agreements. We have represented providers in reimbursement audits and appeals at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Connecticut Department of Social Services, and the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

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Many of our health care clients are tax-exempt organizations and need detailed tax advice when planning for their business affairs, such as structuring joint ventures with physicians and for-profit entities. We also provide advice on appropriate physician recruitment and compensation strategies, create new tax-exempt entities, and assist in the planning of business activities to comply with private inurement and intermediate sanctions regulations. See Taxation for more details.

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Intimate knowledge of health law in a wide variety of contexts, coupled with our litigation expertise, makes us uniquely qualified to defend health care providers in malpractice cases. We have long provided representation to physicians and hospital clients in this area.

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