Our Ice Miller is committed to serving long-term care and senior housing clients, and our lawyers have developed a national reputation in the industry based on our experience, versatility, and creativity.
We represent care providers, operators, investors, and lenders in virtually every transactional and regulatory aspect of long-term care. We work in partnership with our clients, assembling multi-disciplinary teams of experienced health care, employment, litigation, real estate, financing, and tax attorneys to support their legal and business goals.
Operational and Regulatory Advice for Long-Term Care Providers
Though long-term care and senior housing is a growing sector of the health care industry thanks to increased life expectancies and an aging population, providers face an uncertain regulatory environment and changing reimbursement structures, among other business concerns. Ice Miller lawyers help both non-profit and for-profit long-term care and senior housing providers find effective, cost-efficient solutions to their legal and operational challenges.
We represent a diverse range of long-term care provider clients, including:
- Continuing care retirement communities
- Skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities
- Assisted living facilities
- Senior housing providers
- Intermediate care facilities for the developmentally disabled
- Home health care providers and hospices
This diverse client base gives us a deep level of insight into the unique regulatory issues faced by providers in the long-term care and senior housing industry. We frequently help our clients maintain compliance with state licensing and federal certification requirements, including Medicare and Medicaid certification and application issues, and draft facility policies and procedures that limit their potential liability, as well as provide counsel regarding residency agreements, employment matters and vendor contracts. Our lawyers are well-versed in important regulatory issues for senior housing providers, including the Life Safety Code and Fair Housing Act.
When necessary, our team also helps long-term care clients with crisis management issues, including finding solutions for problematic residents and families, conducting internal investigations, responding to government investigations and surveys, and assisting with the creation and implementation of corrective action plans. We also defend providers in administrative hearings before regulatory agencies and in litigation before state and federal courts.
Acquisitions and Sales and Development
The acquisition, sale, and development of facilities in the long-term care and senior housing industry require a detailed knowledge of its unique business and regulatory issues. Ice Miller attorneys have extensive experience assisting buyers, sellers, and investors in the long-term care industry. In addition to providing support in the negotiation, due diligence, and documentation process for long-term care and senior housing transactions and development, our team also helps clients successfully apply for and obtain Certificates of Need from the relevant state regulatory agency for sales, mergers and affiliations, acquisitions, distressed investment opportunities, Section 363 sales (whether as a “stalking horse bidder” or auction participant) and acquisitions consummated by Chapter 11 reorganization plan, or facility construction and expansion projects.
Financing
Our firm is capable of representing any party to a taxable or tax-exempt financing in the long-term care and senior housing space. We serve as bond counsel, underwriter's counsel, issuer’s counsel, borrower’s counsel or purchaser’s/lender’s counsel in all aspects of senior living finance, including:
- Private placements, public offerings, direct purchases, and bank loans
- Fixed rate, variable rate, and synthetic fixed rate financings
- New money and refunding bonds
- Swaps and other financial derivatives
- Corporate taxable bonds and 501(c)(3) conduit revenue bonds
- "Obligated group" master trust indenture structures
- Arbitrage rebate compliance
- IRS audits and post-issuance compliance
- Affordable senior housing
We have a dedicated group of attorneys experienced with the unique aspects of senior housing and long-term care finance. Our team also fosters and maintains long-standing industry contacts to help our clients in all aspects of their debt financing needs.When needed,we collaborate with other areas of our full-service law firm to bring the insight of lawyers in other industries to bear for our clients and help them meet their objectives.