Tammy Ward Woffenden is a partner in the Corporate Practice Group in the firm's Houston office.
Tammy has extensive experience working with a variety of healthcare providers, including hospitals, home health and hospice agencies, physician group practices, assisted living facilities, intermediate care facilities (ICFs), providers of home and community-based services (HCBS), care management, behavioral health and more.
Healthcare Transactions: Tammy advises on healthcare regulatory aspects of buyer- and seller- side acquisitions of healthcare providers and other healthcare businesses, including due diligence and compliance risk assessment, deal structuring (including compliance with fraud and abuse and corporate practice of medicine laws), negotiating healthcare-related terms of definitive agreements, regulatory filings and approvals for licensing and government payor programs, post-closing transition support, add-on acquisitions and ongoing healthcare law compliance and regulatory needs. Her experience includes work with private equity funds and managed care organization (MCO) acquisitions and divestitures of healthcare providers.
Fraud and Abuse: Tammy advises clients on state and federal fraud and abuse laws, including the Anti-Kickback Act and Stark. From this perspective, she assists clients with developing compliance and training programs, investigating reported incidents and analyzing contractual arrangements, transactions and joint ventures.
Contracting: Tammy routinely drafts and negotiates contractual arrangements, including affiliation agreements, value-based arrangements, professional service agreements, management and administrative services agreements and business associate agreements.
HIPAA Compliance: Tammy advises covered entities (both providers and health plans), business associates and subcontractors on matters relating to the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), including developing and assisting with implementation of HIPAA policies and procedures, training, incident and breach analysis, risk assessments and drafting and negotiating arrangements concerning the use and protection of health information.
Medicare and Medicaid Enrollment & Compliance: Tammy advises clients on matters regarding Medicare and state Medicaid enrollment (including change of ownership), reimbursement, compliance with conditions of participation and provider obligations and audit investigations.
Licensure and Certification: Tammy counsels clients regarding initial and licensure renewals, change of ownership and other updates affecting licensure status, responding to agency actions and general compliance with facility and professional licensing requirements.
State Healthcare Laws: Tammy assists clients with a variety of state regulatory and administrative matters, including state corporate practice of medicine restrictions, fee-splitting, telemedicine and licensure scope of practice / delegation / supervision.
She regularly works with federal and state oversight agencies to coordinate technical, legal and creative solutions for provider issues relating to regulatory, administrative and transactional matters. Her experience includes working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
