Susan C. Atkinson

Susan Atkinson has dedicated her career to advising healthcare industry clients on corporate, regulatory, and compliance matters, with her clients including all types of licensed healthcare facilities, dental and medical professionals (and their practices of every size), management service organizations, research institutions, voluntary health organizations, drug and device companies, and medical spas. As one client has noted, “Susan Atkinson is a deep subject matter expert. She is exceptionally skilled in critical analysis.” Having served as Corporate Counsel for Saint Joseph’s Health System (now Emory/St. Joseph’s) as well as being part of a family full of medical professionals, Susan has a first-hand understanding that clients in the complex regulatory environment of healthcare need an attorney to look past “no” and find a creative way to “yes.” One client has described Susan as “responsive, incredibly thorough, practical and a joy to work with,” while another said, “Susan is a delight to work with. She engages in thoughtful dialogue and is always intentional about the goals we want to achieve and how we will get there.”

While at Saint Joseph’s, Susan advised the CEO and other senior managers, the Medical Staff, and the Boards for one of the nation’s top acute care hospitals and its affiliated real estate and management entities, employed physician group, charitable foundation, and indigent care program. Among her other duties, Susan had responsibility for all litigation matters (including defense of a qui tam action targeting top cardiac hospitals nationwide) and advised on credentialing, peer review, informed consent, “do not resuscitate” orders and other end-of-life issues, complex reimbursement matters, corporate governance,  operational and clinical policies, accreditation matters, physician contracting, managed care, physician recruitment, Certificates of Need, physician practice acquisitions, clinical trial agreements, EMTALA, and tax-exempt financing. Susan guided the creation and implementation of the Health System’s initial compliance program and HIPAA policies and procedures, was counsel to the Institutional Review Board, advised on operational compliance with the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, and advised on Saint Joseph’s gainsharing program, the first in the country to receive Advisory Opinion approval from the OIG (AO 01-1).

While in private practice, Susan also regularly advises on structuring transactions of all types (including transactions with private equity investors and dental and medical MSO arrangements) within the requirements of the Stark Law, Anti-Kickback Statute, state regulations, and restrictions on the corporate practice of medicine and guides regulatory diligence on CHOW and other licensure and provider enrolment requirements. Other areas of particular interest include complex reimbursement matters (including Medicare and Medicaid appeals and self-disclosure protocols), internal and government investigations, HIPAA privacy and security matters, state licensing board matters, CON determination letters (particularly for physician-owned, single specialty ambulatory surgery centers) and related administrative appeals; mid-level provider protocols; compounding pharmacy issues; advising investigators, research institutions, and government and industry sponsors on the conduct of pre- and post-market clinical studies of drugs and medical devices; and FDA compliance. She also has extensive experience advising HRSA and CDC grant recipients and subrecipients on compliance with federal grant requirements and the 340B program.

Susan has been involved for over 20 years in leadership roles with the Atlanta Bar Association’s “A Courthouse Line” productions (a series of all-attorney musicals which are the major fundraiser for the Atlanta Bar Foundation’s charitable programs), and she is a Lifetime Fellow of the Atlanta Bar Foundation. Ms. Atkinson has also been active in the Atlanta arts community, serving on the Board of Directors for Atlanta Lyric Theatre and OnStage Atlanta; as assistant director and committed parent volunteer for music and theatre programs at her children’s schools;  as a church musician; and as a working performer in local and regional choral, musical theatre, and cabaret performances.

Susan's Practice

Representative Matters

• Engagement as a Specially Appointed Attorney General by the Georgia Department of Community Health to consult with all DCH stakeholders and create a new contract for use with Medicaid Care Management Organizations.
• Representation of a large, multi-state physician group as regulatory counsel for private equity investment deal, deal counsel for multiple acquisitions, and counsel for ongoing operations.
• Outside general counsel for the National Coordinating Center and one of eight Regional Core Centers for the HRSA/CDC National Hemophilia Program.
• Representation of an innovative portable X-ray company in its successful appeal of state agency’s denial of state registration and Medicare provider enrollment.
• Engagement by a nationwide provider trade organization to provide strategic advice.   
• Drafted the clinical trial agreement, informed consent, and HIPAA authorization for a fifteen-year, multi-cohort, multi-arm, nationwide clinical study of all FDA-approved hemophilia treatments, including the main study, its three study arms, and numerous modules and optional biospecimen donation options within each.
• Negotiation of clinical trial agreements to execution with approximately 75 major U.S. medical centers and research universities to serve as study sites for this hemophilia study.