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Stephen M. Weiner

Member / Founding Chair, Health Law Practice

[email protected]

+1.617.348.1757

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Steve has an outstanding reputation in the arena of health care strategic affiliations, mergers, and acquisitions. He has led initiatives involving mergers of nonprofit providers, including community hospitals and academic center-based systems; acquisitions of nonprofits by for-profit companies, including private equity firms; joint ventures and partnerships among for-profit and nonprofit entities; and strategic realignments within academic medical systems among medical schools, academic medical centers and faculty practice plans. Steve has also facilitated the introduction of new and less costly care delivery alternatives, including the integration of retail clinics into pharmacy providers.  He has worked on Massachusetts health care reform, helped form the regulatory structure for Dubai Healthcare City, and undertaken several medical travel initiatives. Steve also serves as board chair for a major national charitable patient assistance foundation.

Steve is the founding chair of Mintz’s Health Law Practice. He has over 30 years of experience in the health care field as a policy maker, educator, and attorney. He represents health care services providers and new technology companies in a broad array of legal matters, including strategic positioning; payer strategies; clinical integration initiatives; mergers, acquisitions, strategic affiliations, “demergers,” and joint venture arrangements, including arrangements between tax-exempt and for-profit organizations; and navigating complex regulatory requirements.

In Massachusetts, Steve has been very active in matters relating to the development and implementation of the Commonwealth’s signature health care reform program and in implementing the initiative to create a statewide interoperable electronic health record system, using both state and federal stimulus legislation funds.

Steve also represents health care providers in developing, monitoring, and restructuring relationships between hospitals and physicians; regulatory and reimbursement matters, including licensure, certification and determination (certificate) of need proceedings, managed care contracting, Medicare reimbursement and appeals, and Medicaid and uncompensated care pool reimbursement; fraud and abuse and Stark Law counseling; general contracting; and, for academic medical centers specifically, clinical research, conflict of interest, relationships with affiliated medical schools, and relationships with federally qualified community health centers.

He also works extensively with the US Department of Defense on matters relating to TRICARE and the operations of the US Family Health Plan program. Since its inception, Steve has served as pro bono legal counsel to the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare, a foundation promoting compassionate care and more effective communications between patients and caregivers.

He has also participated in a number of international health care activities, including structuring the health care regulatory system for the Dubai Healthcare City, where he then served for almost ten years as a member of the licensing board, and representing a number of organizations engaged in the medical travel industry.  He is a member of the Healthcare and Life Sciences Committee of the International Bar Association (IBA), where he has most recently served as Committee co-chair.  In his capacity as a Committee officer he has organized and/or moderated panels at annual meetings of the IBA on topics that have ranged from comparative international strategies related to regulating drug pricing to public health issues associated with drug-resistant microbes.

Steve has been an Associate Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law; a visiting lecturer teaching a course on health care restructuring at the Yale Law School; and for many years an adjunct faculty member at Suffolk University School of Law.

Steve has an outstanding reputation in the arena of health care strategic affiliations, mergers, and acquisitions. He has led initiatives involving mergers of nonprofit providers, including community hospitals and academic center-based systems; acquisitions of nonprofits by for-profit companies, including private equity firms; joint ventures and partnerships among for-profit and nonprofit entities; and strategic realignments within academic medical systems among medical schools, academic medical centers and faculty practice plans. Steve has also facilitated the introduction of new and less costly care delivery alternatives, including the integration of retail clinics into pharmacy providers.  He has worked on Massachusetts health care reform, helped form the regulatory structure for Dubai Healthcare City, and undertaken several medical travel initiatives. Steve also serves as board chair for a major national charitable patient assistance foundation.

Experience

  • Represented a private equity firm in the acquisition of six diocesan hospitals.
  • Represented a community nonprofit acute care hospital and a nonprofit long-term care acute hospital in their acquisitions by a for-profit health care system.
  • Represented a nonprofit community hospital in its merger with a major academic medical center-based system.
  • Represented a major secular nonprofit community hospital in its full asset merger with a Catholic hospital, creating a unique structure that allowed the campus of the Catholic hospital to retain its Catholicity.
  • Led the formation of a new health care system consisting of a major academic medical center and a major community hospital.
  • Led efforts by a leading national medical school and its university to rationalize its relationship with both its teaching hospital and its associated faculty practice plan.
  • Led efforts in forming an academic research organization the members of which included a major national medical school and two of its key academic medical center affiliates.
  • Represented a leading provider of pharmacy services in forging a relationship with, and ultimately acquiring, a major retail clinic company. 
  • Represented Harvard Medical International, then a subsidiary of Harvard Medical School, in devising the regulatory framework for quality of care licensure in Dubai Healthcare City.
  • Represents a network of six health care systems in providing a fully at risk managed care product for uniformed services beneficiaries, including periodically negotiating contracts and capitation rates with the US Department of Defense. 
  • Represents a nonprofit entity providing products and services under an FDA enforcement discretion policy in devising a complex set of contractual arrangements with a for-profit entity to assure the nonprofit a revenue stream sufficient to support its ongoing charitable mission.
  • Represented a major for-profit national radiation oncology company in entering into joint ventures with academic medical centers and nonprofit physician practices.
  • Represents a major regional hospital cooperative (a “501(e)” organization) in devising strategic initiatives that allow for its expansion consistent with its tax status.
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viewpoints

