Hooper, Lundy & Bookman Promotes Five Partners and One Senior Counsel

“These individuals represent the best of Hooper, Lundy & Bookman’s strengths, including the breadth of our health care provider practice across the litigation, business, and regulatory practices, and our first-in-class talent. We are especially pleased that so many women are represented in these promotions,” said managing partner Mark Reagan. “These individuals achieved their well-deserved promotions through hard work and dedication to serving our clients at the highest levels of excellence.”

The following individuals will be elevated to equity partner:

Jennifer Hansen (San Diego office) – Hansen serves as Chair of the firm’s Medical Staff Practice Group, and is a member of the firm’s Board of Directors as well as its Fraud & Abuse Practice Group.  Her practice includes representation of hospitals, medical staffs, skilled nursing facilities, physicians, pharmacies, and other health care providers and suppliers in a wide range of matters, including general litigation, medical staff law, managed care litigation, physician licensing, reimbursement, regulatory, and long-term care issues. She also represents hospitals and hospital systems, post-acute care providers, physicians, and other ancillary providers in managed care payment disputes, both contracted and non-contracted, with health care payors and has assisted provider clients collect millions of dollars in unpaid and underpaid patient claims through settlements and through arbitration and court proceedings, including obtaining awards of interest.  Hansen conducts investigations and advises clients on compliance issues relating to health care operations.

Joseph LaMagna (San Diego and Boston offices) – LaMagna is Co-Chair of the firm’s Fraud & Abuse Practice Group and has spent his entire legal career advising health care providers in a wide range of regulatory compliance issues and litigation proceedings.  His experience has been far-reaching but always on behalf of providers, suppliers, and practitioners.  LaMagna is a litigator with a regulatory compliance foundation who has been through trial, arbitrations, mediations, and several administrative hearings and appeals.  Over the years, his experience has become focused on three major areas: 1) litigation and defense of audits and government investigations; 2) representing hospitals and other providers in payment disputes with managed care entities and other payors, and; 3) guiding post-acute care providers, such as skilled nursing facilities, home health, and hospice providers, in regulatory litigation and compliance matters.

The following individuals were promoted to non-equity partner:

Katherine Dru (Los Angeles office) – Dru is a member of the Litigation Department and Medical Staff Practice Group. Her practice comprises a wide range of matters on behalf of hospitals, medical staffs, physicians, and other health care providers, with an emphasis on managed care litigation and all aspects of medical staff law. She has significant experience in all aspects of arbitration and litigation, and has first- and second-chaired jury trials, arbitrations, peer review hearings, and administrative hearings. Her extensive managed care experience includes arbitration and litigation alleging unfair business practices, breach of contract, fraud, false claims act violations, and ERISA violations. Dru’s medical staff practice includes peer review/Medical Board hearings; investigations into physician behavior; managing on-site responses to Statements of Deficiencies identified by CMS surveyors; drafting policies and advising on supervision requirements for allied health professionals; and advising hospitals on various issues relating to the use of medical residents and students, including drafting policies and conducting disciplinary hearings.

Amy Joseph (Boston office) – Joseph advises health systems, academic medical centers, teaching hospitals, and a wide variety of other health care providers on business and regulatory matters.  A significant portion of her practice is focused on fraud and abuse compliance, including counseling on compliance with federal and state anti-kickback and self-referral laws, and serving as  deal counsel or regulatory counsel on mergers, acquisitions, and other strategic affiliations.  In addition, Joseph frequently counsels both providers and health information technology companies in the digital health space, including compliance and reimbursement issues related to telehealth. Joseph co-chairs the firm’s Academic Medical Center/Teaching Hospital Working Group and is a member of the firm’s Fraud & Abuse Practice Group.  She is co-author of AHLA’s The Stark Law: Comprehensive Analysis and Practical Guide, Sixth Edition, and co-author of a chapter of AHLA’s Best Practices Handbook for Advising Clients on Fraud and Abuse Issues.  Prior to practicing law, Joseph served in the United States Air Force.

Stanton Stock (San Diego office) – Stock is a member of the Litigation Department and represents clients in a wide variety of matters. A significant portion of his practice focuses on state and federal audits and investigations of long-term care providers, including skilled nursing facilities, pharmacies, medical suppliers, acute care hospitals, and hospice providers. He has successfully represented providers through all phases of state citation appeals, federal deficiency appeals, Medi-Cal audit appeals, overpayment disclosures, privacy breaches, and investigations under the state and federal False Claims Act. He is well-versed in Medicare and Medi-Cal cost reimbursement principles, and has litigated numerous adjustments made by the California Department of Health Care Services under the Long Term Care Reimbursement Act (AB 1629). Before joining Hooper, Lundy & Bookman, Stock served as a law clerk to the Hon. Manuel L. Real in the United States District Court, Central District of California.

The following individual was promoted to senior counsel:

Tracy Jessner Hale (Los Angeles office) – A member of the Regulatory Department, Hale’s focus is on assisting health care providers, including hospitals, long-term care facilities, pharmacies, provider groups and laboratories, with Medicare and Medi-Cal reimbursement, provider enrollment, licensure, regulatory compliance, operations and HIPAA and privacy issues.  She regularly assists health care providers in addressing complex regulatory matters that arise in the context of mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations and related transactions, including analyzing and evaluating compliance and diligence findings and obtaining regulatory approvals.  Ms. Hale is experienced in representing health care providers in administrative appeals, including those before the Provider Reimbursement Review Board and California Department of Health Care Services. Ms. Hale has worked on significant state and federal court cases for health care providers, including challenges to Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement reductions.

About Hooper, Lundy & Bookman:  Founded in 1987, Hooper, Lundy & Bookman PC is the largest law firm in the country dedicated solely to the representation of health care providers and suppliers.  With offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Boston, and Washington, D.C., and clients in all 50 states, we meet the business, litigation, regulatory, and government relations needs of a broad array of health care providers―ranging from the largest national health care organizations to community hospitals and individual physician practices.  We are pleased to be ranked by Chambers USA as Tier One: Healthcare, California, and #1 for the West Region on the ABA Health Law Section’s 6th Annual “Regional Law Firm Recognition Top 10 List.”