Health Care Insights — Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper, P.C. Firm News & Events

Navigating the Purchase or Sale of an Eye Care Practice

Published on: July 14, 2026 | by Stephen A. Timoni

The eye care sector has become one of the most active areas in healthcare M&A, driven by an aging demographic, the rise of the medical optometry, and significant private equity interest. For practice owners and buyers alike, this presents substantial opportunity, along with complex legal pitfalls that can derail a transaction.

Buying or selling an optometry or ophthalmology practice is fundamentally different from purchasing a typical small business. These transactions sit at the intersection of corporate law, healthcare regulation, and professional licensure rules. A deal that looks clean on the financials can collapse during diligence when regulatory or structural issues surface.

The Corporate Practice Doctrine

Preparing Your Healthcare Company for a Private Equity Transaction

Published on: July 6, 2026 | by Stephen A. Timoni

Private equity has become the dominant force reshaping healthcare ownership in the United States. Investors are actively pursuing physician practices, ambulatory surgery centers, behavioral health organizations, home health and hospice agencies, dental and dermatology groups, physical therapy providers, infusion companies, and med spas. Capital is abundant. Attractive targets are not.

The healthcare organizations that command premium valuations share a common trait: they prepared long before entering the market. Purchase price and valuation multiples dominate the conversation, but sophisticated buyers evaluate management depth, financial integrity, compliance infrastructure, and growth trajectory. These factors, more than trailing earnings, determine what a practice’s worth.

What Private Equity Buyers Are Really Buying

How Buyers Can Structure Safer Health Care Transactions

Published on: April 27, 2026 | by Stephen A. Timoni

In Health Care, Structure Drives Outcome

In health care transactions, purchase price is only part of the story. Deal structure is where acquisitions succeed or fail.

Health care acquisitions are not like other business transactions. Buyers are not simply acquiring furniture, equipment, and accounts receivable. They are acquiring a business built on reimbursement systems, regulatory compliance, payer relationships, provider productivity, and clinical operations. If the transaction is not structured carefully, the buyer can inherit problems they never intended to assume.

Health Law Alert: New Jersey Expands Practice Autonomy For Advanced Practice Nurses – Key Implications for Med Spas and Aesthetic Practices

Published on: April 6, 2026 | by Stephen A. Timoni and Kelsey Gorman

During the COVID-19 pandemic, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy issued an executive order which, among other things, temporarily suspended and waived the requirement that Advanced Practice Nurses (“APNs”) enter into a joint protocol agreement with a collaborating physician in order to prescribe medications and devices. The waiver was intended to allow APNs to practice with expanded autonomy to meet urgent health care demands during the pandemic. Prior to the end of his final term, Governor Murphy issued Executive Order 415, terminating many pandemic emergency declarations and associated waivers, including the waiver of the joint protocol requirement which was set to expire on February 16, 2026. In response, current Governor Mikie Sherrill issued Executive Order 13, extending the COVID-era waiver of joint protocol agreements for 45 days and acknowledging pending legislation, Senate Bill 2996.

Key Changes for APNs

New Jersey Senate Bill 2996 was introduced into the legislature on January 13, 2026 proposing to permanently eliminate practice restrictions that limited APNs’ ability to prescribe and administer medications and devices. In its initial form, Senate Bill 2996 authorized APNs who have completed 24 months or 2,400 hours of licensed, active, advanced nursing to practice without a joint protocol agreement. However, the bill that passed and was eventually signed into law by Governor Mikie Sherrill on March 30, 2026 is significantly different than the version initially proposed.

Revamped COVID Guidance From the CDC Drops 5-Day Isolation Rule

Published on: March 5, 2024 | by Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper, P.C.

Emergency room visits and hospital admissions for COVID-19 are down more than 75%, and deaths are down by more than 90%, from the peak of the Omicron wave in January 2022. As the COVID epidemic moves farther into the horizon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has modified its guidance for the period of isolation that must be observed by individuals testing positive for COVID-19.

At the onset of the COVID epidemic in 2020 the CDC issued its isolation guidance calling for 10 days of isolation for persons testing positive for COVID-19, which was reduced to 5 days in 2021. On Friday, March 1, 2024, the CDC issued revised guidance which now says individuals testing positive can return to work and other normal activities if i) the COVID symptoms are improving, and ii) the individual has been fever-free for at least 24-hours without medication. However, the new guidance does not apply to healthcare setting.

In his announcement of the new isolation rules, CDC Director Mandy Cohen stated that the CDC’s revision “reflects the progress we have made in protecting against severe illness form COVID-19.” The CDC also pointed to a recent survey indicating that less than 50% of people with cold or cough symptoms would take an at home test for COVID 19, and less than 10% indicated that they would get tested by a pharmacy or healthcare provider. According to Georges Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association, the CDC’s new position is more realistic than asking individuals to isolate for 5 days.

