Common Sense Malpractice Prevention Tips: Ethical Lessons From the Trenches

For over 38 years, Harold E. Kaplan represented health care providers for their full range of corporate, employment, reimbursement and related legal needs, including practice mergers, purchases and sales, managed care contracting, provider practice consulting, self-referral issues and fraud and abuse matters. He is a Florida Board Certified Health Law Attorney and Past Chair of the Florida Bar's Health Law Section (2006-2007) and Past Chair of the Florida Bar's Health Law Section Board Certification Committee.

Since 1998, Mr. Kaplan has been an arbitrator and neutral dispute resolver credentialed by the American Arbitration Association and the American Health Lawyers Association-Dispute Resolution Service. He was also an approved Florida Arbitrator for the 17th Judicial Circuit and is currently a BBB - AutoLine arbitrator. Since 2016, he as limited his practice to arbitration matters.

He is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell? and listed in its register of Preeminent Lawyers (2010 - 2021). He was voted a Florida Super Lawyer in 2007 through 2011. He is a member of the American Bar Association's Dispute Resolution Section.

Mr. Kaplan is a graduate of Pace University, School of Law (J.D. 1983), Pace University, Lubin School of Business, (B.B.A. 1972 with triple major of Law, Taxation and Economics), University of Ottawa, Graduate School of Health Administration (M.H.A. 1974), and the Nova University Circuit Civil Dispute Resolution program (1998). He has also attended the American Bar Association's Alternative Dispute Resolution Section's three day arbitrator's training institute and numerous other continuing arbitrator educational programs, as listed in this web site.

Mr. Kaplan was formerly the Health Law Partner at a major Florida Law Firm and he also previously practiced health law in New York City representing numerous teaching hospitals and individual and group providers. He was a hospital executive at not-for-profit teaching hospitals as well as investor-owned facilities. Mr. Kaplan has served in senior administrative positions including as C.E.O. for Florida and New York hospitals.

He is an experienced arbitrator and neutral dispute resolver credentialed by the American Health Lawyers Association-Alternative Dispute Resolution Service, the American Arbitration Association, Health Care Panel and Mergers and Acquisitions Panel, and he is also a Florida Supreme Court credentialed arbitrator. He was a certified arbitrator for the Florida Bar Grievance Mediation and Fee Arbitration Program.

He has been involved with the health care industry since 1974 and has extensive health care related experience, both as a hospital executive and as a health law attorney, involving an extensive array of matters which makes him ideally suited to serve as an arbitrator or mediator for a variety of disputes. Another advantage is that as a sole practitioner, Mr. Kaplan has far fewer arbitrator’s disclosures, making it less likely that he will have disclosures which would disqualify him in a case, and avoid delaying the arbitration.

He was an arbitrator in three-member panels of neutrals, in a case which featured extensive and wide ranging third party payor dispute between two public companies involving tens of thousands of claims and with a very high dollar value and highly complex discovery processes.

He was the sole arbitrator in a highly complex arbitration involving a dispute between a medical practice and a former shareholder with a very high dollar value, with issues involving jurisdiction, summary judgment, discovery and a dispute concerning the parties' pre-award settlement negotiations, and presided over a complex five day hearing with numerous nationally qualified experts and fact witnesses.

He has served as the sole arbitrator for contract disputes between hospitals and physicians and he has also served as the sole arbitrator in several payment disputes between HMOs and other payors and providers. He was the sole arbitrator in a payment dispute between a health insurance company and a hospital and he was the appointed sole arbitrator in two cases where the claimant sought expedited emergency injunctive relief, one regarding enforcing a non-compete, and the other seeking to prevent the termination of a provider agreement.

He has also arbitrated disputes on his own client's behalf, including payment issues and business/contractual disputes and he has provided consulting services for trial attorneys in complex arbitration cases. ?

Mr. Kaplan's references are listed on his AHLA - ADRS' profile. Also, call or email for references.

Mr. Kaplan frequently speaks on arbitration and dispute resolution subjects and has presented for the Florida Bar, at Florida International University, the Florida Hospital Association, the Broward County Medical Association, and for hospital Medical Staffs. He has also authored articles which deal with arbitration and alternative dispute resolution. He is listed in the Sixth Edition of Marquis' Who's Who in American Law and in the Fourth Edition of Who's Who of Emerging Leaders in America.

Mr. Siegel is a practicing attorney and founder of the Law Offices of Daniel J. Siegel, LLC, who regularly represents attorneys with and provides guidance on ethical and professional responsibility matters.

His practice also focuses on trial and appellate court writing, and workers compensation matters. He serves in numerous bar association positions, including Co-Vice Chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Committee on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility (and the primary author of numerous ethics opinions published by the Committee); Chair of the American Bar Association Law Practice Division Professional Development Board, and is of the Philadelphia Bar Association Law Practice Liaison. He has is also a columnist for numerous publications.

Mr. Siegel is the author of thirteen books, including and Changing Law Firms: Ethical Guidance for Pennsylvania Law Firms & Attorneys; he is the editor of Pennsylvania Fee Agreements.