Heather counsels health care provider clients on a wide variety of regulatory and compliance matters, including state and federal regulations governing health care providers, state and federal fraud and abuse matters, internal investigations and audits, development and implementation of compliance programs, and corporate practice of medicine, among other operational issues regularly facing providers. She leverages her broad regulatory background to assist health care provider clients in growing their businesses and has experience leading clients from the startup/development phase through various levels of growth, overcoming regulatory hurdles along the way.
Heather advises clients across the health care industry with respect to the development, implementation, and assessment of effective corporate compliance programs. She assists with disclosure of compliance issues to state, federal and commercial payors, as well as internal investigations related to potential compliance concerns (such as federal and state fraud and abuse concerns), and she has helped clients on numerous occasions to prepare, submit, and resolve compliance issues utilizing various federal and state self-disclosure protocols. She also has experience working with corporate integrity agreements (CIAs), having served as counsel to clients subject to CIAs and as an independent review organization (IRO).
In addition, Heather provides extensive support to behavioral health providers, including both for-profit and nonprofit inpatient and outpatient mental health programs, as well as substance abuse treatment providers, in various jurisdictions. As a co-chair of the Firm's Behavioral Health Initiative, she is proficient with regulatory issues facing health care providers, including with respect to state licensing requirements and audits, privacy considerations, reimbursement, and issues of consent.
Heather also applies her broad regulatory knowledge to transactional and contracting matters, advising providers on proper structuring of transactions and other strategic affiliations – including mergers, acquisitions, provider integrations, joint ventures, and management services organization models. She also provides comprehensive regulatory due diligence support to transactional clients and assists with regulatory filings regarding changes of ownership. Heather counsels clients regarding the proper structuring of physician-related arrangements pursuant to corporate practice of medicine restrictions. She also assists with other contractual relationships, including drafting and negotiating clinician employment agreements and other services arrangements.
Heather provides general regulatory support to clients across the health care industry. This includes counseling regarding professional licensing and scope of practice issues. She supports clients in managed care contracting, drafting and negotiating payor agreements, and assisting providers in resolving disputes with payors, including out-of-network payors, regarding reimbursement and overpayments. She also assists clients in establishing telehealth and telemedicine programs, consulting on the licensing, scope of practice, and contractual issues that arise in the context of implementing virtual care programs.
While in law school, Heather served as a law clerk for the University of Pennsylvania Office of the General Counsel and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, providing firsthand assistance to in-house health care regulatory counsel regarding various issues affecting hospital compliance, clinician licensure, and more.