Ropes & Gray Partners and Chicago U.S. Attorney’s Office Prosecutors Discuss Health Care Fraud Enforcement

On Oct. 3, more than 50 general counsel, compliance officers and individuals with an interest in health care fraud enforcement and compliance attended The Legal 500’s Health Care Fraud Enforcement Summit at The Standard Club in Chicago. Government enforcement partner Laura Hoey moderated a panel discussion on trends in health care fraud enforcement and the priorities of the new Health Care Fraud Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois. The creation of the new unit to prosecute criminal health care fraud violations was announced on July 18. As mentioned in a Ropes & Gray alert, the Chicago Health Care Fraud Unit follows the creation of similar units in Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia and Miami. These units have typically leveraged their resources to pursue criminal health care fraud actions against corporate, as well as individual, defendants.

Panelists included Deborah Gersh, co-chair of the health care practice group; Heather McShain, supervisor of the Health Care Fraud Unit; Stephen Chahn Lee, senior counsel for the Health Care Fraud Unit; and Linda Wawzenski, deputy chief of the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.