Nashville - Baker Donelson has named Michaela D. Poizner, a shareholder in Baker Donelson's Nashville office, as chair of the Firm's Health Law Group, one of the largest health law practices in the country. 

Ms. Poizner assumes the role from previous co-chairs Ashby Q. Burks and S. Craig Holden, both of whom are returning to a full-time focus on their health law practices. While serving as the group's chair, she will maintain her legal practice focused on working with provider organizations in the behavioral, medical, and long-term health care industries to accomplish their operational compliance and strategic business goals. 

Ms. Poizner, who also founded the Firm's Behavioral Health Initiative, assists clients in buying and selling health care assets and guides them through matters ranging from privacy and security concerns and fraud and abuse analysis to development of policies and procedures and navigation of licensure and Medicare enrollment. Her behavioral health clients include multistate psychiatric hospital systems, outpatient and residential mental health treatment programs, geriatric psychiatry providers, and medical-surgical hospitals with psychiatric units. She also represents multifacility providers of skilled nursing and assisted living care, organizations that serve the intellectually and developmentally disabled, and medical-surgical facilities ranging from physician practice organizations to large regional health systems.

A graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School, Ms. Poizner has served on the board and is the incoming chair of Leadership Health Care. She has been recognized in the area of health care law by both The Best Lawyers in America® and Mid-South Super Lawyers. Before joining Baker Donelson, she clerked for the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Office of General Counsel.

Baker Donelson's Health Law Group is comprised of more than 200 attorneys across eleven states and Washington, D.C., and is regarded as one of the premier health law practices in the country, receiving national recognition by Modern Healthcare, Chambers USA, and the American Health Law Association. The group's size, scale, and collective experience give clients a competitive advantage by partnering with a dedicated, multidisciplinary team that not only has experience in and detailed knowledge of health law but also understands the complicated ways in which the health care industry operates.