Urgent care clinics in shopping centers? Hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers in office buildings? As health care practices and hospital-based offsite extension clinics flourish in the real estate marketplace, do landlords and tenants have the knowledge necessary to negotiate legally protective arrangements that will keep them from running afoul of regulatory non-compliance?
In this article we explore certain health care regulations that govern the landlord-tenant relationship in this ever-changing arena. Specifically we will focus on the following: (1) Article 28 of the Public Health Law and its interplay with the occupancy of office space by a Hospital or ambulatory surgery center; (2) the implications of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 on both landlords and tenants; and (3) “Stark” and Anti-Kickback Law and their application to the landlord-tenant relationship. We will also discuss the emergence of the relatively unregulated “Urgent Care Clinics” and their recent migration from medical office buildings to traditional retail spaces.
