Healthcare is extremely complex, rapidly evolving and highly regulated. Benesch Healthcare+ extends far beyond regulatory counsel. The group has decades of experience advising healthcare stakeholders across transactions, administrative and judicial advocacy and the compliance issues that shape day-to-day operations. We pair industry fluency with legal depth to help clients move quickly, manage risk and capture opportunity.
Clients who work with Benesch Healthcare+ can almost always be assured that our attorneys already have direct experience in their sector of the healthcare industry. We represent for-profit and tax-exempt organizations nationwide, including physicians and physician organizations, hospitals and health systems, long-term care and senior living facilities, behavioral health providers, ambulatory surgical centers, dialysis facilities, medical spas, diagnostic imaging enterprises, management and outsourced services organizations, healthcare technology companies, durable medical equipment manufacturers and suppliers, medical device manufacturers and suppliers, pharmaceutical retailers, wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers, accountable care organizations, managed care organizations, home health and hospice agencies and various other healthcare providers, facilities and organizations.
What distinguishes Benesch Healthcare+ is our holistic perspective on the challenges and intricacies of the healthcare industry. Our work spans antitrust, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, private insurance, federal and state fraud and abuse laws, DEA and pharmacy issues, licensure, and survey and certification. We evaluate business opportunities and transactions through a healthcare lens informed by how enterprises operate on a day-to-day basis. That dual command of healthcare law and healthcare business cements Benesch Healthcare+ as a powerhouse legal resource in the industry.
Experience is only part of what we deliver. We provide tailored service grounded in deep industry exposure. Our attorneys immerse themselves in each client’s business to understand priorities, then design pragmatic strategies using multidisciplinary teams to meet those needs efficiently and effectively.
Benesch Healthcare+ has been recognized by Chambers® for more than a decade. Benesch has also been ranked nationally in the Top Tier for Healthcare Law since 2021 by Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms.” Chambers® notes that Benesch Healthcare+ is a “highly experienced practice covering a range of healthcare issues” with a strong track record in transactions and significant demand for counsel in state and federal investigations and audits.
Customized Service; Unrivaled Experience
No matter what mix of legal experience you need, our team responds quickly and intelligently. Benesch Healthcare+ routinely tackles a broad and varied range of client challenges including, but not limited to:
Business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, capitalizations, recapitalizations, divestitures, joint ventures and key contracts
Fraud and abuse analysis and advice, including internal investigations and plans of correction related to anti-kickback, physician self-referral and civil monetary laws
Managed care contracting and network development
Population health initiatives, including clinically integrated networks, ACOs and chronic care management solutions
Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, including alternative payment models and innovations
Corporate and HIPAA compliance, including data breaches and privacy response plans
Civil and criminal investigations
Litigation and alternative dispute resolution
Regulatory analysis and strategic advice
Individual and facility licensure, accreditation and change-of-ownership processing
Market competition analysis, advice and due diligence
Not-for-profit and tax-exempt organization analysis and advice
Bankruptcy and reorganizations
Medical staff and peer review matters
Building on this foundation, Benesch Healthcare+ also brings extensive, practical experience in areas shaping the current and future healthcare landscape:
We take pride not only in solving today’s issues but also in anticipating what comes next. Our vast industry relationships give us early insight into emerging trends and proposed regulatory changes. We help clients assess how shifts in policy, reimbursement and market behavior may affect strategic direction, operational risk and transaction timing, and we advise on how to respond with confidence.
We also advocate for our clients. Understanding how heavily regulated the industry is, we proactively build relationships with those who influence those regulations: industry leaders and their entities, legislative and regulatory bodies, and individual legislators and regulators. This allows us to amplify our clients’ voices on matters crucial to their success and furnish decision-makers with informed insight on how proposed laws, rules and regulations may help or hinder the industry.
Deep Transactional Experience
The Benesch Healthcare+ team has deep experience handling all aspects of healthcare transactions, from deal structuring, transactional due diligence and drafting to negotiating definitive transaction agreements with a variety of investors, sellers, lenders and regulatory agencies. Our role extends well beyond closing the deal. We help clients navigate the regulatory requirements and strategic considerations that shape transaction structure and long-term performance, allowing organizations to identify and seize market opportunities for growth.
Because healthcare transactions often require coordination with multiple agencies and governmental representatives across different states, our national regulatory network and familiarity with the regulatory environment allow us to move quickly, anticipate issues and clear barriers before they slow progress. Whether working on private equity platform builds, joint ventures, recapitalizations or strategic affiliations, our clients know us as deal makers who get transactions done and get them done right.
Coordination of Healthcare Regulatory Experience
We are adept at working seamlessly with corporate counsel, both within Benesch and alongside outside teams, to spot regulatory issues early, quantify risk, craft solutions and maintain momentum. We identify due diligence challenges, evaluate and construct pragmatic responses and plans to keep deals on track, and execute on such plans to eliminate or mitigate risk to preserve expected operational and financial performance of the client or target companies. We pride ourselves in finding workable solutions in the highly complex and dynamic regulated healthcare environment. We are deal makers, not deal killers.
