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Tips for Conducting Effective Due Diligence in an Auction Process

by Danielle E. Golino | Sep 12, 2019 | Health M&A, Health Private Equity, Hospitals & Health Systems, PPM/ASC

In today’s highly competitive healthcare environment, investors may find themselves in an auction process where they must conduct due diligence pre-exclusivity. With limited time and mounting pressure, it can be difficult to know what issues to prioritize. Here are some practical tips for focusing your due diligence efforts strategically in a pre-exclusivity setting:

Quality of Earnings: Against the backdrop of high valuations, quality of earnings should be a key diligence focus, particularly in the context of high-complexity transactions such as corporate carve-outs, partnerships with corporates and public-private pairings. For example, it is critical to examine the pro forma EBITDA to see if it excludes costs or includes questionable adjustments or add-backs.
Timeline: How competitive is the auction process and when are bids due? Does the buyer plan to conduct a full due diligence review pre-exclusivity, or instead look for big ticket liabilities that have a potential to impact valuation or derail the transaction?
Legal Showstoppers: Keep an eye out for legal showstoppers—issues that go to the core of the business, are not isolated incidents and are not fixable through purchase price adjustments, indemnification, escrow or enhanced compliance measures. For example, referral relationships that are based on illegal arrangements, systemic upcoding, quality of care issues, tenuous relationships with hospital partners, untenable and promised salary increases, a culture of non-compliance, or a retiring physician workforce without adequate succession planning.

As you plan your due diligence, keep in mind [...]

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McDermott Named Health Practice Group of the Year by Law360

by McDermott Will & Emery | Feb 19, 2019 | Health M&A, Health Private Equity, Hospitals & Health Systems, Managed Care, Transition to Transformation

We greatly appreciate our readers continuing to turn to us for insight on the most critical legal, regulatory and transactional developments, and innovative collaborations transforming health care. Over the past year, McDermott’s Health practice made headlines for our work on several of the most high-profile collaborative transformations that took place in 2018: We were one of several law firms to advise CVS Health Corp. on its approximately $70 billion cash and stock purchase of health insurer Aetna Inc. McDermott also assisted Air Medical Group Holdings in its $2.44 billion acquisition of American Medical Response (AMR), a medical transportation company, from Envision Healthcare Corporation. It is because of our role in ground-breaking transactions like these that—for the fifth time in 10 years—McDermott was recognized by Law360 as the Health Practice Group of the Year.

We’re passionate about the results our clients are achieving and our role in helping them transform health care. We are equally passionate about what these results mean for the industry and health care consumers. Through our blogs, articles and health-focused events, we are committed to providing you with thought leadership that will help expand your field of vision as you navigate the rapidly changing health care landscape.

To read Law360’s profile of McDermott’s industry-leading health care practice, click here. McDermott was also named Practice Group of the Year in the Tax category. For more information about our approach to Collaborative Transformation, visit mwe.com/collaborativetransformation.

Pursuing Progress: Collaborative Transformation in Action

by McDermott Will & Emery | Dec 3, 2018 | Digital Health, Health M&A, Hospitals & Health Systems, International Health, Life Sciences, Managed Care, PPM/ASC

It’s the industry disruptors, the unusual partnerships, and the cross-border and cross-sector relationships that are driving Collaborative Transformation in the health care and life sciences organizations. But a Collaborative Transformation takes more than signing paperwork and shaking hands. A successful Collaborative Transformation takes cultural integration between non-traditional partners, incorporating new technologies into health care regulatory compliance structures, and so much more. At McDermott, we’ve recently had the opportunity to help our clients pursue their own Collaborative Transformations, and are proud to showcase their achievements.

Innate Pharma Expands its Collaboration with AstraZeneca

McDermott Will & Emery advised Innate Pharma, a French oncology-focused biotech company, in signing a multi-term agreement with AstraZeneca and MedImmune – AstraZeneca’s global biologics research and development arm. This agreement broadens the existing collaboration, aimed at accelerating the development of an oncology portfolio of each of the parties and to provide patients with more rapid access to new therapeutic options. This extended collaboration will permit Innate Pharma to develop and commercially strengthen its investment ability to develop its immuno-oncology portfolio (IO) and its R&D platform. For its part, AstraZeneca will enrich its IO portfolio with new clinical and preclinical programs. For more information on this collaboration, click here.

CVS + Aetna

McDermott is one of the firms that has advised CVS Health in connection with its $69 billion purchase of Aetna. The transaction, one of this year’s largest M&A deals, is expected to transform the US health care sector. For more information on [...]

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Collaborative Transformation: Shaping the Future of Health Care, Together

by McDermott Will & Emery | Oct 19, 2018 | Digital Health, Health M&A, Hospitals & Health Systems, International Health, Life Sciences, Managed Care, PPM/ASC

As the health care and life sciences fields experience ever-increasing levels of disruption, diverse entities across the industry are teaming up to embrace and foster innovation. These new pairings are shaping the future of health care, as organizations come together to tackle the industry’s most pressing issues with redoubled agility and pooled resources.

In an environment of change and uncertainty, this trend of Collaborative Transformation is yielding improved financial outcomes, increased operational efficiencies, and a fresh infusion of diverse talent and perspectives—all of which result in enhanced quality of care.

