Practices: Real Estate (Healthcare)

Healthcare providers are often involved in substantial real estate transactions – the development or sale of medical office buildings, expansion of hospitals and long-term care facilities, structuring of hospital/physician lease transactions, and establishment of clinics and outpatient care centers. Real estate considerations are also important aspects of hospital mergers and acquisitions. If you are involved in any such venture, you need guidance both on real property issues and on concerns unique to healthcare providers, such as securing certificates of need and conforming to self-referral statutes.

Counsel of Choice

Ungaretti & Harris is the real estate counsel of choice for many healthcare providers. We combine one of the Midwest’s top 15 real estate practices (according to Midwest Real Estate News) with in-depth knowledge of the regulatory issues affecting healthcare providers in any real estate transaction. You get insight that anticipates and resolves due diligence issues, environmental liability, regulatory and land use approvals, title, deed and other problems during negotiation.

Transactional Experience

In transactions valued at less than $100 to over $1 billion, buyers and sellers of healthcare operations rely on our experience to handle real estate-related financing, tax and regulatory issues. Whether the transaction involves the purchase or sale of for-profit or not-for-profit hospitals or other healthcare facilities, you’ll get comprehensive services on developing the strategic plan, designing the appropriate legal structure, coordinating taxation and tax-exemption considerations, and resolving environmental or other due diligence issues. We are adept at resolving such environmental concerns as the cleanup of underground fuel tanks. If taxing authorities seek to impose property tax assessments on any properties that qualify for tax exemption, we can pursue Certificate of Error filings to get your exemption reinstated.

Leasing and Self-Referral

Real estate concerns for healthcare providers extend well beyond the basic issues of real property. One of the most sensitive issues in this regard is the increasing use of imaging center leasing agreements, in which centers that offer MRI and CT scanning services structure referral arrangements for a per-use, non-recourse “lease” of their facility to physicians for provision of diagnostic services. Before you consider or continue such an arrangement, talk to an Ungaretti & Harris healthcare attorney. We can advise you on whether and to what extent an imaging center arrangement may violate the Stark Law and other anti-kickback statutes, and make sure that any imaging procedures that you undertake can pass Office of the Inspector General scrutiny. By the same token, hospitals and physicians interested in joint ventures to secure access to advanced medical technology can benefit from our real estate experience in establishing fully compliant operations such as Gamma Knife® surgical centers for treatment of brain tumors.

Complete Package

Whether you are purchasing, building or leasing a healthcare facility, the transaction involves both business and regulatory considerations. You need a complete package of services to make sure your deal is negotiated and documented to maximize tax, financial, patient care and regulatory concerns. Ungaretti & Harris offers you a unique combination of in-depth real estate and healthcare legal services that ensure successful project completion, in the Midwest or anywhere in the country.