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Posts Tagged ‘Successor Liability’

Medicare Successor Liability In Healthcare Transactions

Thursday, January 30th, 2014

Medicare Successor Liability In Healthcare Transactions

 successor liability chow acquisitions health care medicareNormally in an asset transaction, the acquiring party will only assume the liabilities that it agrees to assume pursuant to the transaction documents.  The due diligence and closing process identifies potential liabilities that could attach to the assets being acquired.  Identified liabilities are normally released as a condition of closing.  For example, if the seller has bank financing that creates a lien on assets, the buyer requires the liability to be paid off and the lien to be released prior to closing so that the purchaser does not take the assets subject to the liability.

The situation is somewhat different when it comes to Medicare liabilities.  Generally, where a change of ownership (commonly referred to as a CHOW) occurs as defined under Medicare regulations, the purchaser is deemed to assume most liabilities under the Medicare program, even if the contracts say otherwise.  When it comes to Medicare, an asset agreement is normally considered to be a CHOW.  As such, the Medicare liabilities are automatically assumed by the purchaser unless an affirmative election is made by the buyer well in advance of closing.

The automatic assumption of Medicare obligations will only apply when a “provider” is being sold.  Medicare regulations specifically define what constitutes a “provider.”  A provider is generally limited to entities who receive reimbursement under Part A, such as hospitals, home health agencies, hospices, skilled nursing facilities, and a handful of others.  Physicians and others who are not specifically listed as “providers” will not be subject to the automatic assignment of the provider’s provider agreement and corresponding liabilities.  We must still be concerned about potential successor liabilities in the case of non “providers,” but for reasons that are much different than the Medicare successor liability rules.

Parties who are acquiring providers can exclude themselves from the automatic assignment of the provider agreement, but they must follow the correct procedures.  Primarily, the acquiring organization must affirmatively reject automatic assignment by properly notifying Medicare.  Notifying the seller or putting a clause in a contract does not suffice.  The rejection must be delivered to the CMS regional office within forty-five (45) days before the transaction is to be closed.  Rejection of the provider agreement comes with some serious negatives that should be weighed by the acquirer.  The primary downside is that the acquiring entity may have interruption in revenues because a new provider application and complete survey will need to be conducted before Medicare authorization is resumed.  In short, the acquiring provider must decide whether to take on past liabilities or assume the loss of revenues during the re-certification process.

In many cases, the due diligence process will help the acquiring organization make a determination of whether to reject the provider agreement.  If the selling organization historically operated a highly effective and robust compliance program, the purchasing organization may be more comfortable assuming the risk of successor liability.  A good and experienced compliance officer can assist counsel in the process of identifying specific risk areas.  If the selling provider has paid little or no attention to high risk areas, the acquiring provider might consider rejecting the provider agreement and corresponding liabilities.  Alternatively, the acquiring party could decide to push further into the due diligence of these high risk areas by requiring risk area specific audits to help quantify any risk that could be present in these identified areas.  Depending on the outcome of the risk specific audit process, the acquiring provider may decide to take several different approaches.

If problems are discovered but it is important for the transaction to go forward anyway, the buyer may insist upon the seller going through a repayment and/or self disclosure process as a condition of consummating the transaction.  Clearly, this approach will lead to significant delays and may meet resistance from the sellers.

In some cases, the buyer may agree to go forward with the transaction but make adjustments to the transaction.  These adjustments might involve adjustments to the purchase price, strengthening of representations, warranties, or indemnifications, among other options.  The outcome will depend on the extent of the potential problem and the ability of the seller to make good on post-closing obligations, such as indemnifications.  Often times, the seller will be selling its only significant assets and will have limited liability to honor a post closing covenant or indemnity.  Some transactions may permit the posting of security to assure post closing obligations.  Nevertheless, purchasers should be extremely careful before assuming unknown liabilities for acts that occurred prior to closing.  The discovery of problems may foretell additional problems that lie dormant until after closing.

The safest route for a buyer to take is to thoroughly due diligence and require complete remediation of any significant compliance issue that could result in successor liability prior to closing.  In any event, compliance trained individuals should be involved in the due diligence and assessment process.

Compliance Audits in Mergers and Acquisitions

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

Compliance Audits in Mergers and Acquisitions

Compliance Mergers Acquisitions Due DiligenceThere is a current trend in the health care industry toward mergers and acquisitions.  As providers consolidate acquisition issues, such as due diligence, become major issues.  Transitional attorneys are well versed in the routine of transactional due diligence.  Health care and compliance attorneys are often asked to become involved in defining the appropriate scope of health care compliance due diligence in the context of a merger and acquisition transaction.

The structure of the contemplated transaction has a major impact on the scope of due diligence that should be performed regarding health care compliance areas.  Where the Medicare provider number of the acquired organization is part of the deal, robust audits of billing and compliance practices is necessary to identify any potential false billing or overpayment claims.  In this type of transaction, the acquiring provider will certainly have successor liability for all matters that took place (or did not take place) with respect to the provider number prior to closing.

Even when the provider number is not acquired, the transaction needs to be structured in a way that minimizes exposure to successor liability under state law.  Even when structured in a manner that insulates a provider from past liabilities, as a practical matter, the past methods of doing things will be carried on the acquiring entity following the acquisition.  Billing practices will carry forward for some period of time.  Referral relationships may exist without a written agreement being in place as required under state law exceptions or safe harbor rules.  It will take some period of time to identify specific problems that might be carried forward into the new organization, even under the most robust compliance program.

In any event, the compliance perspective should be involved to provide insight as part of every health care acquisition.  The scope of compliance needs to be appropriately scaled to reduce potential risk exposure to the acquiring organizations.

For more information regarding health care mergers and acquisitions, contact John Fisher, II at Ruder Ware.

John H. Fisher

Health Care Counsel
Ruder Ware, L.L.S.C.
500 First Street, Suite 8000
P.O. Box 8050
Wausau, WI 54402-8050

Tel 715.845.4336
Fax 715.845.2718

Ruder Ware is a member of Meritas Law Firms Worldwide

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