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Peter J Martin

Partner

Peter J. Martin

Partner

Overview

Peter Martin concentrates his practice on healthcare law, representing hospitals, long-term care facilities, physicians and other facilities and providers facing complex regulatory and contractual issues throughout Massachusetts and beyond. Peter’s clients include ambulatory care facilities, hospices, community health centers and home health agencies as well as social workers, counselors and psychologists.

His healthcare clients turn to Peter – a former in-house healthcare lawyer – with a wide range of concerns, including licensure, professional discipline, reimbursement with 3rd-party payors and breaches of security and privacy. Peter provides amiable, problem-solving counsel and representation concerning the following:

  • Corporate compliance, counseling and contract negotiations
  • Fraud and abuse and regulatory investigations
  • Managed care issues
  • Hiring and practice acquisitions on behalf buyers and sellers
  • Health information privacy and security
  • Transactional and operational issues

Peter also counsels tax-exempt organizations on governance, compliance and exemption issues, leveraging his years of experience and depth of subject matter knowledge. “Clients know that I appreciate value and efficiency,” he adds. “I’m practical, too, candidly recommending when a client has gotten the best negotiated deal they’re going to get, asking them ‘How much more do you want to spend?’ Let’s solve the problem and take this off everyone’s desk.”

Before Bowditch

Peter was Operations Counsel for Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation, representing hospitals and other Columbia providers in New England, Ohio, North Carolina and portions of Florida. He was also Lead Attorney in the Health Law Practice Group at Peabody & Arnold, Boston, as well as Legal Counsel at MetroWest Medical Center, Framingham.

Besides work

Peter likes to hike and travel with his wife. “We hiked throughout Wales end to end…and plan to do it again.” Current reading? The Patrick O’Brian Aubrey/Maturin series.

Affiliations

  • Member, American Health Lawyers Association
  • Member, Massachusetts and New Hampshire Bar Associations
  • Member, Healthcare Financial Management Association
  • Member, International Association of Privacy Professionals
  • Director, Family Health Center of Worcester
  • Clerk, 495/MetroWest Corridor Partnership
  • Director and Clerk, Sudbury Valley Trustees; Member, Executive and Land Protection Committees
  • Director, Worcester Community Action Council; Member, Executive and Personnel Committees
  • Member, Northborough Community Preservation Committee
  • Chair, Princeton Alumni Schools Committee for central Massachusetts and northeast Connecticut
  • Member, National Association of College and University Attorneys

Previous

  • Past member and Vice Chair, Massachusetts Bar Association Health Law Section Council
  • Past member and Chair of the Board of Trustees, Saint Joseph Preparatory High School

Articles + Talks

Articles

Talks

  • Tax Exempt Organizations from Start to Finish,” National Business Institute, June 20, 2016
  • “Health Insurance Reform – It’s Live,” Bowditch & Dewey Breakfast @ Bowditch series, Worcester, Massachusetts, October 29, 2015
  • “What Does Being a Fiduciary Mean?” Eliot Community Health Services, Lexington, Massachusetts, October 18, 2015
  • “Financial and Legal Oversight”, Jericho Road Worcester Leadership Connection seminar, Worcester, MA, September 30, 2015
  • Health Care Reform, North Central Chamber of Commerce, Fitchburg, MA, May 21, 2014
  • Affordable Care Act, Bowditch & Dewey seminar in conjunction with EBS Foran, Milford, MA, June 5, 2013
  • “Financial and Legal Oversight”, Jericho Road Worcester Leadership Connection seminar, Worcester, MA, January 29, 2013
  • “Characteristics of Effective Boards”, 12th Annual Southern New England Community Action Conference, MASSCAP, Falmouth, MA, June 21, 2011
  • “IRS Interim Report on Colleges and Universities”, Colleges of Worcester Consortium Chief Financial Officers Forum, Worcester, MA, November 17, 2010

Bar Admissions

  • Massachusetts
  • New Hampshire

Education

  • J.D., Boston University School of Law
  • M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School
  • A.B., Princeton University
Experience

Helping adapt to changes in the Massachusetts Medicaid program

Peter has been on the front lines of reforms to the Medicaid program in Massachusetts, helping healthcare clients constantly adjust and comply with fast-paced changes. For example, he is forming Accountable Care Organizations for physician practices and hospitals, which are required to provide the whole range of services, including behavioral health. “When this process involves community partners, I’ve assisted several community partners with negotiating collaborative agreements.” Peter’s client is awaiting selection and finalizing of a contract, having created an entity and made its proposal to MassHealth.

Helping a non-profit find a way to accommodate unforeseen changes

Several charitable and educational non-profits rely on Peter for legal counsel, including a land conservancy. “The group’s mission is focused on three river watersheds in central Massachusetts, stemming from a bequest in the 1970s for the purchase of fee interests of land in one town.” The gift has grown significantly, and the town has, too, and environmental science has evolved over the past 50 years. “In order to protect more land and still serve the bequest’s purpose,” Peter noted, “I drafted and submitted a Deviation Complaint to the court for relief and negotiated with the Attorney General’s Office for its OK.” The Attorney General’s office assented to the requested relief, which the court subsequently granted, so that now the group will use its resources for land protection and stewardship projects with many fewer restrictions. “This approach is significant for other non-profits as a practical way to accommodate the fact that times, science and other conditions might have moved on since the terms of an original bequest.”

Helping a long-term care provider expand its continuum of care

Health care providers often seek ways to increase financial stability by diversifying their lines of business to include health care services appropriate to various stages of their patients’ lives.  One of Peter’s clients, which operates a skilled nursing facility and an assisted living facility, has sought Peter’s help in acquiring a Medicare-certified home health agency business, so that the client can expand its elder care services to include in-home care.  “Capturing these patients at an earlier stage in the aging process both helps ease their transitions to more intensive forms of care, but also positions the client to take a broader role in being responsible for the overall health of an expanded patient population, which is important for the client’s participation in value-based and population-health centered payment systems.”

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