Regulatory Landmines in Health Care Litigation: PHI, Kickback, and Corporate Structure Risks [Video]

• Protected Health Information (PHI) in Discovery: PHI must be produced under specific protective orders and in line with both federal and state requirements. Some behavioral health documents require a court order before production, even with a protective order in place.
• Settlements and Kickback Risk: Settlements with a regulated health care party can raise Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark Law concerns, and a payment to a referral-source physician can be questioned if it overpays the physician to keep referrals coming. Third-party evaluations of settlement value have been used to avoid later improper-payment allegations.
• Corporate Practice of Medicine: In most states, corporations and hospitals cannot direct how doctors practice. A damage model relying on relationships that violate these rules or other state-law structural issues can fail and create unintended consequences in public filings.

In this episode of Speaking of Litigation^®, Epstein Becker Green attorneys Jonathan Brollier, Charles E. Weir, and Megan Thibert-Ind discuss regulatory and business issues unique to the health care industry that can affect how cases are litigated and resolved.