Marguerite A. Massett is a partner in the Healthcare Department. She has concentrated her legal practice in the area of health law and health care policy since 1992. Ms. Massett regularly advises multi-provider health systems, hospitals, nursing homes, physicians, physician practices, nurses, laboratories and other health care professionals and organizations on diverse legal issues, including:
- Corporate restructurings
- Health care operations
- Regulatory compliance matters
- Reimbursement issues
- Physician-hospital contracting
- Physician recruitment
- Joint ventures
- Health care risk management (including utilization review, quality assurance, credentialing and physician corrective action proceedings)
- Third-party payor contract negotiations
Ms. Massett has counseled health care providers with respect to patient care issues such as informed consent, end-of-life decision-making, the disclosure of private medical information, and reporting of child abuse. She has overseen due diligence in major corporate restructurings and represented clients in the course of such transactions. Ms. Massett has represented hospitals in medical staff relations matters, such as physician corrective action and the revisions of medical staff bylaws.
Ms. Massett’s health care-related regulatory compliance experience includes advising clients on:
- Antitrust matters
- Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse regulatory audits, self-disclosures and settlement negotiations with the Office of the New York State Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG), the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the New York State Attorney General’s Office (MFCU), and the Office of the Inspector General of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (OIG)
- Tax-exempt financing compliance audits conducted by the Internal Revenue Service
Ms. Massett has a Certification in Healthcare Compliance (CHC) by the Compliance Certification Board. Individuals who have received a CHC designation by the Compliance Certification Board have obtained a significant level of knowledge relating to healthcare industry regulations and compliance processes.
Prior to joining the Firm, Ms. Massett served as general counsel to a multi-hospital health care system and was in-house legal counsel to a national insurance and managed health care corporation. She was also a lobbyist and public policy advocate in Washington, D.C., specializing in health care delivery and financing issues.
Representative Matters
- Represented a health care provider in a major compliance self-disclosure, including negotiating a joint settlement with the OMIG and the OIG.
- Represented numerous health care clients in regulatory audits, self-disclosures and settlements.
- Represented several major hospital systems in affiliation, disaffiliation, and corporate restructuring, which included overseeing due diligence issues. Most recently, Ms. Massett was lead counsel representing the former Rochester General Health Systems in its corporate restructuring with Unity Health System to form the Rochester Regional Health System.
- Represented a hospital in one of the first tax-exempt bond compliance audits in New York.
- Represented multiple clients in negotiations with the MFCU and OMIG.
- Represented multiple hospitals in medical staff matters including physician suspension, corrective action and disciplinary proceedings.
- Represented a hospital in a successful defense against a subpoena of quality improvement and peer review materials.
- Represented multiple hospitals in contract negotiations with third-party payors.
- Represented a hospital in a successful contract breach lawsuit against a major third-party payor.
- Represented sellers in the major restructuring of an outpatient diagnostic and treatment center.