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.
Peter has been 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 was also recognized as one of the leading health care lawyers in The Expert Guide to the Leading U.S. Healthcare Lawyers (2006). For over 30 years, Peter has practiced almost exclusively in the health law field, and routinely advises hospitals, health plans, medical groups, health insurers, and PPOs and similar organizations, as well as other health industry clients, in negotiating and structuring managed care and other health industry transactions, including major Medicare Demonstration Projects.
He has formed and restructured many health plans and other managed care organizations including Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), other types of Physician-Hospital Organizations and similar integrated health care delivery systems. In addition, he routinely advises these clients on regulatory compliance matters and related disputes under federal and state managed care laws and state insurance laws, the Medicare Fraud and Abuse laws and the Stark Law, the law governing tax-exempt hospitals and other nonprofit organizations including board and officer conflicts of interest and codes of ethics, EMTALA, state licensing and CMS enforcement actions, and other federal and state regulatory requirements. He also assists hospitals and other providers as well as medical staffs in such legal areas as joint ventures and other transactions, medical staff bylaws and peer review matters, hospital-based physician contracting, the corporate practice of medicine and fee-splitting, and other corporate and regulatory law matters. He has also served as special health care counsel in several bankruptcies involving health plans and managed care providers, and in that role has successfully represented the debtors in restructuring and selling assets. He serves as outside general counsel to one of the nation’s largest and most successful physician-owned malpractice insurance interindemnity arrangements, and has 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; he most recently gave presentations for hospital governing board, administrative and medical staff members on “Medical Staff Credentialing and Privileging” and “Disruptive Physicians” for The Institute for Medical Leadership’s February 2009 Medical Staff Boot Camp, on “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). His publications include “Corporate Governance – Health Reform Hands Hospital Boards Big Responsibilities” (co-authored with McDermott partner Michael Peregrine) for BNA’s Health Law Reporter (January 2010), “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), “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. He is the lead writer of the chapter “Insurance Payment for Healthcare” in the American Health Lawyers Association’s (AHLA’s) Health Law Practice Guide (2006), and has also co-written and co-edited the third and fourth editions, respectively, of the AHLA’s Managed Care Contracting Handbook: A Guide for Payors and Providers. He also delivers a series of periodic presentations around the country on the legal aspects of credentialing and peer review, disruptive physicians, and EMTALA, for The Institute for Medical Leadership.
McDermott Will & Emery's health law practice has been ranked the most prestigious in the country in recent independent surveys, and Peter has received the highest rating of “AV® Preeminent rating” for legal ability and ethics from the independent Martindale-Hubbell attorney rating system.
Education
- Harvard Law School, J.D., 1977
- University of California-Los Angeles, A.B. (summa cum laude), 1974
