J. Peter Rich is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP and is based in the Firm’s Los Angeles office. He co-chairs the Firm’s Insurance / Payers Affinity Group.
For more than 30 years, Peter has practiced almost exclusively in the health law field, and routinely advises hospitals, medical groups, health plans and other health insurers, as well as other health industry clients, in negotiating and structuring managed care and other health industry transactions, including major Medicare Demonstration Projects, and on a wide variety of other transactions and health regulatory matters.
McDermott Will & Emery's health industry practice was named “Healthcare Team of the Year” by Chambers USA as part of the Chambers USA Awards for Excellence 2010. Peter has been specifically recognized for the past several years by Best Lawyers in America, in the categories of health law and administrative law, most recently for 2010. He has been recognized as one of the leading health care lawyers in The Expert Guide to the Leading U.S. Healthcare Lawyers, and received the highest rating of “AV® Preeminent rating” for his legal ability and ethics from the independent Martindale-Hubbell attorney rating system. Peter has also been listed in Euromoney Institutional Investor Expert Guide to the Leading U.S. Healthcare Lawyers.
Peter has formed and restructured many types of managed care organizations, including Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), other types of physician-hospital organizations and similar integrated health care delivery systems, as well as health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and other types of health plans. He has served as special health care counsel in several bankruptcies involving health plans, IPAs, and hospitals, and in that role has successfully advised on restructuring, regulatory compliance, and asset sales. In addition, he routinely advises these and other health industry clients on regulatory compliance matters and related disputes under federal and state managed care/insurance laws, the Medicare Antikickback, Stark, and CMP laws, the Medicare Advantage program, the laws governing tax-exempt organizations, and a wide variety of other managed care regulatory requirements. He also advises hospitals and other affiliated providers as well as medical staffs in such legal areas as joint ventures and other transactions, medical staff bylaws and peer review matters, the corporate practice of medicine and fee-splitting, EMTALA, state licensing and CMS enforcement actions, and other health regulatory matters. He has served for over a decade as outside general counsel to the board of directors of one of the nation’s largest and most successful physician-owned malpractice insurance cooperative interindemnity arrangements, and has also provided legal assistance in connection with the creation of risk-retention groups and other physician-owned captive professional liability insurance companies.
Peter speaks and writes frequently in the field. Peter’s most recent publications include “Health Reform Hands Boards Big Responsibilities” (co-authored with McDermott partner Michael W. Peregrine) for Trustee Magazine (May 2010); “Health Care Reform: ACOs and Developments in Coordinated Care Delivery, Shared Savings and Bundled Payments” (co-authored with McDermott partner Gary Davis) for McDermott, Will & Emery’s On the Subject (April 2010); the "California Supreme Court’s Prospect Medical Group Decision Prohibits Balance Billing by Emergency Services Providers in California"; for the American Health Lawyers Association Practice Group Member Briefing (2009);“What Rates are Health Plans Legally Obligated to Pay Non-Contracted Providers?” for the ABA Health Care Litigation Newsletter (2006); and “State Regulation of Medical Discount Programs: A New Frontier” (2005); “Tiered Benefit HMO Plans: The Next Generation of Managed Care Plans?” (2004); “Recent Significant Federal and State Court Decisions and Statutes That Affect Managed Care Provider Contracting” (2003) and “Have ‘Evergreen’ Provider Contracts Lost Their Bloom?” (2003), which were published in Managed Care Quarterly
Peter most recently gave the following presentations: “Accountable Care Organizations After Healthcare Reform” for Strafford Publications, Inc., on July 7, 2010; “Disruptive Physicians: From Credentialing to Disciplinary Action – Minimizing Liability for Poor Quality of Care, Negligent Credentialing and Physician Lawsuits” for Strafford Publications, Inc., on August 27, 2009; “Medical Staff Credentialing and Privileging” for The Institute for Medical Leadership’s 2008 to 2009 Medical Staff Boot Camps, “Disruptive Physicians” for the April 2009 California Medical Association Leadership Academy; and on “The Escalating Battle Over Payments to Non-Contract Providers: Latest Developments,” for the October 2008 annual meeting of the Healthcare Law Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association (of which he is a past president).
Education
- Harvard Law School, J.D., 1977
- University of California-Los Angeles, A.B. (summa cum laude), 1974
