Amanda Jester is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP and is based in the Firm's Miami office. She focuses her practice on the representation of physician practices, hospitals and ancillary service providers. Amanda’s experience includes developing cutting-edge joint venture models between hospitals and physician groups, mergers and acquisitions of physician practices, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, home health agencies and ancillary providers, and advising clients with regard to health care regulatory issues. Her clients include:
Hospitals: Amanda advises for-profit and not-for-profit hospital clients with regard to joint ventures and contractual relationships with physicians, medical staff issues, and other day-to-day hospital matters. Among the matters she has worked on, Amanda advised a not-for-profit hospital client with regard to the merger of affiliates within the hospital system, working closely with the state Attorney General with regard to the review and approval of the transaction. Amanda also assisted a not-for-profit hospital system with regard to the sale of the system to one of the leading for-profit operators of hospitals in the United States.
Hospital/Physician Joint Ventures: Amanda, along with other partners in the firm, has developed cutting-edge hospital/physician joint venture models, including with regard to the management of cardiology, radiology and hospital outpatient service lines. Amanda has been instrumental in the development and refinement of business models to assist hospitals in developing “centers of excellence,” while tailoring the joint venture model to balance the needs of the hospital with those of the physicians.
Ambulatory Surgical Centers: Amanda advises national and regional ASC management companies, independent ASCs and individual physician investors with regard to all of their transactional and regulatory needs. Her experience includes syndicating “start-up” ASCs, selling and redeeming physician equity interests, buying and selling equity stakes in ASCs on behalf of, or to, large corporate buyers, revising governing documents, and developing business models to facilitate an ASC’s capture of ancillary revenue streams, including for anesthesia services.
Physician Practice Management Companies: Amanda represents a number of physician practice management companies in developing their business models from a transactional and health care regulatory perspective. Amanda’s depth of experience with regard to physician practice management companies extends nationally and includes the development of business models designed to comply with applicable state law. Amanda has served on both the buyer and seller side in the acquisition of physician practice groups by physician practice management companies, including with regard to anesthesia, emergency department and wound care specialties.
Physicians and Physician Groups: Amanda advises physicians and physician groups with regard to all aspects of the development and management of their practices, including partnership matters, employment matters, licensing matters, covenants not to compete, developing concierge practices and developing business models to facilitate the capture of ancillary revenue streams.
Health Care Regulatory: Amanda advises health care clients in all aspects of federal and state regulatory matters, including anti-kickback, self referral laws, state licensure (including with regard to physicians, clinics, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, pharmacies, home health agencies and other providers), corporate practice of medicine, fee-splitting, Certificate of Need, Medicare and Medicaid. Amanda has represented clients investigated by various federal and state agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the Florida Agency for HealthCare Administration and the Florida Board of Medicine.
Community and Pro Bono Services: In December, 2003, Amanda founded and implemented the Patient Services and Education Program in conjunction with the Lupus Foundation of Greater Washington, a program designed to empower patients living with a chronic disease by providing educational and social opportunities. At the University of Chicago Law School, Amanda served in the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic Juvenile Justice Project, and continues her work with children today by serving as an attorney ad litem for children in Florida’s foster care system. Amanda has represented three children in the foster care system, two of whom were successfully placed with permanent adoptive families. Amanda also participated in the Firm’s pro bono efforts in partnership with the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children to represent unaccompanied minors, as well as the Firm’s efforts to assist Holocaust survivors in connection with their receipt of reparations from the German government. Amanda is a member of the Miami Office’s pro bono committee and serves as a board member for the YWCA of greater Miami-Dade County.
Amanda is admitted to practice in Florida and Virginia, and is a member of the Florida Bar Health Law Section and the American Health Lawyers Association.
Education
- University of Chicago Law School, J.D., 2003
- Austin College, B.A., 2000