HPC Weighs in on Impact of Question 1

November 1, 2018 | Advisory | By Elissa Flynn-Poppey, Cassandra Paolillo, Stephen Weiner

This article discusses a Massachusetts Health Policy Commission report on the impact of Questions 1, the proposed Nurse Staffing Ratio Mandate.
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The Health Policy Commission’s Annual Cost Trends Hearings

November 1, 2016 | Alert | By Steven Baddour, Daniel Connelly, Julie Cox, Daria Niewenhous, Stephen Weiner, Maxwell Fathy, Elena Horvit, Parnia Zahedi

The Massachusetts Health Policy Commission conducted its fourth annual Cost Trends Hearing on October 17 and 18, 2016, under the requirements of Massachusetts’s 2012 health care reform legislation (“Chapter 224”).
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Price disparities among hospitals pose one of the more intractable issues for policy makers, regulators and the government. That they exist is indisputable. Why they exist is a source of much contention. 
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In 2012 Massachusetts adopted the most recent in a series of comprehensive legislative approaches to health care reform, Chapter 224 of the Acts of 2012 (Chapter 224), which focused especially on addressing the drivers of health care costs in the Commonwealth. 
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The Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (HPC) has issued its 2015 Cost Trends Report, based on the HPC’s annual health care cost growth hearings.
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Drug Costs, Risk Adjustment Drive Q2 Health Insurance Rate Increases

January 26, 2016 | Advisory | By Julie Cox, Stephen Weiner, Sasha Dudding

The Massachusetts Division of Insurance (DOI) recently held a two-day hearing on rate changes proposed by Massachusetts health insurance plans to be effective for the second quarter of 2016 (Q2).
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Recent Developments in Massachusetts Health Policy

October 23, 2015 | Alert | By Julie Cox, Sasha Dudding, Stephen Weiner

Building on the momentum of early October hearings on the state’s growing health care expenditures, the Health Policy Commission (HPC), the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, Governor Charlie Baker, and others spent the past two weeks crafting new policies for the industry and its consumers.
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In an April 22, 2015 letter to the New York State Department of Health (DOH), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cautioned that part of the State’s Medicaid reform program may sanction anticompetitive behavior.
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You're Invited to a Webinar: Health Care Antitrust Trends in 2015

April 17, 2015 | Blog | By Samantha Kingsbury

Next Thursday April 23rd at 12pm EST, Mintz Levin attorneys Dionne Lomax and Steve Weiner will be presenting a webinar, moderated by Bruce Sokler, on trends in antitrust enforcement in health care.
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Mintz Advisory Analyzes the Upcoming Supreme Court Hearing in King v. Burwell

January 7, 2015 | Blog | By Lauren Moldawer, Andrew Shin, Stephen Weiner

The Supreme Court announced it will be hearing King v. Burwell – a case which could determine the future scope and reach of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – on March 4, 2015. 
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News & Press

News Thumbnail
Mintz Member and Founding Chair of the firm’s Health Law Practice Stephen Weiner was quoted in an article published by the International Bar Association on violations of sexual and reproductive healthcare rights during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Press Release Thumbnail
Mintz partner and Massachusetts lawyer Julie Korostoff is one of 49 attorneys recognized as “Leaders in Their Fields” by the 2018 Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business guide. Chambers named Korostoff a “Recognized Practitioner” in Technology.
Press Release Thumbnail
Best Lawyers named 85 Mintz attorneys to its 2018 list of The Best Lawyers in America. In addition, Mintz attorneys Matthew J. Gardella and Samuel M. Tony Starr were named “Lawyer of the Year” in their respective practice areas.
Member Steve Weiner authored a chapter in the Handbook of Health Decision Science that discusses the disparity between the ideal conditions backing clinical decision-making and the reality of clinical decision-making in the US.
Best Lawyers named 73 Mintz attorneys to its 2017 list of The Best Lawyers in America. Mintz attorneys selected for inclusion in this year’s list span 44 practice areas. 
Firm’s National Healthcare Practice, NY Corporate/M&A and Litigation: General Commercial Among Newest Rankings
The 2015 Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business guide names 52 Mintz, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.  attorneys as “Leaders in Their Fields.”
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Events & Speaking

