Claire Marblestone Assesses Increased Scrutiny of CA Health Care Transactions

Foley & Lardner LLP partner Claire Marblestone is quoted in the Law360 article, “Struggling Hospitals Seek Mergers As Regulators Push Back,” providing insight into California’s health care transaction regulations, including the state’s newly implemented cost and market impact review (CMIR).

Marblestone explained that while operators in the health care industry are accustomed to navigating regulatory hurdles to close deals, newer regulations are growing “increasingly more burdensome” for providers to comply with.

“They’re needing to do a lot more pre-planning for certain types of transactions than thinking through an additional layer of regulatory approvals before they can close their deals,” she said.

Marblestone noted that though she has seen a chilling effect set in across the industry, some California-based clients seem to have accepted that CMIR regulations are just another process they will have to navigate.

“It’s kind of mixed,” she commented. “I think the ones that are based here and know they’re subject to it are just in, at least for now, a mode of accepting that this is a process that they’ll have to go through.”

Marblestone emphasized that despite increased scrutiny or new regulations, if a deal needs to happen, it’s going to happen.

“I think that there’s hope and optimism that they will go through and be successful, with the understanding that it will take some time and it might delay things,” she added.

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