By Vanessa Orr
Healthcare is ever-evolving—just like the laws and regulations that govern patient care. Administrators, physicians, and healthcare professionals must understand their legal as well as medical responsibilities, especially as technological advancements make it increasingly challenging to stay current.
“There are many people getting into the healthcare space now that want to change how healthcare is delivered and make it more accessible,” explains Jennifer Jordan, Esq., the founder and managing partner of JLX Advisory, which serves as fractional general counsel to healthcare startups and other healthcare companies. “But many are unaware of the complexities involved in healthcare regulation.”
Jordan founded JLX Advisory following her career at McDermott Will & Emery and also served as in-house legal counsel for a number of hospitals including the Cleveland Clinic. A professor at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), she teaches healthcare law to students in the university’s master’s in healthcare administration program.
Working with start-ups, Jordan often finds that businesses have difficulty scaling in a way that avoids running afoul of regulations, ranging from FDA and DMS requirements to state lab licensing laws. Her company also guides clients through HIPAA regulations as well as helps them to understand the rules of marketing healthcare products or services.
At FAU, Jordan lectures on more general healthcare legal information, which can range from regulatory issues to fraud and abuse laws, end-of-life care, employment matters, privacy and security, and ethical topics. She also focuses on technology, as many students will be joining healthcare startups or medical device companies that rely on new and emerging technology to provide services.
“All of my clients are working on integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into their businesses, and that technology raises a lot of questions,” she said. “Using software as a medical device to help diagnose patients is also a challenging topic as there are numerous rules around it.”
With such rapidly changing technology, Jordan understands how confusing it can be to try to keep on top of the latest developments.
“I know from my experience as a lawyer in both traditional healthcare settings, such as hospitals, and as in-house counsel for one of the largest OB/GYN groups in the country that they tend to be slow moving and behind the times,” she said. “Doctors are risk-averse humans; they are healers and are not trying to push the boundaries in business. They are satisfied with the way they’ve been doing things.”
She notes that while physicians are often innovative when it comes to curing illness, the adoption of tech-driven support systems and daily patient care solutions tends to lag behind. The biggest risk to this delay is that they are losing the ability to use these technologies to their advantage.
“The capabilities of AI are so incredible that we should be thinking about how to implement it in hospital systems now and in the future,” she said. “Thinking ahead, it may be possible to use it to do things that don’t even exist today.”
Beyond missing the chance to enhance patient care and experience, healthcare companies may also face problems from a legal perspective if protocols are not in place for using these technologies.
“If software is used without proper protocols in place, there’s a heightened risk of miscommunication or misdiagnosis,” Jordan said. “If you don’t have the software in place—for example, software that tells patients how much medicine to take or double-checks to make sure they got the right medicine—this is also a liability. You don’t have to have the latest technology, but you do need to have the most widely accepted and understood tools.”
To stay informed, Jordan recommends subscribing to daily emails from trusted sources such as the American Health Lawyers Association or Women in Health Technology. She also follows subject matter experts on LinkedIn to see what people at the forefront of innovation are discussing. Working with a legal firm is also an option.
“The FDA and CMS are always coming out with new opinions or commentary, and we stay on top of this for our clients to let them know how it could impact their businesses,” she says, noting that no one wants to end up in a regulatory investigation. “If you’re starting or scaling a healthcare company, you do have a duty to be aware of the latest information. You have to protect your business.”
Florida Atlantic’s Executive Master of Health Administration (MHA) degree is designed for driven, working professionals and provides a strong foundation in healthcare operations, policy, and management. Program highlights include:
- Globally recognized College of Business AACSB accreditation
- Fully online or weekend in-person options available
- Complete in 15 months without work interruption
- Industry-leading faculty teaching in an immersive and collaborative learning environment
- GMAT/GRE requirement waived for qualified applicants
- Immersive Leadership Bootcamp included
- Membership to American College of Health Executives (ACHE) organization
- Full-service, program support for all your needs
– Lean Six-Sigma Green Belt certification included with enrollment in the Healthcare Operations elective
For more information, contact FAU at (561) 297-6000 or https://business.fau.edu/masters-phd/mha/executive-mha.
