Health Care Litigation

• Defended a national trade association in an antitrust action brought under the Cartwright Act by a bankrupt direct-to-consumer teeth aligner company based on an allegedly false and disparaging consumer advertising campaign. 
• Defended co-owners and managers of a nursing home business in a partnership dispute in Orange County Superior Court. 
• Defended a co-owner and medical director of a hospice business for breach of fiduciary duty and negligence accused of causing Medicare Cap Clawbacks based on the alleged certification of ineligible hospice enrollees.
• Defended a hospital system in an arbitration brought by a construction project management vendor alleging breach of contract and tortious interference.
  Defended a hospital system, medical foundation, and independent physician association in an unfair competition and breach of contract action brought by a competing independent physician association.
• Defended a medical group in an antitrust action brought by a competing hospital and medical group for an alleged conspiracy to monopolize the healthcare markets in Solano County.
• Defended an academic hospital in a medical malpractice class action relating to the treatment of pediatric cancer patients between 1977 and 1997.
• Defended a hospital system and affiliated company in a $20 million joint venture capital funding dispute.
• Represented multiple hospitals subpoenaed in two antitrust actions brought against a hospital system for allegedly forcing insurers to enter into payor arrangements containing anticompetitive terms.
• Defended a group of ambulatory surgery centers in an antitrust action brought by a competitor for allegedly conspiring with two health plans to exclude the plaintiffs from the local geographic market.
• Defended a hospital against an emergency injunction motion seeking to extend a medical supply agreement the termination of which would have allegedly caused the plaintiff to forfeit a deal to purchase the company.
• Defended a physician group and management services organization in a putative class action brought under California Business and Professions Code Section 17200 for alleged violations of the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, the corporate practice of medicine, fraud, and other theories; won a landmark published appellate decision concerning the application of the abstention doctrine to policy issues delegated to the expertise of a state health agency (Hambrick v. Healthcare Partners Medical Group, 238 Cal. App. 4th 124 (2015)).
• Defended a hospital in an arbitration brought by a relocated physician claiming fraudulent inducement.
• Defended a healthcare company accused of firing its CEO physician in retaliation for forcing the company to self-report a potential Stark violation.

False Claims Act Defense

• Defended a hospital in a qui tam action brought under the Federal False Claims Act (FCA) by several physicians for alleged violations of the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) and the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS). 
• Defended a vascular and interventional radiology practice and its physicians in company in a qui tam action brought under the Federal FCA by a former physician alleging medically unnecessary
• Defended a mental health provider in a qui tam action brought by a former employee under California’s Insurance Frauds Prevention Act (IFPA) alleging violations of the Corporate Practice of Medicine and other fraudulent billing practices. 
• Defended a medical device company in in a qui tam action brought under the IFPA by an insurance company alleging fraudulent billing for medical unnecessary devices. 
• Defended a critical access hospital, a regional management organization, and their parent company in a qui tam action brought under the Federal FCA by a cardiologist alleging that the hospital fraudulently billed the federal government for unnecessary hospital admissions.
• Defended a mental health facility in a qui tam action brought under the Federal FCA for alleged violations of state staffing, licensure, and supervision regulations.
• Defended a physician and radiology center in a qui tam action brought by an insurance company under California’s Insurance Frauds Prevention Act (IFPA) for health insurance fraud based on alleged violations of California’s anti-kickback and self-referral laws.
• Defended a dialysis provider in a qui tam lawsuit brought under the FCA involving alleged false billing practices and violations of AKS arising out of the administration of a pharmaceutical.
• Defended two hospitals in a qui tam action brought under the IFPA related to spinal surgical procedures that allegedly involved counterfeit medical hardware.
• Defended a group of special education schools in a qui tam action brought under the California FCA for alleged billing violations.