Stephen, who retired from Ropes & Gray in 2024, is a seasoned and versatile New York health care lawyer with 30-plus years experience. At Ropes & Gray he advised complex, nonprofit health systems, government-funded managed care organizations, and community-based human services agencies, as well as some of America's leading health sector businesses. Stephen combined deep policy experience with a nuanced grasp of the technical regulatory landscape. Clients called him “brilliant” and “thorough,” as reported to Chambers USA, where he was consistently recognized as a “Star Individual” in health care.
Stephen advised clients on Medicare, Medicaid and other government funding programs; state and federal fraud and abuse authorities; internal investigations and corporate compliance obligations; hospital-physician arrangements; and health plan regulatory and transactional matters. Over a period of 15 years, he defended a number of high-profile civil false claims investigations brought in the Southern, Eastern and Northern Districts of New York, alleging such matters as improper billing, “Stark” and Anti-Kickback violations, and noncompliance with managed care enrollment, risk adjustment and marketing requirements. Stephen also counseled clients on New York’s unique regulatory, reimbursement and enforcement landscape, relying on his extensive experience before the New York State Department of Health, the New York Attorney General, and other New York regulators.
Stephen is committed to giving back to the community through pro bono service. He guided many clients on the front lines of New York’s COVID response, for which New York Law Journal named him one of three finalists for “Attorney of the Year” in 2020 and Ropes & Gray honored him with its Outstanding Pro Bono Partner Service Award in 2021. For a decade, he served as the founding chair of FAIR Health, a national nonprofit dedicated to the mission of fostering greater transparency to health care costs and health insurance information. Stephen is the principal author of “Health Care Fraud and Abuse” in White Collar Crime: Business and Regulatory Offenses (Law Journal Press, 2008), a treatise for practitioners co-edited by Otto Obermaier and Robert Morvillo.