Joseph L. Ardery

Joe structures closely held corporations, limited liability companies classified as partnerships for income tax purposes, and other business entities. He advises their owners and managers on corporate governance issues,  buy-sell arrangements, fiduciary duty and control succession questions, and income tax planning.

Joe has represented numerous clients before the Kentucky Department of Revenue and the Kentucky courts in income, sales and use, license, and other Kentucky tax matters and before the Internal Revenue Service in audits and appeals.

Joe served as tax counsel to Rohm and Haas Company in its successful Kentucky sales and use tax case involving the exemption for energy costs exceeding 3% of the manufacturer’s cost of production, Department of Revenue v. Rohm and Haas Company, Case No. 2008 CA-000022, decided by the Court of Appeals 2/6/2009, unpublished, Revenue Department’s motion for disc. rev. denied by the Supreme Court of Kentucky 1/13/10, and in Rohm and Haas Company’s successful Kentucky “dock sales” case, Revenue Cabinet v. Rohm and Haas Kentucky, 929 S.W.2d 741 (Ky.App. 1996).

He served as tax counsel to Dupont Performance Elastomers, L.L.C. in its successful Kentucky sales and use tax case involving Kentucky’s enterprise zone exemption, Department of Revenue v. Dupont Performance Elastomers, L.L.C., Case No. 2007 CA-000685, decided by the Court of Appeals 3/21/08., unpublished.

He provided the core tax planning and worked with other members of a Frost Brown Todd litigation team in another manufacturer’s successful effort to obtain credit for local taxes in excess of the amount owed where there existed no statutory authority for a credit or refund. Inland Container Corp. v. MasonCounty Bd. of Ed., 6 S.W.3d 374 (Ky. 1999).

Joe advises physician practices, taxable and tax-exempt hospitals, and other health care companies regarding acquisitions, mergers, joint ventures, federal and state tax issues, and fiduciary duty, corporate governance, non-compete, and compliance matters.  He develops compliance plans for hospitals, physician practices, DME companies, and other health care providers, physician recruitment plans, medical director arrangements, provider joint marketing arrangements, and multiple provider network plans.

Joe has prepared opinions on federal and state anti-kickback and physician self-referral (Stark Law) matters, the “intermediate sanctions” provisions of the Internal Revenue Code and antitrust issues applicable to health care providers,  the corporate practice of medicine doctrine, certificate of need and licensing rules, public payer reimbursement rules, and a variety other legal standards applicable to health care providers. His work includes the defense of qui tam litigation filed under the Federal False Claims Act and the negotiation of settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

He represents Kentucky health care providers in certificate of need and licensing matters. He represented a Kentucky tax-exempt health care provider in obtaining a determination that it did not need a certificate of need to add additional cardiac catheterization laboratories. Interim Office of Health Planning and Certification v. Jewish Hospital Healthcare Services, Inc., 932 S.W.2d 398 (Ky.App. 1996).

Joe represents the largest workers’ compensation self-insurance group providing coverage in Kentucky, with over 5,500 employer members. He has represented Kentucky’s principal statutory insurance plans including the Kentucky FAIR Plan, the residual market mechanism for commercial and dwelling fire coverage, Homeowners coverage, and farm coverage,  the Kentucky Automobile Insurance Plan, the Kentucky Assigned Claims Plan, and the Kentucky Insurance Guaranty Association.

He represented an association of workers’ compensation insurers active in Kentucky and Kentucky self-insured employers in their successful effort to obtain a declaration that the Kentucky General Assembly’s taking of funds they had paid to prefund special injury fund liabilities was unconstitutional. Thompson v. Kentucky Reinsurance Association, 710 S.W.2d 854 (Ky. 1986).

He represented the Kentucky FAIR Plan in its successful effort to collect substantial assessments which the Plan had assessed against a national insurance organization over its constitutional objections. Stephensv. State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co., 894 S.W.2d 624 (Ky. 1995).