This is where the McDermott Health and Life Sciences team comes in. As a top-ranked US health law practice and a leader in life sciences with decades of experience advising the leading players in US and cross-border health and life sciences, we have the skill, market insight and ingenuity to partner with you wherever your innovation takes you. Whether you are forming innovative alliances across borders and industries, creating or implementing groundbreaking technologies and services, or restructuring investments to position your organization at the cutting edge of the market, our team can work alongside yours to achieve excellence.

Click here to learn more about McDermott Health, our recent work executing collaborative transformations on behalf of our clients and how we can help your organization form innovative business relationships.

Bills Ban Gag Clauses in Pharmacy Contracts

by Judith Wethall and Karen Owen Gibbs | Oct 18, 2018 | FDA, Hospitals & Health Systems, Reimbursement

On October 10, 2018 President Trump signed two bills that ban “gag clauses” in pharmacy contracts. Congress passed the two bills—one for Medicare prescription drug plans (“Know the Lowest Price Act”) that will go into effect in January 2020, and another for commercial employer-based and individual policies (“Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act”) effective immediately—by almost unanimous vote in September 2018.

While many states have already prohibited the use of these clauses, this is the first such action on a federal level.

Gag clauses are sometimes found in contracts between pharmacies and insurance companies, pharmacy benefit managers or group health plans and bar pharmacists from telling customers that they could save money by paying cash for their prescriptions rather than using their health insurance. If pharmacists violate the gag rule, they risk penalties and/or contract termination. Under the new legislation, pharmacists are not required to tell patients about the lower cost option, but they also cannot be contractually prohibited from engaging in the cost conversation.

The legislation is consistent with the position of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which, in May of this year, issued guidance stating that “gag clauses” are unacceptable in the Medicare Part D program.

ONC Expected to Release Proposed Information Blocking Rule Soon

by Daniel F. Gottlieb, James A. Cannatti III and Karen S. Sealander | Oct 17, 2018 | Digital Health, Fraud & Abuse, Hospitals & Health Systems, Life Sciences, Managed Care, Post-Acute Care, PPM/ASC

It has now been one month since the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) sent its proposed information blocking rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for required review.

We expect OMB to approve the much-anticipated proposed rule and ONC to release it soon with the usual opportunity for public comment. While we wait, there are some things that health information technology developers, health information exchanges, health information networks and health care providers who may be subject to the information blocking prohibition and enforcement actions can do to prepare for the upcoming comment period. But before we get to comments, let’s remind ourselves about how we got to this point.

By way of background, Congress asked ONC to produce a report describing the extent of information blocking and a strategy to address it. ONC submitted that report to Congress in 2015 (the 2015 Report) noting, among other things, enforcement authority gaps and indicating that successful information blocking prevention strategies would likely require congressional intervention. In the 21st Century Cures Act, which became law in 2016, Congress granted the HHS Office of Inspector General investigative and enforcement authorities for prohibited information blocking conduct. The Cures Act defined information blocking as a practice that “except as required by law or specified by the Secretary…, is likely to interfere with, prevent, or materially discourage access, exchange, or [...]

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5 Key Topics Explored at McDermott’s 2018 PPM & ASC Symposium

by McDermott Will & Emery | Apr 16, 2018 | Health M&A, Health Private Equity, Hospitals & Health Systems, PPM/ASC

There are many critical issues facing the physician practice management (PPM) and ambulatory surgery center (ASC) industries today, including the effects of sky-high valuations, concerns about sustainability, and the importance of delivering on value. This current environment demands new approaches to PPM structures — one that is focused on alignment and designed to enable growth.

Below are five key market issues to be addressed at the 2018 Physician Practice Management & ASC Symposium in Nashville, TN on April 25-26, where industry leaders will come together to discuss trends in the current landscape and the myriad business, transactional and regulatory issues that exist today, including: (more…)

Q&A: Shifting Trends in Specialty Pharmacy to Continue in 2018

by McDermott Will & Emery and Karen Owen Gibbs | Apr 10, 2018 | FDA, Health M&A, Health Private Equity, Hospitals & Health Systems, Life Sciences, PPM/ASC

Specialty pharmacy is not going away any time soon – by 2020, it’s expected that the pharmacy industry’s revenue will exceed $483 billion, with almost all growth as a result of specialty drugs (high-cost medications used to treat chronic conditions, such as cancer). It’s also estimated that the next generation of pharmaceutical “blockbusters” will be primarily specialty products. As the make-up of the pharmaceutical market shifts, we’re also seeing changes with the role of pharmacy benefit managers and other medical groups in the process. How are these shifts in specialty pharmacy impacting the health care system as a whole?

We asked Karen Gibbs, McDermott partner and former VP and Senior Counsel at CVS, to share her expertise on the subject and her thoughts on what’s to come.

Q. Investments in niche sectors of pharmacy services, specialty pharmacy and pharmacy benefit management have gained huge traction recently. What’s driving the shift away from more traditional pharmacies?

A. Traditional pharmacies are retail establishments and have been suffering from the same earnings pressure that all retail establishments have endured. Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) typically own mail and specialty pharmacy operations, which generate revenue in a manner complementary to that derived from the pharmacy benefit management services. The margin on specialty pharmacy and PBM services is significantly more than retail pharmacy. (more…)

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