Moderator
Oct
7
2018

IBA Annual Conference Rome 2018

International Bar Association

Roma Convention Center La Nuvola, Viale Asia, Rome, Italy

Co-chair
Oct
9
2017
Speaker
Apr
30
2017
Moderator
Moderator
May
2
2016

New England Healthcare Executive Network Meeting

NE Healthcare Executive Network

Boston, MA

Panelist
Dec
2
2015

Medical Tourism: Legal Issues and Ethical Implications

Boston Bar Association Health Law Education Committee

Boston, MA

Moderator
Oct
8
2015

Having a Family: A Human Right

International Bar Association (IBA) Annual Conference

Austria Center Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Panelist
Jan
22
2015
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Steve has an outstanding reputation in the arena of health care strategic affiliations, mergers, and acquisitions. He has led initiatives involving mergers of nonprofit providers, including community hospitals and academic center-based systems; acquisitions of nonprofits by for-profit companies, including private equity firms; joint ventures and partnerships among for-profit and nonprofit entities; and strategic realignments within academic medical systems among medical schools, academic medical centers and faculty practice plans. Steve has also facilitated the introduction of new and less costly care delivery alternatives, including the integration of retail clinics into pharmacy providers.  He has worked on Massachusetts health care reform, helped form the regulatory structure for Dubai Healthcare City, and undertaken several medical travel initiatives. Steve also serves as board chair for a major national charitable patient assistance foundation.

Recognition & Awards

  • Best Lawyers Lawyer of the Year for Health Care Law in Boston (2011)
  • Chambers USA: Massachusetts (Band 1) – Healthcare (2005 – 2022)
  • Massachusetts Super Lawyers: Health Care list (2004 – 2015)
  • Best Lawyers in America: Health Care Law (1991 – present)
  • Recognized by the The Legal 500 United States for Healthcare: Service Providers (2015)
  • Good Guy Award, Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus (2011)
  • Nightingale’s Healthcare News Outstanding Hospital Lawyers (2009)
  • Massachusetts Medical Law Report Rx for Excellence Leaders in Quality Award (2008)
  • Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent
  • Who’s Who in America
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Steve has an outstanding reputation in the arena of health care strategic affiliations, mergers, and acquisitions. He has led initiatives involving mergers of nonprofit providers, including community hospitals and academic center-based systems; acquisitions of nonprofits by for-profit companies, including private equity firms; joint ventures and partnerships among for-profit and nonprofit entities; and strategic realignments within academic medical systems among medical schools, academic medical centers and faculty practice plans. Steve has also facilitated the introduction of new and less costly care delivery alternatives, including the integration of retail clinics into pharmacy providers.  He has worked on Massachusetts health care reform, helped form the regulatory structure for Dubai Healthcare City, and undertaken several medical travel initiatives. Steve also serves as board chair for a major national charitable patient assistance foundation.

Involvement

  • Chair of the Board, The HealthWell Foundation
  • Member of the Advisory Committee to the Brown University Executive Masters in Healthcare Leadership program
  • Chair of the Board, American Lyric Theater
  • Trustee, Chair of the Governance and Audit Committee, Member of the Executive Committee, Jacob's Pillow Dance
  • Trustee Emeritus, Boston Ballet
  • Former Co-Chair, Healthcare and Life Sciences Committee, International Bar Association
  • Diversity Officer and Liaison to the North American Regional Forum, Healthcare and Life Sciences Committee, International Bar Association
  • Former Chair, Massachusetts Rate Setting Commission
  • Former Special assistant to the Governor of Massachusetts for health policy
  • Former Director, Boston University School of Law Center for Law and Health Sciences
  • Former Director, Massachusetts Health Council
  • Former Trustee, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston
  • Former Trustee, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
  • Former Trustee, Conservatory Lab Charter School Foundation
  • Former Director, AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts
  • Former Director, GLAD
  • Former Director, Massachusetts Chapter of the Healthcare Financial Management Association
  • Former Trustee, Opera Boston
  • Former Trustee, Huntington Theatre Company, Boston
  • Former Trustee and Treasurer, Boston Ballet
  • Former Member, House of Delegates of Easter Seals Massachusetts
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Stephen M. Weiner

Member / Founding Chair, Health Law Practice

Boston