With experience serving both for-profit and nonprofit clients, Boult Cummings Senior Housing and Long Term Care attorneys represent national chains of facilities as well as freestanding nursing homes, independent living facilities, assisted living facilities, nursing homes and continuing care retirement communities across the country. Our clients also include organizations providing home health, hospice, pharmacy, geriatric psychiatric services, and rehabilitation and therapy services that spread across the entire long term care spectrum. Members of the team are recognized national leaders in long term care provider organizations.

Drawing on the depth of legal talent within our firm's Health Care and Business Law teams, the Senior Housing and Long Term Care group provides a specialized knowledge of the needs of the long term care provider, while still offering a practice with the sophistication and size to handle the entire array of legal issues confronting long term care providers.  The Senior Housing and Long Term Care attorneys understand the unique regulatory environment that long term care providers operate within, and we bring that understanding to provide unique and customized solutions to our clients in this area.

Experience:

• Handle the acquisition, sale, finance and development of senior housing and long term care facilities for various providers. Advise on strategic planning and projects involving expansion and diversification of services across the entire spectrum of long term care, and counsel clients relative to the changes required.
• Represent owners, operators and managers of senior housing and long term care facilities in their relationships with other providers, employees, vendors, lenders, regulators, patients/residents and advocates.
• Assist long term care providers with regulatory compliance and survey enforcement matters, including the development of plans of correction, interactions with regulators, and handling informal dispute resolutions and regulatory appeals before the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and its Departmental Appeals Board.
• Handle general operational issues such as document development in various areas like admissions, contracting, policies and procedures, and reporting and record-keeping.  We also have developed both corporate ethics and end-of-life decision-making programs for long term care providers.
• Handle regulatory matters such as licensure, certification, certificate of need and reimbursement from Medicaid and Medicare.
• Advise and defend in health care liability issues.  We develop and oversee risk management and compliance programs for long term care providers, consumer arbitration and mediation programs, and we defend long term care providers in tort liability cases.  Our litigation practice also represents long term care providers in every aspect of federal and state administrative and regulatory matters, including the defense of qui tam claims.
• Represent long term care providers in mediation, arbitration and litigation of business, commercial and employment disputes, including appearing before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
• Advise lenders to and investors in senior housing and long term care companies regarding regulatory diligence and related matters, and represent both borrowers and lenders with respect to tax-exempt bond, REIT, HUD and conventional financings for senior housing and long term care facilities.
• Advise members, shareholders and directors of both for-profit and nonprofit senior housing and long term care providers regarding corporate structure and corporate governance.
• Monitor legislative, regulatory, judicial and administrative developments related to long term care and represent clients in those matters as needed.
• Since the early 1990's, Mike Brent, a Senior Housing and Long Term Care attorney, has served as the Tennessee representative to the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) Committee and is the current chair of the Legal Committee (2004-2005).
• For the last several years, Chris Puri has served as a member of the American Health Care Association's Committee and as Chair of the American Health Lawyers Association Long Term Care Practice Group and is a member of the Tennessee Health Care Association Educational Foundation Board. 
• Boult Cummings Senior Housing and Long Term Care attorneys are regularly invited to speak at long term care seminars and conferences across the country.

Senior Housing and Long Term Care Links of Interest:

• www.aahsa.org
• www.ahca.org
• www.tha.com/tnahsa
• www.thca.org
• www.state.tn.us/health
• www.ahla.org