The American healthcare industry has evolved into a vast and dynamic sector of the economy, and every hospital, professional and other healthcare provider within it is an integral part of that industry. Hospitals and other healthcare institutions, as well as physician practices, must deal on a constant basis with highly complex issues and challenges that range from expansion projects and mergers to new technologies and bioethical dilemmas.
Increasingly, hospitals and other providers of healthcare goods and services rely on the expert counsel of health law attorneys to help them navigate the turbulent waters of their industry. In Florida, such expertise can be found at Florida Health Law Center, an exceptionally experienced and responsive health law firm based in Davie that provides a broad range of services to hospitals, healthcare systems, physician practices, home health agencies, nursing homes and other health-related businesses. Lee F. Lasris and Jodi Laurence, partners and co-founders of Florida Health Law Center, understand the needs of their clients; as advisers and advocates, they ease the clients’ way through the intricacies of the current healthcare environment and tailor solutions that help them succeed and avoid expensive and potentially harmful legal pitfalls.
“Within the legal profession, health care law is a specialty,” explains Lasris. “Health law is distinct from malpractice law. Health law is concerned with the administration and operation of healthcare institutions. We help our clients with billing and reimbursement issues; contract negotiations; HIPAA issues; mergers and acquisitions; medical staff bylaws, licensure and other medical staff issues; employment and compensation issues; fraud and abuse; and regulatory compliance. We help physicians with all of those things as well as providing legal advice regarding practice development and practice management. We help clients understand legislative issues and their potential impact. We represent healthcare providers of all types and handle all of their legal needs.”Lasris and Laurence both bring substantial experience to Florida Health Law Center, which they created in 2007. Jodi Laurence previously worked as a hospital “in-house” general counsel, and both Laurence and Lasris have been partners in large law firms. “We took the best of what we experienced in those settings and incorporated it into our firm,” says Laurence. “We offer reasonable rates and we are practical in our advice to them. We know that they engage us to tell them how to get something done, not to hear the word ‘No.’ We help our clients to succeed in their endeavors, whether it’s adding new technologies or recruiting physicians to developing a new service. Above all, we make it a priority to listen and to understand their needs.”
As vanguard members of their professional specialty, Lasris and Laurence are often called upon to advance the practice of health law through teaching, writing, lecturing and other services. “We started practicing health law before the term ‘health lawyer’ was widely used,” recalls Lasris. “We attended seminars offered by the former National Health Law Association and we learned on the job. Now, there is board certification for health law by the Florida Bar and as board certified healthcare lawyers, we help other lawyers prepare for the Bar’s certification exam. The exam is difficult and is intended to weed out all but those who are able to demonstrate that they are true experts in the specialty of health law. Continuing education in health law topics is required to maintain the certification.”
In the midst of the current environment of health care reform, the need for top-notch legal counsel for hospitals, physicians and other health care providers has never been greater. Although most large hospitals and healthcare systems have their own staff attorneys, they regularly deal with legally challenging issues that demand the special expertise of health lawyers in private practice. For them and for smaller hospitals that may be unable to afford an in-house attorney, Florida Health Law Center is the ideal solution.
There are six attorneys on the Florida Health Law Center staff. The firm is expanding and recently formed a healthcare collections company. According to Lasris, “We recognized that for many clients, collecting from third party payors was their biggest problem. We wanted to help them collect the revenue owed to them.”
Laurence adds that if a client needs a service that they cannot provide, they will bring in specialists who can address the problem. Clients appreciate their work and consistently give them strongly positive feedback – particularly in the form of long term relationships and referrals of new clients.
Health law is an essential and growing specialty, and Florida is fortunate to have such an outstanding resource as Florida Health Law Center, a dynamic health law practice with a proven track record of success and highly satisfied clients. “We have a significant number of clients who have been with us for years,” says Laurence. “That’s meaningful to us. Doctors sometimes have initially negative feelings about attorneys, but when I explain what we do, they realize the benefits that we bring to the table. There are a million ways that we can help them. This is a great field of law and we feel good about the work that we do.”
