In its August 2012 issue, the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal published  Medicare Issues in Bankruptcies by Ted Berkowitz and Veronique Urban of Farrell Fritz.

The takeaways:

-Health care entities contemplating a bankruptcy filing should carefully consider the effects that the filing will have on their Medicare arrangements;

-Health care debtors should be aware that any automatic stay will likely not prevent the government from enforcing its right to recoupment after the commencement of a bankruptcy;

-If a health care debtor intends to assume and assign or sell its Medicare provider agreement to a third party, consideration should be given to the possibility of successor liability and the cost of implementing such a transaction.