Behavioral Health

Holland & Knight represents a wide range of behavioral healthcare providers – from publicly traded entities with international operations to regional companies and organizations that operate psychiatric acute care hospitals, addiction treatment centers, eating disorder treatment providers and other behavioral facilities. The experienced attorneys on our Behavioral Health Team understand the issues unique to behavioral healthcare providers and guide our clients through day-to-day operational issues and key strategic initiatives.

Transactional Matters

Representing some of the largest behavioral care providers in the country, our healthcare attorneys have extensive experience in transactional matters involving providers of behavioral health and psychiatric care, including:

• mergers and acquisitions (M&A), joint ventures and divestitures
• going private transactions
• leveraged and management buyouts

Our extensive experience includes the representation of private equity firms making investments in the rapidly expanding, yet highly fragmented, behavioral health and addiction treatment segments.

Behavioral care providers rely on Holland & Knight attorneys in a wide range of complex commercial finance transactions. We help providers obtain needed capital for acquisition, development and expansion into new markets, capital improvements, restructuring and working capital. Our attorneys routinely provide counsel on all aspects of raising capital, including secured and unsecured financing, senior and subordinated credit facilities, double lockbox structures to facilitate healthcare asset-based lending, syndicated and single lender loan transactions, debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing and intercreditor arrangements. Additionally, we advise behavioral healthcare providers on private placements, general solicitation offerings, limited offerings, Reg A "mini-IPO" offerings and registered public offerings.

Regulatory Compliance and Operations

The experienced lawyers on Holland & Knight's Behavioral Health Team are well versed in the day-to-day regulatory issues encountered by behavioral hospitals and residential treatment centers throughout the United States, and we help clients remain up-to-date and compliant with the challenging regulatory demands they face. Few law firms can match our healthcare regulatory experience in the area of behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment services. Clients in this rapidly growing sector rely on our attorneys for assistance with:

• facility licensure, accreditation and certification by the Joint Commission and the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF)
• certification to participate in government reimbursement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid
• facility decertification proceedings
• contracting with commercial third-party payers
• issues related to urine drug screen and other laboratory relationship and billing issues
• compliance with 42 CFR § 2 regarding the confidentiality of disclosure of patient records under the federal Drug Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Act
• compliance with HIPAA and state regulations governing protected health information and patient privacy
• medication-assisted treatment regulations, state pharmacy regulations and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registration and regulation
• regulatory investigations, audits and appeals involving Medicare reimbursement, including Zone Program Integrity Contracts (ZPIC), Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) and Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs)
• investigations and enforcement actions by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and Medicaid Fraud Control Unit
• relationships with marketing organizations and other referral sources
• relationships with physicians and other addiction treatment professionals
• structuring joint venture relationships with other healthcare providers and facilities

Employment Matters

Healthcare employers have a unique set of legal needs, and Holland & Knight lawyers are dedicated to serving the labor and employment needs of behavioral healthcare organizations locally, regionally and nationally. Our attorneys understand the industry-specific characteristics of healthcare employers, including the relationships between administration, employees and medical staff as well as the challenges of the healthcare industry's complex regulatory environment and accrediting requirements.