Controlling and reducing legal fees in the age of fixed reimbursement.

This article is designed to provide hospital management with three general approaches to control or substantially reduce legal fees yet ensure the receipt of high-quality legal services. The first approach discusses general tactics which can be employed by hospital management for reducing legal fees for services provided by outside counsel on an hourly basis. The second approach involves a determination by the hospital of whether utilization of in-house legal counsel is appropriate, discusses the types of services that can be provided by an in-house legal counsel, and provides advice to the hospital concerning the hiring and retention of in-house legal counsel. The third approach concerns alternative alternative fee arrangements to hourly billing which hospital management can utilize with outside legal counsel when use of in-house legal counsel is not necessary or economically appropriate.