Business

This session will focus on the views of patient care ombudsmen (PCOs) on the quality-of-care issues they routinely confront in chapter 11 cases; how debtor, secured lender and committee professionals react to either support or suppress the findings made by health care experts; in-depth analysis of what constitutes the proper protocol to evaluate quality of care; the differences in the approaches made to the PCO role by a doctor, nurse and/or health care administrator; whether PCOs universally should be doctors, nurses or health care administrators and not lawyers posing as health care professionals; the obligations of PCOs to tell quality-of-care stories without concern for the potential economic impact on an exit strategy in the bankruptcy (i.e., sale, potential loss of license, etc.); the impact of transfer trauma on a change of control arising from a potential sale of the health care business; how the PCO is differentiated from a state long-term-care ombudsman, Medicare and Medicaid surveyors; and the PCO’s role as patient advocate in bankruptcy cases.

This panel will discuss the use of third-party litigation financing in bankruptcy and in litigation and liquidation trust matters, and will address such issues as the different causes of actions and general characteristics of litigation considered, uses for funds and the general structure of financing, ethical issues concerning the funder relationship, and examples of successful uses of litigation financing — as well as things that can go wrong and how to avoid them.

This session will examine the UNCITRAL Model Law recognition and enforcement of foreign insolvency-related judgments, and will update attendees on the current drafts related to enterprise groups and medium, small and micro-insolvencies.

What are critical-access hospitals, and why are they important? This panel will discuss alternative solutions to producing additional cash flow for failing hospitals, which need to be closely scrutinized by health care professionals familiar with licensing, reimbursement, anti-kickbacks and patient-brokering limitations. The panel will also cover violations of the False Claims Act, Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute, as well as state law cases on patient-brokering and the questioning of medical necessity, clinical laboratory outreach programs, physician employment arrangements involving telemedicine, prescription programs and compounding, criminal statutes and DOJ/state regulator issues, how to reorganize legally, dealing with CMS (Medicare/Medicaid), nongovernmental and third-party commercial payers during a restructuring, and general rules on pass-through billing for outreach programs.

Technology is being used with increasing frequency to enhance the practice of law in complex chapter 11 cases. This panel discusses the use of cutting-edge technology in chapter 11 cases, including technology to collect and present data, prepare preference analyses, e-discovery, e-balloting and technology in the courtroom. The panel also discusses some of the challenges caused by technology, and how to avoid “death by data.”

Lawyers and law firms, as well as other professionals, need to understand the critical issue of data security. This panel will detail why you are at risk and what you should be doing to combat the threats. The focus will be on understanding cybersecurity risks, data-protection best practices, incident-response planning and ethical obligations. This plenary program will offer practical guidance that you can use both personally and professionally, whether focused principally on consumer or commercial issues.

Hear what our seers think about the economy and specific industries. Will the economy burst? What sectors are likely to be the most challenged? Hear from the panelists on opioid issues, indenture, credit risk, the general economy and more.