Rules and Regulations Every Medi-Spa Owner Needs to Understand

Published on: May 22, 2023 | by Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper, P.C.

In today’s market, many spas are looking to expand their service lines to include cosmetic medical services, such as laser therapies, IV hydration, and Botox treatments. With the prevalence of cosmetic medical services on the rise, people are now electing to receive these treatments in a spa setting – as opposed to a traditional medical office. Regulations abound, yet, they often fail to provide spas with direct guidance on these emerging services and the technological advancements in treatments. When forming a spa that provides cosmetic medical services (a “medi-spa”), there are a number of issues a business owner should consider.

First, it is critical to understand whether a medi-spa needs a state license or registration to operate. If a license or registration is required, it often must be obtained in order to form the entity itself. The time it takes to obtain any necessary license or registration can also impact the medi-spa’s application to state tax authorities during the formation process.

Second, it is critical to understand what licensing boards regulate the medi-spa and its professionals. For example, estheticians are typically regulated by a state cosmetology board. Healthcare professionals can be regulated by a variety of boards, including but not limited to boards of medical examiners, nurses, chiropractors, pharmacists, and dieticians. Each board has its own applicable rules and regulations, which often require certain credentialing and limit the scope of services the licensed individual can provide.

American Hospital Association v. Becerra: The Economics of Healthcare

Published on: August 8, 2022 | by Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper, P.C.

COVID-19, inflation, politics, and an impending recession: it is indisputable that the last two years have had an indelible effect on the healthcare industry. Acute care providers, in particular, have faced a plethora of economic challenges, including increasing costs for drugs and medical devices. However, on June 15, 2022, in American Hospital Association v. Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, 142 S.Ct. 1896 (2022), the American Hospital Association (AHA) secured a win for 340B hospitals—often referred to as safety net hospitals—by successfully challenging the Department of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS) calculation of reimbursement rates. As a result, the Becerra court affirmed that DHHS was not statutorily authorized to vary reimbursement rates for different hospital groups; DHHS’s power to increase or decrease the price is distinct from its power to set different rates for different groups of hospitals. Id. As a result, the Becerra decision has far-reaching implications for acute care providers who provide services to uninsured, underinsured, and rural communities.

Legislative Backdrop

In order to appreciate the impact of Becerra, it is imperative to have a general understanding of the evolution of the regulatory landscape for healthcare providers. During the nineteenth century, acute care was generally provided in the homes of the wealthy or through benevolent institutions, including voluntary, religious, and public or governmental institutions. Generally, the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act of 1894 applied to these early acute care providers, which provided that charitable organizations should enjoy tax-exempt status, provided they operate for charitable purposes.

Attorney Stephen A. Timoni Offers Tips and Best Practices for Telehealth

Published on: October 21, 2020 | by Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper, P.C.

Lindabury attorney Stephen A. Timoni of the firm’s Health Care industry team was recently interviewed by Relias Media and offered tips and best practices for providers offering telehealth services.

Some of the topics covered in the article include:

privacy concerns due to the nontraditional electronic transmission of sensitive information among providers and patients

Legal Considerations for Telehealth in the Age of the Coronavirus Pandemic

Published on: March 31, 2020 | by Monica Vir

As the response to the coronavirus pandemic continues to evolve, it is imperative that healthcare providers stay informed about the latest legal developments that may affect their practices.

In the middle of a pandemic and with instructions from all levels of government to practice social distancing, visiting your healthcare provider virtually may seem like an obvious choice. And yet, a patchwork of federal and state regulations governing telehealth has complicated such visits.

As just one example, licensure of physicians is on a state-by-state basis. Each state has its own regulations making it difficult to implement a national telemedicine program. Adding to that are limits on physicians being able to treat patients in a state in which they are not licensed, as well as different state drug prescription and privacy laws.

Five Healthcare Industry Changes to Watch in 2020

Published on: February 11, 2020 | by Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper, P.C.

Stephen Timoni was recently interviewed by Karen Appold of Managed Healthcare Executive regarding significant changes on the horizon which are expected to affect both health insurers and providers alike. Many are the result of a shift toward value-based care, a move toward decreased care in hospital settings, technological advances, and other forces.

Along these lines, Timoni says that consolidation has been motivated by the evolving and challenging commercial and government reimbursement models which include lower fee-for-service payment rates, value-based payment components, and incentives to move care from inpatient to outpatient settings. “Basic economic theory suggests that consolidation of hospitals and physicians enables these combined providers to charge higher prices to private payers as the result of a lack of competition,” Timoni says. “Likewise, combined insurers are able to charge higher premiums to their subscribers.”

You can read the full article online here.