Two Day Conference – All About Compliance.

Astara serves as the chief compliance officer at Essen Health Care, New York. As an executive officer of Essen Health Care’s senior leadership team, she oversees the company’s corporate compliance program and regulatory governance. Crews has a BS degree in anthropology, biology, and chemistry (pre-medicine) and a law degree specializing in health law from Loyola University of Chicago Law School. She began her 20-year career as a revenue cycle manager and then quickly rose to senior healthcare administration positions at several prominent hospitals and tertiary institutions. Crews prides herself on her vast knowledge of health and regulatory law, including the Anti-Kickback/Stark statutes, clinical documentation integrity, fraud and abuse laws, and HIPAA and OSHA. She has served as the president of the Lower Westchester, New York, local chapter and sits on the 2022-2025 AAPC National Advisory Board.

Edward Baker is an attorney specializing in healthcare law with Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein. He represents a broad range of whistleblowers and has extensive experience with healthcare fraud under the federal False Claims Act and equivalent state acts. Prior to joining Lieff Cabraser, Mr. Baker was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of California, where he was the Civil Healthcare Fraud Coordinator, as well as the Elder Justice Coordinator. As an AUSA, Mr. Baker investigated numerous FCA cases, including allegations against physicians for medically unnecessary procedures, pharmacies for kickbacks to nursing homes, defense contractors and federal grant recipients for fraudulent billing, and hospitals for up-coding. Prior to serving as an AUSA, Mr. Baker was an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Vermont, where he was the Director of the Medicaid Fraud and Residential Abuse Unit. Mr. Baker is passionate about protecting the integrity of the healthcare system, including patient treatment decisions and fair competition between all private entities, by helping clinicians, coders, vendors, and others bring fraudulent conduct to the attention of the appropriate authorities.

Janelle represents clients in the defense of corporations in high-stakes cases in state and federal court. Her practice is devoted to complex civil litigation with an emphasis on insurance coverage matters, franchise claims, eminent domain, catastrophic injury, professional liability, and commercial litigation. She also represents employers in a range of employment matters, including the enforcement of non-compete agreements. Additionally, Alleyne has experience representing insurers and long-term care facilities in personal injury and wrongful death matters. Her recent advocacy practice includes assisting in the defense of a major restoration company in a multi-million-dollar catastrophic injury claim. Prior to joining Baker Donelson, Alleyne spent three years with a defense firm focusing her practice, primarily on medical malpractice defense, nursing home defense, and general insurance defense. Additionally, Alleyne previously worked with the Health Law Partnership as a children’s advocate, working primarily in securing Social Security Income benefits for those previously denied coverage. In addition to her Juris Doctorate, Alleyne holds a Certificate in Health Law as well as a Master of Public Health degree.

Jeffrey Miller, Esq., is senior counsel and director-in-charge for Granite Governance, Risk & Compliance, for over 25 years. He has held executive legal counsel, chief compliance, and privacy and security officer positions for various companies, including Mercy Health System of Southeastern Pa., DermOne, LLC, and Johnson & Johnson.

Mary Inman is a partner in Constantine Cannon’s San Francisco Office. After 20+ years representing whistleblowers in the U.S., she moved to London in July 2017 for three years to launch the firm’s international whistleblower practice which she now heads.  She specializes in representing whistleblowers from the U.S., Europe and worldwide under the American whistleblower reward programs, including the federal and various state False Claims Acts and the SEC, CFTC, IRS, DOT and FinCEN whistleblower programs. Ms. Inman’s first risk adjustment qui tam case, which she filed 13 years ago on behalf of a Chief Medical Officer whistleblower, resulted in a $32.5 million settlement with Freedom Health and one of its Vice Presidents. Ms. Inman is currently acting for three whistleblower clients, whose qui tam cases the DOJ has joined, alleging risk adjustment fraud against United Health Group, Kaiser Permanente and Independent Health  Ms. Inman’s successful representation of three whistleblowers exposing risk adjustment fraud in the Medicare Advantage program was featured in the February 4, 2019 issue of the New Yorker magazine.

Rhonda has more than 30 years of experience in healthcare, working in the management, reimbursement, billing, and coding sectors, in addition to being an instructor. She was responsible for all ICD-10 training and curriculum at AAPC. Buckholtz has authored numerous articles for healthcare publications and has spoken at numerous national conferences for AAPC, AMA, HIMSS, AAO-HNS, AGA, and ASOA.

Sabrina has 20 years of experience in healthcare. As an Assistant US Attorney and senior counsel to the OIG-HHS, she enforced federal laws pertaining to healthcare, the False Claims Act and the Anti-Kickback statute. Her expertise extends to internal audit, where she audited large hospital systems and multinational pharmaceutical companies. She holds three coding certifications (CPC-A, CPMA and CRC), is certified in internal audit and holds a CHC. She has published widely on healthcare regulatory compliance issues. She now provides advice to physicians in those same areas, as the owner of a company, Physician Practice Guidance.

Stacy counsels healthcare organizations on regulatory compliance reimbursement and data security issues. She provides clients first-hand knowledge of the legal and practical reimbursement structures for government and private payers. Harper aids clients in the navigation of medical billing and coding standards, as well as anti-kickback laws. She assesses risks and develops plans for healthcare providers and other businesses to address data privacy, data security, and data breach response in accordance with HIPAA, HITECH, and state data laws.

Stephanie works as Director, Medical Coding and Provider Reimbursement on the payment integrity team for an insurer. She and her team create and maintain reimbursement policies and coding edits to ensure proper claims adjudication in addition to performing claim audits and reviews to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse. Prior to working on the payer side, she performed provider medical record audits and provider education at a women's healthcare group. Sjogren has also worked with physicians and staff to integrate and use electronic health record systems effectively and to be compliant with CMS’ rule and regulations.

Timothy formed his own practice, Blanchard Manning LLP, in 2009, after practicing for 20 years with a leading international law firm. He handles healthcare regulatory and compliance issues including coverage, billing, reimbursement, overpayment issues, fraud and abuse, and HIPAA privacy. Blanchard is a fellow of the American Health Lawyers Association and a past chair of its Institute of Medicare and Medicaid Payment Issues. He has served on AAPC's Legal Advisory Committee since its inception.