HEALTH LAW

OPMC issues advisory letter regarding PA practice ownership

On January 7, 2009, the New York State Department of Health issued an advisory opinion addressing the issue of a Physician’s Assistant’s ownership of a medical practice. According to OPMC General Counsel, such ownership is prohibited as it would require the PA to employ a supervisory physician which would be contrary to the statutory scheme embodied in Articles 37 and 38 of the Public Health Law and Article 131-B of the Education Law. The opinion does not indicate whether disciplinary action will be taken against Pas who presently own their practice. Click here to view the entire letter.

Health care providers in New York State provide care to their clients in a highly (some would argue overly) regulated environment. For almost twenty years our firm has received numerous, almost daily, calls from physicians, nurses, hospital and nursing home administrators, psychologists and pharmacists asking for help when trying to navigate through the statutes, regulations and overlapping local, state, federal and accreditation agencies that exercise oversight of the delivery of healthcare services in this state. Can we answer every question? Of course not but if we cannot we will refer you to someone who can. We do provide effective yet cost-conscious legal services in the following areas:

Hospital medical staff membership and privileges: We have represented both physicians and hospitals in credentialing issues and have also provided a hearing officer in due process hearings;
Medical staff bylaws;
Formation and management of private practices;
Contracts;
Audits;
Insurance issues;
Supervision of unlicensed personnel;
Guardianship;
HIPAA;
Medical records;
End of life issues;
Medical ethics;
Surrogate decision-making;
Organ donation;
Legal issues in mental health;
Reporting requirements;
Patient/resident rights;
Professional misconduct;
The impaired practitioner;
Medical malpractice & risk management;
Subpoenas;
Treatment of minors;
State and National reporting laws/the National Practitioner Data Bank.

Our goal is to help you avoid problems. We lecture extensively to healthcare providers on health law issues often at no cost. In addition we regularly publish and distribute a Health Law Handbook which we provide to our clients at no charge. Please do not hesitate to contact us with your health law questions.