Ben Wilson is a partner in the health care group and co-leader of the public finance practice. Ben serves as a trusted advisor to health care organizations, academic institutions and investors. He focuses his practice on U.S. and international transactions (including acquisitions, joint ventures and affiliations), corporate finance, governance and health care regulatory counseling.
Ben structures and negotiates critical business transactions—including complex affiliations, joint ventures and acquisitions—for leading colleges and universities, academic medical centers, research institutions, health systems, provider organizations, and investors. He advises providers, payors and digital health companies in structuring innovative value-based delivery and payment models and partnerships.
In addition, Ben has extensive experience advising higher education, health care and other nonprofit institutions in financings and related transactions, including green, social, sustainability and climate bonds. He serves as borrower’s counsel to leading higher education, health care and research institutions, and also serves as underwriter's, disclosure and bond counsel in taxable and tax-exempt financings for such borrowers.
Beyond his transactional work, Ben regularly counsels boards and management on important governance matters related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues; financial reporting and disclosure; investigations and crises; and leadership succession and transition. Drawing on his experience as outside general counsel to health systems and in-house counsel at a leading children’s hospital, he also advises clients on a broad array of health care regulatory matters, ranging from accreditation and licensing to patient care and ethics concerns.
Experience
Mergers, Acquisitions, and Affiliations
- Represented health systems in acquiring or affiliating with other health systems or providers.
- Advised health systems and universities, both public and private, in restating academic affiliations and restructuring faculty practices.
- Represented multiple national senior living enterprises in the acquisition of communities.
- Represented a national health insurance and delivery system in the sale of a minority equity investment to a private equity investor.
- Advised several human service organizations in acquisitions of businesses and properties in bankruptcy.
- Represented a nonprofit college in its acquisition of and merger with another college.
- Counseled health care providers in structuring and implementing novel joint ventures and contractual affiliations, requiring resolution of complex licensing and reimbursement issues.
- Represented a private equity sponsor in the sale of a nationwide pharmacy services company.
Value-Based Care and Managed Care Organizations
- Counseled health care providers, health plans, and health care ventures in establishing value-based payment structures and managing associated licensing and regulatory requirements.
- Represented a health center in establishing a clinically-integrated behavioral health network for participating in Medicaid value-based care models.
- Advised a consortium of behavioral health and human service organizations in establishing a clinically integrated network in anticipation of Medicaid program restructuring.
- Represented a leading academic medical center in its negotiations and disputes with payors.
- Advised a health insurer with respect to the sale of a Medicare Advantage plan.
- Represented a health insurer in a novel financing and data sharing transaction with a national research foundation.
Financing
- Represented health systems, universities, and other institutions as borrower’s counsel, handling substantially all financing matters.
- Structured and restructured obligated groups and master indentures for multiple health systems.
- Represented health systems and other nonprofit organizations in or near default in negotiating consents and workouts with lenders and bond insurers.
- Served as underwriters’ counsel for taxable and tax-exempt public offerings, and as bond counsel for public and private issuances.
Medicare and Medicaid
- Represented health care providers in appeals and administrative hearings relating to alleged Medicare and Medicaid overpayments.
- Counseled several of the nation’s leading children’s hospitals on the provider-based rules, rules relating to co-location of hospital facilities, and rules relating to sharing of hospital space.
- Advised an academic medical center with respect to compliance with federal and state rules relating to intergovernmental transfers and Medicaid supplemental funding.
Clinical Laboratories
- Regularly advised clinical laboratories with respect to licensing, certification, reimbursement, and FDA compliance.
- Advised a leading multi-state health system in evaluating and redesigning its network of laboratories for hospital, physician group, and outreach testing.
- Represented a national independent laboratory in multiple, high-stakes Medicare and Medicaid appeals, including proceedings before administrative law judges and related litigation.
- Counseled a leading research institute in establishing a clinical laboratory.