A Primer for Representing Medical Professionals in Criminal Cases

A criminal charge will be one of the most devastating life events for a medical professional. Certain criminal convictions will result in loss of enrolled provider status with public and private health care benefit programs. Unfortunately, the criminal case may be but the first of many insults; the client’s legal concerns either will evolve, or will already have evolved, past the criminal defense attorney’s case. It makes no difference whether the criminal case involves practice-related conduct such as billing fraud or patient abuse, or whether the criminal charges are nonwork-related such as DUI or domestic violence. Industry-specific state and federal laws can provide for sanctions and can cause the loss of livelihood based on the same set of facts as the criminal case. Criminal counsel’s strategy and decisions can have a ripple effect on parallel and collateral administrative and civil matters. Laura Perkovic identifies several such matters and discusses the synergy among the proceedings.