ASC Regulatory and Structural Issues

 

A recent “advanced session” was provided by the American Health Lawyer’s Association covering several of the central legal issues that arise with respect to ASC ownership and structure.  The general issues covered in the webinar included:

 

1.ASC ownership structure and valuation issues;

2.ASC policies, procedures and compliance issues;

3.Regulatory issues involved with terminating physician ownership interests;

4.Compliance issues for ASCs that do not strictly meet safe harbor provisions;

5.ASC relationships with anesthesia providers;

6.Procedures performed “in office” versus in the ASC;

7.Conversion of physician ownership to hospital owned ASCs; and

8.Co-management and other creature arrangements with hospitals.

 

I have previously blogged on the ASC safe harbor provisions and will be supplementing previous work in this area with further articles.

 

I have represented physician groups, individual investors, institutions and management organizations in connection with surgery center legal and compliance issues and have a depth of knowledge in these issues.

 

ASCs involve extremely intricate and subtle legal and regulatory issues.  The consequences of not carefully following regulatory requirements can be devastating to the ASC as well as organizers and investors.  These issues must be squarely addressed and appropriately documented.  ASCs are often structured with insufficient attention to appropriate regulatory parameters.  Arrangements that are structured by parties who are not familiar with the subtleties of applicable regulations can present a great deal of risk to participants.  Even when the ASC is appropriately documented, failure to exercise appropriate judgment when it comes to key issues such as valuation and termination of interests can lead to dire straits.  

 

Stay tuned for more discussion on many of the subtle legal and regulatory issues involved in ASC structure and operation.