Photo of James A. Robertson

Partner and Chair, Healthcare Department

Mr. Robertson’s healthcare practice is reflective of his significant expertise across a wide range of legal disciplines, enabling him to effectively counsel clients on a myriad of healthcare regulatory, corporate and litigation matters. He represents a diverse array of healthcare industry clients including for-profit and not-for-profit healthcare and hospital systems, academic medical centers, nursing homes, home health agencies, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, integrated delivery networks, physicians and physician practice groups, and healthcare private equity funds.

Mr. Robertson provides comprehensive representation in connection with all types of healthcare transactions, including corporate mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and divestitures. He assists clients with the structuring and creation of clinically integrated networks (CINs), organized delivery systems (ODSs), accountable care organizations (ACOs), multiple employer welfare arrangements (MEWAs), and health insurance companies. He oversees the establishment and purchase/sale of individual physician and group practices, ambulatory surgery centers, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities. He structures and negotiates compensation arrangements with physicians in connection with employment and exclusive contracting arrangements, medical directorships, physician recruitment initiatives, hospital department management, office and equipment leases, and management services arrangements. He also negotiates managed care agreements and risk-sharing arrangements with payors and represents healthcare clients in payor litigation.

On the regulatory and compliance fronts, Mr. Robertson regularly provides guidance on issues related to fraud and abuse laws, including the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark Law, the New Jersey Codey Law, the certificate of need statute and Community Healthcare Asset Protection Act (CHAPA), as well as other regulatory compliance issues associated with healthcare transactions and physician-integration arrangements. He develops, implements, and maintains corporate compliance programs for hospitals and other providers in the healthcare industry and is well-versed in the compliance issues associated with, and the implementation of requirements under, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), and the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

In the area of information privacy and data security, Mr. Robertson advises healthcare clients on issues arising under HIPAA and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). This includes the drafting and negotiation of HIPAA compliant business associate agreements with third party vendors, drafting and assisting in the enforcement of privacy and security policies within client organizations, and providing guidance on record retention requirements and the physical or electronic storage of medical records. In addition, he represents healthcare clients in investigating, reporting, and remediating information breaches and the liability such breaches create under various information privacy and security laws.

Mr. Robertson assists clients in seeking advisory opinions from federal and state regulatory agencies, and regularly represents healthcare entities in Medicare, Medicaid, charity care, graduate medical education (GME) and disproportionate share hospital (DSH) reimbursement matters before state administrative agencies and the federal Provider Reimbursement Review Board. His work also encompasses internal audits and investigations, responding to government inquiries, investigations, subpoenas and search warrants, and providing advice in connection with voluntary self-disclosures and corporate integrity agreements (CIAs).

Mr. Robertson is a resource for addressing medical staff matters, providing counsel on fair hearing requirements and designing state-of-the-art medical staff bylaws. He also provides guidance in connection with strategic initiatives on system affiliations including the establishment of outpatient health care offices, diagnostic imaging facilities and ambulatory surgery centers.

Contact information:

jrobertson@greenbaumlaw.com | 973.577.1784 | vCard | LinkedIn

For more information visit the Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP website.

Our partner Jim Robertson is the featured speaker on the Hospital Finance Podcast episode “Thinking Outside the Box on Challenging State DSH Subsidies,” which is now available online on the Besler website and on major podcast platforms including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and SoundCloud. Highlights of the episode include a review of the Takings

In the wake of the New Jersey Supreme Court’s 2017 decision in Allstate Insurance Company v. Northfield Medical Center, P.C., management services organizations (MSOs), physicians, private equity funds, and practicing healthcare attorneys should keep the following “do’s and don’ts” in mind when structuring their MSO arrangements to comply with New Jersey corporate practice of medicine

The United States District Court’s 2021 ruling in Milton S. Hershey Medical Center v. Becerra is one example of a successful legal challenge to federal agency action, but a number of more recent cases reaffirm that lower federal courts may not hesitate to overturn agency action deemed outside the bounds of the agency’s legislative authority.

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For nearly 40 years, federal courts have routinely upheld agency action under the principle of judicial deference established in the seminal case of Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., which requires courts to uphold an agency’s interpretation of the statute it administers if the statutory language is ambiguous, and the agency’s interpretation

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Generally speaking, licensed physicians in New Jersey cannot practice medicine in just any corporate form. But for a limited number of exceptions listed in N.J.A.C. 13:35-6.16, a general business corporation cannot employ a physician to provide healthcare services.  This is known as the prohibition against the corporate practice of medicine, or as we healthcare lawyers