About Kenya S. Woodruff

Kenya S. Woodruff works with hospitals, physicians and other health care providers looking to improve the performance of their clinical operations and ensure regulatory compliance. She also helps those organizations merge and expand, whether through joint ventures, mergers or acquisitions.

A business perspective on health care operations

Due to her prior experience as deputy general counsel at the Parkland Health & Hospital System, Kenya approaches operational issues from the client's perspective, taking into account both technical issues and practical concerns like payment. She structures arrangements that will be both clinically and financially beneficial to her client, while achieving regulatory compliance. Her insight into how systems work from both the patient and provider sides allows her to tailor her advice around what makes the most business sense.

Kenya can provide strategic advice to many different players in the health care world because she has worked with so many of them. Whether she is helping a physician group negotiate a deal with a hospital system, guiding a managed care company through an internal investigation or representing an accountable care organization in its formation, her experience gives her valuable perspective. In addition to her in-house hospital work, she also served as assistant general counsel for a national radiology services company.

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Practice Focus

  • Creating compliant operating structures for health care providers
  • Health care regulation
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Joint ventures
  • The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) and fraud and abuse laws
  • White-collar defense

Representative Experience

  • Represented national hospital system in acquiring a hospital system in San Antonio, Texas, including necessary licensure change of ownership applications.  *
  • Represented Texas entity in forming and implementing chiropractic practice management entities in Ohio, Illinois and Washington.  *
  • Represented accountable care organization with more than 350 independent physicians and an investor entity in the formation, application process and operation phases.  *
  • Represented group of physicians in forming a tax-exempt 501(c)(6) physician alliance designed to encourage best clinical practices and improve the quality of care for patients in North Texas.  *
  • Represented psychiatric hospital in negotiating a management agreement for services rendered in the emergency department of a large public hospital system.  *
  • Represented investors and operators in forming 5.01(a)-type nonprofit health organizations.  *
  • Represented Dallas-based physician group in negotiations with a Texas hospital district to outsource the provision of emergency medical services for county hospitals and provide graduate medical education programs for medical residents and fellows. *
  • Represented managed care company that markets and administers health insurance in internal investigations regarding regulatory compliance.  *
  • Represented primary care provider in restructuring an urgent care clinic acquisition.  *
  • Represented primary care clinics in investigation initiated by a Medicaid managed care entity.  *
  • Provided routine operations counsel for the North Texas division of a national hospital system. *
  • Provided HIPAA compliance advice and training for hospitals, clinics, laboratories, pharmacies, electronic patient population management companies, and other health care providers and business associates. *
  • Provided counsel and assistance with an application for payment under the Texas Uncompensated Care Program.  *
* Experience prior to Katten

News

Publications

Presentations and Events

Practices
Industries
Education
  • Duke University School of Law, JD
  • Emory University, BA
  • The George Washington University, Associate's Certificate, Contract Management
Bar Admissions
  • Texas
Court Admissions
  • US District Court, Northern District of Texas
  • US District Court, Southern District of Texas
  • US District Court, Eastern District of Texas
  • US District Court, Western District of Texas
Community Involvements
  • Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners, Public Member; appointed by Governor for two six-year terms
  • American Bar Association, Vice Chair Business and Transactions Interest Group
  • The Health Industry Council Foundation, Board Member
  • College of the State Bar of Texas
  • Dallas Bar Foundation
  • Dallas Bar Association, Law in the Schools Committee, past Co-Vice Chair and Co-Chair; Health Law Section, past Secretary, past Treasurer, past Vice Chair, past Chair; Business Law Section
  • American Health Lawyers Association, Member
  • JL Turner Legal Association Corporate Counsel Section, past Co-Chair; DBWA Section, past Co-Chair
  • Prism Health North Texas, Board Member
Recognitions
  • Chambers USA
    Leading Individual, 2016–2019
    "Up and Coming," 2015
  • D Magazine
    Best Lawyers in Dallas, 2014–2018
  • National Women's Council Top 15 Business Women
    2017
  • Profiles in Diversity Journal
    Women Worth Watching, 2016
  • Super Lawyers
    Texas, 2014–2019
    Top 50 Women, Texas Health Care, 2020
  • Super Lawyers Rising Stars
    Texas, 2009, 2013
  • Texas Diversity Council
    Top Women Lawyer Award, 2018