Healthcare Dispute: Leveraging Experts in Healthcare Litigation

Course Description

Healthcare disputes and transactions increasingly turn on specialized financial and valuation questions that fall outside the day-to-day experience of most litigators. This program equips counsel to identify when a financial expert is needed, to engage and work effectively with that expert, and to build valuation-driven analyses. Drawing on real-world healthcare litigation experience, the session covers the role of the financial expert witness; the regulatory framework governing physician arrangements (Stark Law, the Anti-Kickback Statute, fair market value, and commercial reasonableness); the categories of disputes most commonly encountered (physician compensation, non-competes, shareholderand buy/sell matters, marital dissolution, and private equity roll-up and rollover-equity disputes); the anatomy of an expert report; admissibility standards under Daubert and Frye; and practical strategies for engaging effectively with a financial expert.

Principles

• Financial Experts Are Critical in Complex Healthcare Disputes
  • Healthcare litigation frequently involves specialized valuation and financial issues that require qualified experts. Understanding when to engage a consulting or testifying expert and how to collaborate effectively can significantly strengthen case strategy and outcomes.
• Healthcare Valuations Must Comply with Regulatory Requirements
  • Financial analyses involving physician arrangements and healthcare transactions must account for the requirements of the Stark Law, the Anti-Kickback Statute, fair market value, and commercial reasonableness to ensure regulatory compliance and support defensible opinions.
• Sound Valuation Methodologies Drive Dispute Resolution
  • Many healthcare disputes—including physician compensation, non-compete enforcement, shareholder conflicts, private equity transactions, and marital dissolution—depend on reliable valuation methods and damages analyses that adhere to recognized professional standards.
• Well-Prepared Expert Testimony Enhances Litigation Success
  • Effective expert reports should satisfy procedural and evidentiary requirements, including Rule 26 disclosures and admissibility standards under Daubert and Frye. Early expert involvement, adherence to valuation standards, and careful preparation help produce credible, persuasive expert opinions that withstand judicial scrutiny.

Syllabus

1. The role of the financial expert witness: testifying versus consulting experts and why financial expertise matters in healthcare disputes
2. The regulatory foundation: Stark Law, the Anti-Kickback Statute, fair market value, and commercial reasonableness
3. Where healthcare disputes arise: physician compensation and management services agreements, non-compete covenants, shareholder and buy/sell disputes, and marital dissolution
4. Physician non-compete disputes: valuation issues, the “with and without” damages framework, and the regulatory overlay
5. Private equity roll-ups and rollover equity: valuation challenges, where litigation arises, and roll-up economics
6. Pre-litigation and pre-dispute preventative measures
7. Anatomy of the expert report: Rule 26 requirements, surviving Daubert challenges, and applicable professional standards (SSVS-1 and USPAP)
8. Common valuation standard violations
9. Working effectively with a financial expert
10. Hypothetical case studies and key takeaways