Fran focuses her practice on the health care industry, including legal and regulatory issues affecting nursing homes, assisted living facilities, supportive living facilities, hospices, home health agencies, and other providers and their licensed personnel. Fran has represented over 100 nursing facilities (with a combined total of more than 15,000 beds) in a broad range of licensing, certification, operational, and patient care matters. She regularly counsels and represents clients in complex and highly sensitive areas such as advanced directives, life-sustaining treatment decisions, involuntary transfers and discharges, and allegations and investigations of abuse, as well as the survey process, plans of correction, and requests for informal dispute resolution.
Fran also represents clients in administrative hearings before the Illinois Department of Public Health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, the Illinois Department of Human Rights, and the City of Chicago, and in discrimination matters before the U.S. Office of Civil Rights. She has successfully counseled and represented facilities and individuals under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Illinois Attorney General's Office, and the Illinois State Police, and she has refuted deficiencies in the Informal Dispute Resolution process and allegations that were originally cited as Immediate Jeopardy. Fran assists insurance-appointed defense counsel in connection with civil suits.
Fran has served as chief counsel for the Illinois Department of Public Health. A frequent speaker before legal associations, industry organizations, and community groups, she has given more than 100 presentations on a broad range of health care topics, including patient abuse, life-sustaining treatment, involuntary transfer/discharge proceedings, confidentiality of records, and Life Safety Code issues. She has served as a lecturer for the American Health Lawyers Association, the Illinois Council on Long-Term Care, the Illinois Healthcare Association, Life Services Network, and the Illinois Nursing Home Administrators Association.
