The highly regulated health care and health sciences sectors present unique and complex antitrust and competition challenges. We help pharmaceutical manufacturers, hospitals, health systems, physician groups, outpatient diagnostic and treatment facilities, and a range of other health care clients comply with antitrust regulatory requirements and overcome challenges from competitors and the government. Our experience includes cases involving the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust acts, the Robinson-Patman Act and state antitrust laws, civil RICO claims, consumer protection statutes, patent-antitrust disputes, and other antitrust, trade regulation, and competition laws and regulations. We help implement rigorous antitrust compliance programs and guide clients through merger and non-merger investigations by the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
We have considerable experience advising clients in all aspects of business tort claims, including interference with contract or prospective business relations, business disparagement and defamation, unfair competition, theft of trade secrets, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and deceptive business practices, and trade libel. Clients also depend on us for matters involving injunctive relief, high-exposure extra-contractual damages and attorneys’ fees.
We defend health care providers, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, and other health care clients in government and whistleblower litigation asserting violations of the False Claims Act and its state analogs, the anti-kickback statute, Stark law, and other health care fraud and abuse laws and regulations. We also have extensive experience in internal investigations of allegations of fraud and abuse.
We work closely with health care provider internal claims processing and payment monitoring infrastructure and the consulting firms that provide services to health care providers related to these activities. Complementing these existing resources, we focus on the legal, compliance, and policy implications of reimbursement and claims processing across numerous areas, including:
- Audit-related, large-scale denial of claims
- Medical necessity claims denials
- Incorrect coding denials
- Medicare and Medicaid billing rules for documentation, staffing, site of care, or level of care.
Our team defends health care employers in all types of employment disputes, including collective and class actions alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage and hour claims, ERISA violations, employment discrimination, and a variety of other employment-related disputes.