Represented AccentCare Inc. as healthcare regulatory counsel as it entered into definitive agreement to be purchased by Advent International from Oak Hill Partners.
Represented AccentCare, Inc., a nationwide leader in post-acute healthcare, in its acquisition of Steward Home Care and Hospice.
Represented a fertility practice and its associated ambulatory surgical center in their sale to a fertility clinic.
Represented State University faculty practice plan in this development of an ASC.
Represents pharmaceutical institutional sites and consultants in all areas of clinical research.
Represented a venture capital firm in its partnership with a four-state integrated network of physician clinics, outpatient centers, and hospitals to expand diagnostic imaging services.*
Represented Family Eye Physicians as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to construct a $6 million, two operating room ambulatory surgical treatment center.
Represented Rush University Medical Center as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to construct a $51 million, state-of-art cancer treatment center in Lisle, Illinois.
Represented Advanced Orthopedic and Spine Care as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to construct a $10 million, one operating room ambulatory surgical treatment center.
Represented Rush Copley Medical Center as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to construct a $21 million, Clinical Decision Unit.
Represented Humboldt Park Health as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to construct a $27 million, Wellness Center.
Represented Resilience Healthcare as corporate and healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Exemption to acquire West Suburban Medical Center and Weiss Memorial Hospital to acute care facilities in the Chicagoland area for $95 million.
Represented joint venture partners Ascension Health, Midwest Orthopedics at Rush, and Illinois Bone and Joint as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to construct a $10 million, ambulatory surgical treatment center.
Represented Lindenhurst Surgery Center as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to modernize an ambulatory surgical treatment center.
Represented Milwaukee Avenue Eye Center as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to construct a $4 million, two operating room ambulatory surgical treatment center.
Benesch represented Integra Health Properties (“Integra”) in connection with its joint venture and master lease with Welltower for a portfolio of 147 nursing facilities. As part of the transaction, Integra is subleasing the nursing facilities to approximately 15 regional operators. Benesch worked with Integra to facilitate a seamless transition to these new operators by negotiating and closing upon customary management and operations transfer agreements, subleases and other related documents. On December 22, 2022, the first tranche of the transaction closed.
Represented nephrologists, nephrology practices and dialysis providers in negotiations of medical director agreements.
Represented Rush University Medical Center and Select Medical Corporation as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to construct a new $109 million, 100 bed LTAC/Rehabilitation hospital.
Advised the Medical University of Ohio during its merger with the University of Toledo, creating the third-largest public university operating budget in the state of Ohio.*
*Prior to joining Benesch
Represented Ohio Living in its participation in a joint venture with two other continuing care retirement communities for the development and generation of an institutional special needs plan which will be marketed as a Medicare Advantage Plan in the areas served by the joint venture partners.
Represented STET in the leasing and transition of operations of an 11-facility skilled nursing portfolio in Missouri from a national operator and REIT-owner.
Represented Continuing Health Care Solutions, Inc. (CHS) in receiving $43.3 million term loan and line of credit from Oxford Finance LLC.
Represented ConcertoHealth in the termination of its provider and delegated services agreement with Michigan Complete Health.
Represented The CommuniCare Family of Companies in the sale of Commons at Greenbriar, a 50-unit assisted living community located in Youngstown, Ohio suburb of Boardman, to EDM Management, Inc.
Represented Encompass Health as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to construct a $52 million, 60 bed rehabilitation hospital.
Represented Illinois Spine Institute as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to construct an Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center.
Represented Vascular Access Center as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to construct an Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center.
Represented North Suburban Pain and Spine Center as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to construct an Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center.
Represented Nephrology Associates of Northern Illinois and Indiana as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Exemption to acquire an Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center.
Represented Illinois Bone and Joint as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to perform surgeries in additional categories of service at their existing Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center.
Represented MercyHealth as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to construct a Sub-Acute Unit at the Rockford Hospital.
Represented Soderstrom Dermatology Center, S.C. as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Exemption to sell their existing Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center.
Represented Smith Senior Living as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to construct a $23 million, 78 bed skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility.
Represented US HealthVest LLC as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to construct a $30 million, 146 bed acute mental illness hospital.
Represented Illinois Back and Neck Institute as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to construct an Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center.
Represented Ignite Medical Resorts McHenry as healthcare regulatory counsel in obtaining approval for an Illinois Certificate of Need to construct a $17 million, 84-bed skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility.
“Benesch has a strong nationwide team offering significant healthcare expertise. The team is highly capable across a range of regulatory matters with significant strength in CON approvals. The firm possesses additional strength in transactions, regularly handling complex acquisitions.” - Chambers USA