Our firm focuses its practice on the business of healthcare. In working with medical professionals, practices, health tech startups, and related enterprises, we’ve found common themes in the questions from current and prospective clients.
We created this Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page to help familiarize you with our working, billing, and communication styles.
Getting Started
Start by scheduling a complimentary consultation with one of our attorneys, which you can book online. If we’re a good fit and you want to work together, we will email you a retainer agreement to sign electronically. Depending upon your needs and the scope of work, we may also send you a quote to review and sign. This will allow you to identify the tasks you want us to prioritize, putting you in control of your case’s progression and budget. We will also collect a deposit, which will be stored in our trust account. The amount of the deposit will depend upon the scope of services. We will begin work when we have received the retainer agreement, quote, and deposit.
Our initial complimentary consultations allow us to have a low-pressure conversation about your plans and needs and our services. During the 15-minute call, we’ll ask questions about your plans and needs, tell you about how we work, and leave time for some follow-up questions. We’ll also ask you for the names of other parties, people, or practices involved in your case so we can run a conflict check. Finally, we’ll tell you what to expect next.
All of our initial consultations take place by phone. To ensure that it remains logistically feasible for us to continue offering this important service, we cannot offer complimentary in-person or videoconference consultations.
If you’ve already had one complimentary consultation, we will ask that you make a deposit prior to subsequent consultations. So, before you schedule your complimentary consultation, make sure you’re truly ready to move forward. If your business plan changes or you bring on new partners, we will still require a deposit for the next consultation. To arrange a follow-up consultation, just email us—we have a simplified portal through which you can schedule a time to chat.
We can help clients who live or work anywhere within the borders of the states in which we are licensed: Illinois, California, Texas, New York, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia. We also work with domestic and foreign companies that operate nationally or across multiple states—common in the DME, HIT/health tech, and telehealth industries. If you reach out and we can’t help you, we’ll try to connect you with an appropriately licensed colleague who can help.
Our firm focuses exclusively on healthcare. Our clients are all healthcare professionals, practices, technology startups, and telehealth companies. Because of this niche focus, we have a unique and in-depth understanding of healthcare law issues.
For example, your small business or entrepreneurial attorney is probably very comfortable establishing LLCs for most types of businesses. However, he or she likely has less familiarity with the additional registration requirements the state imposes upon healthcare professionals, the specific language that should be included in your bylaws or operating agreement, and the stricter requirements for who can co-own your company with you.
We’re business lawyers for healthcare. Thus, by working with us, you streamline the entire startup, and we don’t waste time undoing another attorney’s work. As your business grows, you’ll only require more specialized legal and compliance guidance from attorneys who understand healthcare inside and out.
We often hear that a client’s accountant offered to establish their business for them. Without exception, whenever a client comes to us with an established practice that an accountant created, the accountant set up some aspect of the formation incorrectly.
Accountants handle tax matters. Attorneys hire legal matters. There is occasionally some overlap between these fields. So while we work closely with our clients’ tax professionals, a healthcare business should not be established by an accountant. In short, accountants lack the legal training and experience necessary to perform this work—even if they offer to handle it for you.
Just as we won’t prepare your tax returns, an accountant should not prepare your corporate formation or governance documents. Healthcare entities are subjected to complex regulations and should be carefully managed by an attorney experienced in healthcare law.
Before we agree to represent you, we need to perform a conflict check. This means that we will review our previous clients, potential clients, and adverse parties to determine if representing you will create a conflict of interest for us. A conflict of interest means that we cannot simultaneously advocate for you and for another of our clients.
For example, say you’re a physician currently employed by an urgent care center, and you want to open your own urgent care practice. If we represent your current employer, we must decline to assist you. Meanwhile, we also cannot divulge the nature of the conflict to you—i.e., we can’t tell you that we are your employer’s attorneys. However, we also cannot tell your employer that you called us.
Sometimes, the mere fact that you called us to open your own practice means that we now know information that we’re keeping secret from our client. In this example, we may need to tell our existing client that a conflict of interest has arisen and we can no longer represent them.
For New Clients
It’s really easy. Once we start working together, we’ll send you a link that allows you to schedule phone calls directly with your attorney. You can also call or email us with questions or to book an appointment. We pride ourselves on being accessible, and we work hard to be responsive and attentive to your needs.
We would love to meet you, but we can perform all of our work over email and phone calls. If we need your signature on something, we’ll mail it to you.
