Conducting and Managing Internal Investigations

Mark Morrell is a seasoned health-care attorney and Assistant General Counsel of large, multi-billion dollar, investor-owned healthcare system. Experience with advising operational and regulatory matters, including internal investigations and other complex federal regulatory issues. Before going in-house, worked in private practice (7 years), two judicial clerkships (2 years), and academic administration (3 years). Law practice includes reviewing and advising about health care regulatory and transactional matters, structuring provider arrangements, regulatory compliance, Stark and Anti-Kickback advice, HIPAA analysis, physician and medical staff matters, EMTALA, contract drafting, and other day-to-day operational issues facing hospitals and other health care providers.

Chasity Goodner is the Senior Litigation Counsel at HCA Healthcare in Nashville, TN.

Wilson Jones chairs the Firm’s Healthcare Practice Group and focuses his practice exclusively in healthcare, with an emphasis on compliance and investigations, health industry transactions, and federal and state regulatory, administrative, and litigation-related matters. Wilson has assisted clients in preventing and responding to investigations, managing Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement issues, analyzing arrangements under state and federal fraud and abuse statutes, and establishing and maintaining compliance programs.

His corporate and transactional practice includes merger and acquisition transactions in the hospital, long-term care, and pharmaceutical industries, as well as transactions involving medical group practices, assisted living facilities, ambulatory surgery centers, joint ventures, management services organizations, physician practice management companies, managed care organizations, and a variety of other healthcare entities.

Wilson also provides legal counsel on health industry operational issues. He has experience drafting and negotiating contracts and operational documents, including corporate organizational documents and service and employment agreements for healthcare providers of all types. He provides legal counsel on all aspects of physician-hospital relationships and has extensive experience with peer review proceedings.

Joseph C. Hudzik is counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Latham & Watkins. Mr. Hudzik leverages years of government experience to counsel healthcare and life sciences clients on fraud and abuse, regulatory, and litigation issues.

Mr. Hudzik focuses his practice on healthcare regulatory compliance, with an emphasis on fraud and abuse issues facing healthcare providers and suppliers, and life sciences companies, including the advising on regulatory compliance and enforcement risks, the structure of business arrangements, and the development and implementation of corporate compliance programs. He also manages and conducts internal and government facing investigations, voluntary self-disclosures, and compliance audits.

Mr. Hudzik’s extensive government experience includes a variety of positions in the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Mr. Hudzik served as Senior Counsel in the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG), where he represented the Department in healthcare fraud and abuse cases involving the federal False Claims Act (FCA), the federal Anti-kickback Statute (AKS), the Stark Law, federal program exclusion authorities, and the Civil Monetary Penalties Law (CMPL). He negotiated and monitored corporate integrity agreements and handled self-disclosures submitted under the OIG’s Provider Self-Disclosure Protocol. He also advised the agency on law enforcement policy, litigation and settlement strategies, and investigations and audits of life sciences companies and healthcare providers and suppliers. During his tenure with OIG, Mr. Hudzik served as a Special Trial Attorney in the US Department of Justice prosecuting healthcare fraud crimes with the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, and as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

Most recently, Mr. Hudzik served as the Director of the Division of Technical Payment Policy at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), where he was responsible for the development of Medicare policy and regulations for the Stark Law, as well as various other statutory and regulatory payment rules. He oversaw all phases of the Division’s work, including activities related to the CMS Voluntary Self-Disclosure Protocol (SRDP), Stark Law Advisory Opinions, and fraud and abuse waivers associated with the agency’s innovative demonstration and payment models.

Immediately prior to joining Latham, Mr. Hudzik served as chief legal counsel to three hospitals in a large not-for-profit healthcare system, including a 900-bed major teaching and research hospital. In this role, he advised and counseled system and hospital executives on a wide range of legal issues in support of business and strategic objectives, including joint ventures, physician arrangements, voluntary self-disclosures, OIG audits, and FCA settlement negotiations with the US Department of Justice.

Mr. Hudzik is an active member in industry associations including the American Bar Association and American Health Lawyers Association.