Practice Contact

Thomas G. Kokoruda
Practice Area Chair
T. 816.374.0513
Christopher J. Molzen
Practice Area Vice Chair
T. 816.395.0654

Related Practice Areas

Health Care Litigation

Polsinelli Shughart PC is a leader in defending health care organizations and professionals in Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Arizona, Illinois and Washington, D.C. We are proud to represent the Midwest’s and some of the nation’s top hospitals, insurers, physicians and their practice groups, including Kansas City’s largest hospital system. In addition to the defense of medical malpractice cases, we have experience providing legal advice and representation to health care clients in all areas, including:

EMTALA
HIPAA Compliance
Medical Staff privilege hearings
Medical Staff credentialing litigation
Antitrust litigation
Medicare fraud and abuse litigation
Risk management assessments

Our Health Care Litigation team has the benefit of seasoned trial counsel and professionals with specific training and education in the health care field. We work with our clients to assist them in controlling litigation costs without sacrificing results. Our clients are essential members and partners on our defense team and we recognize the need for timely and accurate communication with each client. Our attorneys stay current on the latest trends and issues impacting the field of health care litigation. Our knowledge provides us an edge to help achieve positive results for our clients in and out of the courtroom.

Notable Experience

Direct Representation of Health Care Institutions

Hospitals and medical staffs frequently retain us for counsel on legal aspects of peer and utilization review, including due process and appeals issues, and on staff privileges. The firm proactively advises our hospital clients regarding compliance with state and federal regulations such as COBRA, EMTALA, ERISA, HIPAA and Stark II, in an effort to prevent unnecessary litigation.

Health Care Antitrust

We use our extensive antitrust experience to represent our health care clients and defend physicians and hospitals against allegations of price fixing and other issues. We served as lead counsel and defended successfully the first PHO antitrust case filed by the United States Department of Justice. Our attorneys also played a major role defending lawsuits filed by the Kansas and Missouri Attorneys General offices because of the sale of the area’s largest not-for-profit health care systems to a private, for-profit corporation.

Health Care Labor Law

The firm represents institutional providers before the Health and Human Services Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and states' commissions on human rights.

Trial Presence

We have obtained numerous verdicts in favor of client physicians, nurses and hospitals in a variety of high-profile cases dealing with alleged obstetrical, anesthesia, surgical and other medical negligence cases. We have tried cases in federal and state courts in numerous states and before many state boards of healing arts and other state and federal regulatory agencies.

News

September 21, 2011

The Missouri Bar Elects John Brady as Vice President

Newsletters & E-Alerts

October 2010

DOL Rules That Hospital Participating in TRICARE is a Federal Contractor Subject to OFCCP Jurisdiction

Last week, an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) for the Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a long-anticipated ruling addressing the issue of whether a health care provider’s participation in TRICARE (see note below) rendered it a federal subcontractor subject to the Office of Federal Contract Compliance (“OFCCP”) jurisdiction. In upholding an earlier ruling, the ALJ held that a Florida hospital is a federal subcontractor because it participates in a health care provider network established by Humana Military Healthcare Services, Inc. (“HMHS”), which has a federal contract with the Department of Defense (“DOD”) to provide medical services to individuals eligible for TRICARE coverage.