This depends upon your needs and the type of work we are undertaking for you. Most work at Jackson LLP is collaborative, so more than one person is likely to be involved in your case. However, you will have a primary point of contact who you can call with questions. That attorney will keep you apprised of what is happening on your case.
The amount of time that a particular task will take us depends on various factors, including the complexity and time sensitivity of the work. For example, a 20-hour project will necessarily take longer to deliver than a 3-hour project.
There are things you can do to speed up the process: respond promptly and fully to your attorney’s emails and provide us with all of the documents or information that we need to perform the project. Please also pay your bills on time. If you end up in the red, we may email you that we need you to bring your account up-to-date before proceeding with work.
We aim to bill all clients in a timely, transparent, and predictable manner. To provide a helpful guide, we’ve devoted a separate web page to this topic.
If you are a client or potential client, we are duty-bound to protect your confidentiality. Barring unusual and exceptional circumstances, such as helping you commit a crime without getting caught, we cannot tell anyone:
• that we spoke to you
• that we know you
• what we discussed
• what you’re doing
• your trade secrets,
• your ideas
• what you told us
• what we told you
This is known as “attorney-client privilege.” Even if we were called to testify in court about the content of our conversations, the court wouldn’t require us to disclose this information. This privilege fosters the free flow of information between us and cements the trust between a client and his or her attorney. Importantly, this privilege applies even if you don’t end up hiring us.
Healthcare Law
If you need help with something relating to the business of healthcare, the answer is probably yes! Our services include:
• Practice start-up and compliance, including corporate governance
• Health tech company start-up and compliance, including corporate governance
• Medical device and fitness equipment company start-up
• HIPAA compliance and risk assessment
• Employment, including hiring, firing, and contracting
• Contract drafting and negotiation
• Telehealth/telemedicine guidance
• Informed consent and registration packets
• Fraud, waste, and abuse prevention, including OIG compliance
• Commercial real estate contracts, negotiation, and build-outs
• Sexual harassment and violence prevention policies
• Employee legal and compliance training
• Scope of practice guidance, including supervisory requirements
• Corporate practice of medicine doctrine compliance, including MSO arrangements
If you need help with something that’s not listed here, there’s a good chance we do that too. Please reach out anytime you have questions about the scope of our services.
Unfortunately, we cannot represent patients or injured parties. We only help healthcare professionals with legal and regulatory compliance, and we cannot help patients whose rights have been violated. If you’re a patient or caregiver who needs an attorney, here are a few places to find help:
• Your local state bar association’s attorney referral service
• Your local legal aid society
• The hospital or practice’s patient advocate office
If you are searching for an attorney to file a claim or complaint on your behalf, you likely need a “plaintiff’s attorney.”
You are a covered entity if you perform any covered transaction. Generally, this means that anyone who files insurance claims is a covered entity. All HIPAA covered entities must abide by HIPAA and maintain comprehensive written policies and procedures.
Even for providers who are not covered entities, we strongly advise adherence to HIPAA. HIPAA has become the standard of care for patient privacy and records access, and patients expect all professionals to follow its requirements.
If you come to us with a new idea for a business, invention, or practice, we may suggest beginning with a feasibility opinion. This generally arises when you ask, “Am I allowed to do X?” and we say, “It depends.”
In law, there are no one-size-fits-all answers. If we recommend creating a feasibility opinion, you can expect a detailed examination of the legality of your proposed plan, ways to alter your proposed plan to conform it to the applicable laws, and a proposal of next steps for us to make your plan a reality. These opinions keep your budget in check by ensuring you’re allowed to do something before creating new business entities, contracts, compliance documents, etc.
We most often recommend a feasibility opinion when a client wants to establish a management service organization (MSO), is undertaking a new telehealth venture, or is taking advantage of (or suffering from) changes in the law.
Accessibility
All of our offices are ADA accessible. If you plan to visit one of our offices for an in-person meeting and require accommodation, please let us know in advance.
Our staff and attorneys are fluent only in English. When appropriate, we use a legal translation service. If you or someone involved in your case requires a translator, please let us know in advance.
Employment
Ideal applicants must be attracted to Jackson LLP’s entrepreneurial culture and have a deep commitment to excellence in their work. They must understand and appreciate the role of healthcare in societal and community health, including recognition of healthcare as a human right, a thriving employer of millions, and a burgeoning area of law. We require a genuine, curious, and enthusiastic interest in the industry, and we expect exceptional attention to detail.
To learn more about current openings, visit our careers page.
Jackson LLP Healthcare Lawyers is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind.