Medical Marketing Arrangements: A New Legal Landscape for Physicians

This article originally appeared in Medical Economics. Reprinted with permission. Any opinions in this article are not those of Winston & Strawn or its clients. The opinions in this article are the authors’ opinions only.

A recently concluded jury trial in federal district court in Texas has major nationwide implications for existing and future marketing arrangements between medical facilities and doctors (“medical marketing arrangements”).

In United States v. Michael Alan Beauchamp, et al., a jury found seven of nine defendants affiliated with Fores Park Medical Center in Dallas guilty of criminal charges, including violations of the Travel Act, a 1960s federal statute originally intended to federalize state criminal law violations in the context of organized crime. Those seven defendants now face the prospect of multi-year prison sentences. William Nicholson, MD, whom we represented, emerged as the sole defendant acquitted. (The jury was unable to reach a verdict for the ninth defendant.)

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