Carolyn Johnsen, Partner at Dickinson Wright

The Risky Health Care Business

What she does: CJ is a partner at Dickinson Wright in Phoenix, Arizona and spearheaded the formation of Dickinson Wright's Distressed Health Care Restructuring Group. CJ's experience includes creating complex plans of reorganization for multi-million dollar companies in a wide-range of industries, including healthcare, mortgage lending, and real estate among others. She has also guided numerous boards and senior managers in developing strategies and solutions for revising operations and restructuring debt to generate the emergence of a stronger business through bankruptcy, or to take advantage of acquisition and sale opportunities, including the application of bankruptcy procedures favorable to corporate securities regulation compliance. In addition, CJ has negotiated multiple multi-million dollar transactions with lenders, investment bankers and brokers, asset purchasers and sellers, and governmental agencies. CJ has published extensive writings and over 100 speaking presentations to educate clients, lawyers, accountants and corporate representatives on bankruptcy, restructuring, sales and acquisitions from a business perspective.

On risk: "You have to get down to the business aspects of it [risk], it's in the health care space, it's no different than any other business in a way because it's a question of cash in and cash out. And the problem that's unique to the health care industry is just the enormous regulation and that makes it more difficult to predict … If you are looking at risk, you're looking at needing a business plan, just like any other business, you're going to need to know going in okay, what is A to B, what is the B? Here's A, we're sitting here today, where are we trying to be at B? … It's been a very difficult time risk-wise for health care because of those particular factors [labor shortages, labor costs, inflation, reimbursement fluidity], which probably every other business is suffering somewhat the same problems. But like I said, the risk all gets back to having a good game plan"

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