Our practice offers complete litigation services in all regulatory administrative forums. By enlarge, healthcare regulatory law is administrative law because the law gets administered by the respective agency which is charged with regulating the particular healthcare aspect of a practice. The regulatory law is administered by either state or federal agencies which act as investigators, judges and decision makers all at once. In some states, in order to ensure impartiality, the legislatures established separate Offices of Administrative Hearings or, for example in South Carolina there is Administrative Law Court. In other states the agency which is in charge with the implementations and administration of the healthcare regulatory scheme, for example a state medial Board, is also in charge with the investigation, recommendation for prosecution, hearing and determination of the allegations regarding lack of compliance with the healthcare regulatory provisions. The administrative tribunal forums vary form state to state. While in one state, a panel of the regulatory agency may hear the case and write a recommendation for a decision subject to approval by the entire agency, in other states the hearing process may involve the participation of a judicial hearing officer alongside the regulatory agency’s hearing panel. The hearing officer makes legal decisions regarding legal questions raised by the litigation participants while the agency panel makes the substantive decision as to whether the healthcare practitioner violated the regulatory statute or regulation in question.
Once a final decision is reached by the regulatory agency, the aggrieved healthcare practitioner has the opportunity to appeal the same to the state courts. In most cases, with the exception of the court litigation services mentioned under the title “Court Challenges”, in order to avail one self of the court process, a healthcare practitioner has to exhaust all administrative process and remedies and available administrative means of appeal. Some states have separate administrative appeal tribunals which hear the appeals before the healthcare practitioner resorts to the courts.
Similarly, federal agencies have their own administrative hearing and determination process and their own administrative tribunals. My office offers full litigation services and related appeals.in the administrative forums and subsequently in state or federal courts.