Lashly & Baer issued the following announcement on July 3.
Lashly & Baer, P.C. announces the formation of the Health Care Advisory Team. The Health Care Advisory Team builds on the firm’s existing strengths in the representation of health care clients in business, regulatory, and litigation matters, by focusing on certain core areas currently impacting health care providers: Federal government investigations and prosecutions, state licensure actions, privacy concerns, commercial insurance disputes, and the opioid crisis.
“We’ve been representing health care providers for 50 years in almost every type of legal matter that providers can face,” said Richard D. Watters, a Lashly & Baer shareholder and one of the most well-known health care attorneys in the State of Missouri. “We have great experience and have obtained positive results for our clients in the areas in which the Health Care Advisory Team will focus. Providers have often been put in the position of having to fight for the reimbursement dollars that they’ve earned. We want our clients to know that we will be with them in these matters.”
Current Lashly & Baer shareholders will lead the efforts of the Health Care Advisory Team. Matthew J. Eddy will be the lead attorney for Federal government investigations and prosecutions, such as False Claims Act matters. Eddy has defended a number of Federal government recoupment claims in the past few years. “Providers who take a timely, but aggressive approach in reviewing and defending government claims and allegations have seen positive results from that approach,” said Eddy. “Especially in cases in which Medicare payments are involved, we are seeing consistent methods and patterns of prosecution all over the country.”
Michael R. Barth will lead the state licensure action efforts. “States are devoting greater resources to investigating complaints against health care providers,” said Barth. “Sometimes those complaints have merit, but often, there’s far more to the story. Most important of all is that the provider’s livelihood is at stake.” Barth will also continue to counsel providers who prescribe opioids in terms of best-practices.
Matthew S. McBride has successfully represented health care providers in payment disputes with commercial insurance companies, and has represented physicians in medical staff matters for years. McBride will focus on these types of matters. “Providers are very frustrated in the delays they are experiencing in getting paid,” said McBride. “While we are hopeful that most disputes with payors can be resolved without arbitration or litigation, if that is necessary to get what our client deserves we are well prepared to take that path.”
Lashly & Baer’s decision to form the Health Care Advisory Team was in response to the increased activity that the firm has experienced with existing clients in these areas within the past few years. “The number of calls we are getting from providers regarding government investigations, payor disputes, privacy issues, and licensure issues has probably tripled in the past two years,” said Stuart J. Vogelsmeier, Chair of the Lashly & Baer Health Care Advisory Team. “With this new team we are responding to our client’s needs. So many people hear the words ‘health care litigation’ and they think of medical malpractice actions. We have defended providers for years in these actions. But now, the government and commercial payors seem to be the opposing parties.”
Lashly & Baer attorney Richard W. Hill, has experience in Certificate of Need, defending facility licensure actions, and health care regulatory compliance counseling, to round out the Health Care Advisory Team.
“Health care dollars are being stretched as far as they can be stretched,” added Watters. “Most health care providers want to do the right thing. We’ve been working with providers for years to develop legally-compliant strategies to add ancillary services and ancillary revenues to their existing service lines. When disputes with government entities and payors can’t be resolved informally, we want to give providers the legal strategies to deal with these disputes, and hopefully, reach a successful resolution.”
“We will be looking to add experienced lawyers to help with our existing team, as we believe that these issues aren’t going to go away any time soon,” said Vogelsmeier. “Representation of health care providers has always been one of our strengths.”
Celebrating 107 years in business in 2019, Lashly & Baer, P.C. has offices in Downtown St. Louis and Belleville, Illinois. Lashly & Baer has been named one of the Best Law Firms by U.S. News & World Report, and received national ranking in Health Care Law, while receiving top St. Louis ranking in Corporate Law, Employment Law – Management, Health Care Law, Medical Malpractice Law – Defendants, and Personal Injury Law – Defendants.
Original source can be found here.