abiLIVE Webinars

Hosted by the Asset Sale Committee Marijuana-related businesses are being denied access to bankruptcy relief in all but a tiny handful of cases. This webinar will discuss prospects for success in bankruptcy court, available alternative methods of affording relief to troubled cannabis businesses, and possibilities for changes in the regulatory climate.

The long countdown to the Small Business Reorganization Act (SBRA) is over! The law takes effect on February 19. Thousands of struggling small businesses will now have a faster, cheaper and more efficient process for filing Chapter 11. SBRA includes several significant changes to current law. Join our panel to update your legal toolbox so you’ll be ready when businesses come calling. Learn more at: https://www.abi.org/sbra

Hospital bankruptcies are on the rise, and rural hospitals are no exception. About 20% of rural hospitals are considered to be at risk of closure nationwide, and the majority of these hospitals are considered essential to their communities. In light of these trends, this webinar will provide ABI members an overview of the unique issues faced by small rural hospital designated as “critical access hospitals” (“CAHs”) by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Established by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, the CAH designation allows eligible rural hospitals to receive reimbursement from Medicare (and state Medicaid programs) based on 101% of allowable costs rather than the traditional fee-for-service model. In order to receive the CAH designation, a hospital must be at least 35 miles from another hospital and meet at least the following criteria: (1) have 25 or fewer inpatient acute beds; (2) maintain an average length of stay of less than 96 hours for acute beds and (3) provide 24/7 emergency services. Despite what should be a favorable reimbursement model, the nation’s approximately 1,350 CAHs are plagued with a variety of regulatory and socioeconomic hurdles hampering their profitability. These include shrinking federal and state budgets, physician shortages, the high cost of providing care to under- and uninsured patients, certain physician costs that are not reimbursed on a cost-plus basis, and difficulty repaying overpayments by the Medicare and Medicaid programs. In a lively forum, this panel will focus on: 1. Debt restructuring challenges faced by CAHs due to their narrow margins and cost-based reimbursement model; 2. Alternative solutions to cash flow for CAHs through expansion of medical services, large group physician employment agreements, telemedicine and operational efficiencies; 3. Legal expansion programs in a CAH environment and illegal schemes perpetrated by bad actors who take expansion too far; 4. The roadmap to reorganization for CAHs who find themselves amid allegations of violations of the False Claims Act, Stark Law and Anti-Kickback federal and state laws and in the snarls of a healthcare fraud investigation with either CMS, Medicaid, OIG or commercial payers’ SIU departments; and 5. How to overcome the overpayment liability dilemma. Speakers Carol L. Fox GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group LLC Elizabeth A. Green BakerHostetler Andrew Helman Murray Plumb & Murray Frank P. Terzo Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP View Materials

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act significantly changed many aspects of business taxation, especially for distressed companies. The way net operating losses work has fundamentally changed. The ability to deduct interest expense is now significantly limited and, as a result, distressed companies may have very different tax profiles than they previously have had. Changes to several rules impact the decision on whether to structure a reorganization as a tax-free transaction or a “Bruno’s” taxable transaction. The international tax regime has been fundamentally altered, both with respect to normal operations and with respect to long-standing issues regarding the appropriate scope of pledges and guarantees that can be provided in connection with DIP financing and cash collateral packages. All of these rules remain subject to an active and very much ongoing regulatory process that places a significant degree of uncertainty around tax outcomes. The panel will highlight and contextualize these key issues so that restructuring specialists can be aware of their potential impact.

Hosted by the Asset Sales Committee This webinar will discuss the benefits and disadvantages of conducting a sale of assets pursuant to section 363 of the Bankruptcy Court compared to an out of court sale. The webinar will provide a general introduction to these issues as well as provide experienced practitioners with a nuanced high level discussion regarding applicable case law, hot button issues, pitfalls to avoid and war stories from the trenches. Speakers: Dawn M. Cica Mushkin Cica Coppedge; Bruce I. Goldstein Amherst Partners; Matthew J. LoCascio Equity Partners HG View Materials

There have been a number of recent bankruptcy filings by large and high profile healthcare providers, such as the filings of Verity Health System of California, Inc., in Los Angeles (the second largest hospital bankruptcy case in American history), Hospital Acquisition LLC and 25 related debtors d/b/a Promise Health and American Academic Health System (Hahnemann University Hospital and St. Christopher Hospital in Philadelphia) in Wilmington, Delaware, and Astria Health in Yakima, Washington. Additionally, EmpowerHMS owned or helped manage a rural hospital empire that encompassed 18 facilities across eight states. After funding from a controversial lab-billing venture dried up, 12 of the hospitals entered bankruptcy and eight closed their doors. There has also been a steady stream of lower profile cases, including Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park, Illinois, Penobscot Valley Hospital in Maine, and Springfield Hospital, Inc., in Vermont, and it appears that there are more filings in store. The webinar will discuss (i) the reasons for this growing trend of healthcare cases, (ii) the unique challenges in those cases, which involve not only the typical payment of creditor claims, but also the care of patients, (iii) the particular issues that arise uniquely in this class of cases, including jurisdiction over the Medicare and Medicaid Programs, treatment of provider agreements, the intersection of nonprofit law and bankruptcy law, and treatment of medical malpractice claims, and (iv) whether this trend of healthcare filings will continue.

We will take a deeper dive into some of the more interesting and unique local rules that practitioners should be aware of when completing assets sales in various districts. The panelists will also discuss the need for local rules, differences across jurisdictions, and the process for revisions and implementation.

The automotive industry has been relatively stable since the crisis ten years ago. But there are disruptions within the supplier base as platforms change and technology evolves. With declining volumes and the stress of trade wars, are we approaching another downturn in the automotive industry? Are we better prepared to manage through potential automotive distress now than ten years ago, or have supplier operations and financing structures and agreements become more complex? This webinar will explore these issues and more.

The automotive industry has been relatively stable since the crisis ten years ago. But there are disruptions within the supplier base as platforms change and technology evolves. With declining volumes and the stress of trade wars, are we approaching another downturn in the automotive industry? Are we better prepared to manage through potential automotive distress now than ten years ago, or have supplier operations and financing structures and agreements become more complex? This webinar will explore these issues and more.

Panelists will discuss ethical issues relating to due diligence and debtor and creditor actions online as well as practice pointers for engaging in social media.